Polished albeit slight effort by a collaborative, pseudonymous team of a Famous Author (who did the writing) and a Deserving...
Plump hubby loses it.
Francie Kligler is told she’s the luckiest woman in Pittsburgh: her husband Harry is an excellent cook, devoted father, and does something with computers to make a good living. There are four grown children: Amber, an imperious, impulsive beauty; twins Tina and Trish, who run a hemp-clothing store; and boy genius Jason, who’s about to follow his father and do something computerish at college. An Empty Nest waits, and it’s time for midlife crises—triggered when Harry wins a talking scale in a Christmas raffle. The scale points out that he’s been very naughty, weighing 269 pounds at only five-eight. Francie, however, has always accepted him just as he is and is nonplussed when he begins losing on a low-carb diet. Just as well—the twentysomethings at his computer company were calling him Father Time, even if they do happily parade him before the venture capitalists as a token Mature Person when they plan to take the company public. Harry is caught up in the IPO as well as in his weight-loss group, leaving Francie feeling left out and miffed. Meanwhile, her kids provide welcome distractions: Amber tosses out her father’s beloved cookbooks and Gourmet magazines, the twins return home, and Jason takes up with a pierced person. The progeny decide to send Mom and Dad on a cruise for their 25th anniversary, but Francie is shattered to discover that Harry is, predictably, having an affair with a younger neighbor—whiny, difficult Krys. Francie decides, nyah nyah, to take the cruise anyway, with family friend Tom, an unsuccessful poet who’s a pretty good kisser. That’s about as far as she wants to go, and the romance tanks when the captain sails the ship right into a monster storm. Will Francie survive her seasickness and reunite with Harry? Will Harry realize that fooling around isn’t all that much fun?
Polished albeit slight effort by a collaborative, pseudonymous team of a Famous Author (who did the writing) and a Deserving Friend (who did the plotting). Charming cover and amusing premise should appeal to women of a certain age.Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2004
ISBN: 1-4000-4502-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Shaye Areheart/Harmony
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2003
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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