A young woman who flees the Midwest to begin a new life in New York discovers that her cool little apartment already has a long-term tenant.
Manhattan can be a lonely place for fresh-faced arrivals, and Ohio-born Eve Weldon does struggle to make new friends after moving to the big city, but at least her new roommate (of sorts) is a lively conversationalist. He just happens to be dead. Donald is a sardonic Beat-era writer who passed suddenly, well before his time. Donald may not have known the success of his contemporaries, but he proves, to Eve, to be an invaluable source of literary lore. With her collection of vintage outfits and love of mid-century writers, Eve is fascinated by the era. It turns out that Eve’s mother Penelope, who also died young, lived for a time in the Village in the 1960s, before settling for a safe, dull life with Eve’s father Gin. In a way, Eve seems bent on living the free-spirited life her mother never had. She lucks into a full-time job writing scripts for Smell the Coffee, a Good Morning America–style morning show hosted by affable ex-jock Hap McCutcheon and ice queen Bliss Jones. The gig is far from glamorous, though, and her position in the staff pecking order is precarious. But during one of her pre-interviews, she manages to charm Matthias Klieg, a legendary and reclusive German fashion designer. The much older man takes what appears to be a paternal interest in Eve, and she discovers that he and Donald were close friends who fell in love with the same woman. Donald remains unaware of Eve’s connection with Klieg and cajoles her into helping him finish his work by dictating his experimental stories to her in the hopes that she can finally get him published. Donald further complicates Eve’s life by making it impossible for her to bring any friends or lovers back to her place, setting both of them up for an inevitable confrontation. With its light, matter-of-fact depiction of a supernatural relationship, Graham’s debut is lots of fun to read, even during those moments when Eve’s wide-eyed innocence borders on cloying.
Delightful coming-of-age story with a sweet reverence for the art and romance of old Gotham.
Pub Date: June 28, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-345-52621-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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