A well-engineered farce with some problematic characterization.
In this comic novel set in 1981, a pre-wedding reception with a spiked punch bowl leads to revelations among a group of old friends and acquaintances.
When Blair Brackman, a therapist, receives an invitation to his client’s surprise pre-wedding reception, it galvanizes his resolve. He’s carried a torch for his patient, Melissa Manning, since second grade; as her therapist, he gladly helped her through her first divorce while concealing his own feelings. Now he believes that she’s making another mistake by marrying Rod Schoenlieber, so he vows to “break up the damn wedding.” Melissa’s disorganized mother, Meg, is holding the informal reception in her apartment, and she invites everyone in her daughter’s old address book—without being aware of how her friendships have changed. Invitees include Deirdre Rehnquist (also Blair’s patient) and her date, Milton Perkins, a poet; Deirdre’s depressed, broke ex-husband, John Palopolus; Rebecca Harvey, a hardworking single mother with a provocative air; Melissa’s sister, Val Manning; narcissistic Dickie Rawlings (yet another of Blair’s patients, who’s having an affair with Deirdre) and his wife, the sexy, dim Candy; C.W. Dexter, an interior decorator; and a British man named Nigel Davies. Although Meg intends to serve a nonalcoholic punch, some guests spike it heavily and general drunkenness ensues. In the bedroom, Blair hides out, working up his nerve; John hides from Deirdre; and Dickie and Deirdre have sex on top of the guests’ coats. Meanwhile, the party unleashes tensions, revelations, and new understandings. Vincent (Saving Dr. Block, 2013, etc.) handles his farcelike plot very capably, as each new doorbell ring sets off a fresh chain of surprises, disasters, or erotic energies. His characterizations overly rely on stereotypes, however, including a flamboyant, gay designer; a ditzy mom; a pretentious poet; and a vapid blonde. Also, the overall tone isn’t comic enough to overcome the distastefulness of Blair’s unethical, confidence-breaking behavior, as he sees Melissa’s sessions in terms of their benefits for him: “He was being paid to look at her, to have her close by. And listen to some degree, of course, which he could always finesse.” Given this malpractice, Blair’s self-pity (“Prometheus had a picnic compared to me”) is hard to take.
A well-engineered farce with some problematic characterization.Pub Date: July 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5336-6119-7
Page Count: 274
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 8, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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