An engaging novel written by women, about women whose flaws are as appealing as their strengths.
An exotic vacation turns into a nightmare in Frisbee and Farnsworth’s novel.
Lily, Grace, Penn, Deedee, Cat and Amelia have been friends for over 12 years, leaning on each other for support as they weather marital woes and challenging children. Their husbands—golfing buddies who initially introduced the wives—are all flawed in their own unique yet unappealing ways. The men are inattentive, cheaters, liars, self-absorbed, immature or alcoholics. The wives are largely long-suffering traditionalists who outwardly accept the lot they have been given and attempt to maintain their marriages by placating their husbands. Internally, the women struggle with their own unhappiness and insecurities. Yet the lives they work so hard to maintain begin to crumble during a spontaneous trip to the Isle of Capri, Italy. Lily, a fashion designer, can’t turn down an exciting professional opportunity and invites her friends to accompany her to Italy. They depart for Capri, anticipating a relaxing escape from the responsibilities of daily life. Despite high expectations, their vacation quickly turns into a battleground as the women square off and friendships begin to fracture. Each woman is forced to face the reality of her unhappy home life, and rather than pull together, the friends make moral choices whose consequences drive them further apart. Frisbee and Farnsworth use the lovely Isle of Capri as a backdrop for their story of friendship, offering a gorgeous villa and stunning scenery to complement the beautiful women. Yet the authors deliver a surprise narrative; rather than settling for light and frothy chick lit, they delve into the difficult dynamics of women’s friendships, tackling the costs of unhappiness and unrealized expectations. Set in the late 1970s, the stories of these six friends represent a changing culture for women that begins to embrace independence instead of settling for the roles of unhappy wife and frustrated mother. The story is narrated from multiple perspectives, and Frisbee and Farnsworth provide a diverse set of characters whose interactions are entirely believable while the changing dynamic of their friendships reflect reality.
An engaging novel written by women, about women whose flaws are as appealing as their strengths.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482511406
Page Count: 326
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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