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THE BOTOX DIARIES by Janice Kaplan

THE BOTOX DIARIES

by Janice Kaplan & Lynn Schnurnberger

Pub Date: June 1st, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46857-0
Publisher: Ballantine

Forty-plus and loving it—well, sort of.

A rambling tale of two New York friends, Jessica Taylor (a single, suburban mother of an 11-year-old daughter) and Lucy Baldor (a TV producer), who have shrieky, girlfriendy conversations at all hours about life and womanhood and shoe sales and, um, other stuff. Lots of other stuff. (Too bad they don’t get a funny or sophisticated or even just plain bitchy line once in a while.) The plot: Lucy, a well-preserved 41, is having a fling. Never mind that her husband Dan is nice, sexy, and smart, though apparently clueless. Bedeviled by sensual dreams of Jacques, her French ex-husband, Jessica can’t help wondering whether she should fool around with Dan. Then daughter Jen schemes to get her mom on a pick-a-bachelor show, where Jessica meets a muscular loverboy from Colorado—but, darn it, that’s just not her scene. Yes, unlike actual, genuinely obnoxious-and-proud-of-it New Yorkers, these two cardboard characters never, ever swear: they say darn, heck, and gosh. And they don’t ever say mean things.

Ho-hum debut supposedly set in Manhattan—the place names and designer brands are right—but totally lacking in attitude, hustle, and flavor.