A lighthearted sexual satire that gives a whole new meaning to the words “cat lover” and “dog lover.”
A picaresque fantasy focuses on a California cat who becomes human.
Forty-year-old Sherman Oaks resident Jennie Livingston’s troubles begin at the outset of Barrera’s fiction debut when she decides to visit trendy shaman-to-the-stars Carlos and hire him to guide her through a vision quest (he’s done this often, including a couple of times for Charlie Sheen). Like many pet owners who live alone, Jennie first discusses the whole matter with her cat, a purebred Chartreux named Antoinette, who, as usual with her species, is both haughty and indifferent to the scheme. But then Carlos’ supernatural efforts result in Antoinette becoming a pretty young human named Kitty, who has a French accent, a fan-crush on Scarlett O’Hara, and a penchant for getting involved with what “humans spend all their time thinking about” (readers are informed that it isn’t food). Kitty is subtle and manipulative—perfectly, if inadvertently, described when one character understatedly says cats are “pretty good at figuring out how to get what they want.” What Kitty wants is to squash Jennie’s new romance with Hollywood screenwriter Casey Chandler and match her instead with Carlos himself, but these plans get complicated when yet more of the shaman’s magic turns Casey’s Old English Sheepdog Shep into a sexy young Englishman who immediately fascinates Kitty. Then Jennie’s ex-boyfriend Mickey Souris kidnaps Kitty with the plan of changing her back into a cat and using her as the basis of a lucrative breeding operation, forcing the tale’s heroes to band together in an attempt to save her. Barrera invests all of this silliness with both a winningly light touch and an undercurrent of sexual sizzle that never feels forced (the novel’s full-color photos representing its various cast members add a playful touch). His funny and racy plot is target-rich with the zanier aspects of Hollywood subculture (Jennie tells Carlos that her “vision animal turned out to be an old tortoise named Amy. I felt like Alice in Wonderland talking to her”). But his satire is never sharp enough to break the spell of his humor. Although his characters may talk about the works of Shakespeare and Jane Austen, they remain comfortably one-dimensional.
A lighthearted sexual satire that gives a whole new meaning to the words “cat lover” and “dog lover.”Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4575-3251-1
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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