GOD ON A HARLEY

by Joan Brady ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1995

A slight and airy, albeit well-meaning, volume in the Bridges of Madison County mode: spirituality in the form of palatable, sugarcoated smarm. Christine Moore is a midlife clich‚, attempting to hide her misery behind a sarcastic and world-weary facade. With no husband, no family, an unfulfilling career as a traveling nurse, the inevitable ten pounds too many, and general dissatisfaction with her life, she moves back to the New Jersey shore from Los Angeles and takes up her old job, hoping for salvation in the familiar. When she runs into a formerly commitment-shy lover in the hospital cafeteria and notices his wedding ring, she's struck anew by her solitary state and goes off to drown her sorrows at a local pub. But a higher power has decided that the self-indulgent Christine has suffered enough: Later, after this particular ""yet another lonely night,"" she takes a walk on the beach and encounters ""Joe,"" God in the unlikely form of a hunk in black leather astride a Harley-Davidson. With scarcely a shrug of his broad shoulders, Joe (not-so-cleverly short for Joseph of Nazareth) has the converted--and love-struck--Christine moving out of her soulless condo into a rustic beach cottage, letting her highlighted hair go au naturel, trading in her sexy clothes for T-shirts and jeans, and living effortlessly by the six personalized commandments he has set for her. By the time Christine rides off into the sunset on still another Harley, driven this time by a saxophone-playing Joe look-alike, her view of men as Milky Ways comes to mind in a larger context: ""...sweet at first,"" she says, ""but detrimental in the end."" Christine's newfound confidence notwithstanding, just another Cinderella story.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0671536222

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Pocket

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1995

Categories: FICTION