Pretentious ``psychosexual thriller'' from former longtime editor and publisher (Morrow) and children's writer Landis: a book being promoted as a first novel, though the author has published other adult fiction under pseudonyms. The narrator, Johnny, is a filthy-rich 32-year-old New Yorker who spends most of his time waiting for his wife, Clara, to come home from her job as antique-quilt saleswoman. His only former ambition was to be rhetorician, which may explain his forced use of archaic words and puns (``illaqueated in the lepid net of language,'' etc.). Having failed at his one chosen ambition, he spent a whole year without speaking until he met Clara. Now, as the story opens, she's not yet home, and so we're treated to the narrator's immense erudition on such subjects as Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Bach and Shostakovich. Johnny also tells us that before he met his wife he had had sex only once, and then only for the knowledge of the act. He met Clara after finding her coded diary—which, like any other intellectual challenge, he easily mastered; cracking the code enabled him to track her down. When a Chinese-takeout delivery man, who is also a violin student, brings by food, Johnny lures him in to play his—Johnny's—priceless violin. Wowed, Johnny inexplicably kills the deliveryman, then proceeds to dig up Clara's diaries—from which he'll quote at length. What they show is why she wound up in New York (she ran away from home after discovering that her father was taking secret photographs of her fooling around with boys). They also reveal glimpses of a torrid marital sex life that the reader isn't privy to but that Johnny has also hinted at. Toward the end of the evening, Clara comes home to a welcoming—if hardly steamy—hug, thus ending this misguided effort. Much ado, in sum, about very little, and far more artificial than pulsing. (First printing of 25,000)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-56512-068-X
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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