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THE HUSBAND WHO KEPT HIS WIFE FAT

Name: THE HUSBAND WHO KEPT HIS WIFE FAT
Author: Lea Hope Becker
ISBN: 978-1-5427-2264-3

by Lea Hope Becker ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 2017

Anyone who’s ever struggled with their weight will likely find this novel to be amusing and instructive.

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A domestic dramedy about a troubled woman who, for all appearances, would seem to have an enviable life.

Loretta Aronson and her husband, Humphrey, are very wealthy. They live in tony Singer Island, Florida; he drives a Bentley, she an Audi. Humphrey’s business involves mergers and acquisitions, and he’s very good at it. He showers Loretta with clothes and jewelry, giving her everything but himself. She’s at his beck and call all day long, as he does a lot of work from their mansion—and to say that he’s demanding would be an understatement: his needs are paramount, not hers. As a result, she’s miserable, and she’s struggled with a weight problem throughout their 40 years of marriage. Desperate, she hits upon a strategy of trial by ordeal: she secretly slips off to Puerto Rico and works in a greenhouse for nearly 40 days straight. Humphrey, at length, becomes frantic, and when a slim Loretta returns, he seems chastened, and their future looks almost promising. This novel’s chapters are short and, though a little of Loretta’s personality goes a long way, readers will admire her guts and gusto. At one point, she says, “It’s not what’s eating me—it’s what I’m eating” but, snappiness aside, she may have it backward; metabolism may play a role, but it’s also a truism that overeating can be a compensatory mechanism. To explain this, Becker’s (My Name’s Not Robbie Anymore, 2014, etc.) novel offers two disparate attitudes about Loretta’s husband. The story needs a foil, of course, but one wonders if the author perhaps went too far in her portrayal of Humphrey as an antagonist. He is clearly the villain here—he can be a controlling jerk, and not just because he dictates the menu chez Aronson. At the same time, though, he’s probably not diabolical. Is he capable of truly changing? Is he basically a good guy? In the end, the fact that Loretta loves him is meant to show us that he is, in fact, lovable after all.

Anyone who’s ever struggled with their weight will likely find this novel to be amusing and instructive.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-5427-2264-3

Page Count: 276

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.