With vivid characters, quick dialogue, and over-the-top situations, Chickering’s debut novel alternates between moments of...
A unique and morally ambiguous business plan causes conflict and chaos in the small town of Nohquee, New Jersey.
Lucy is an elementary school teacher and recently divorced mother to a young son. During a lunch with one-half of her social circle—the still-married moms—she expresses frustration over the lack of men in her life who are sane, disease-free, and not looking for commitment. The conversation goes astray when her friend Gina jokingly offers up her husband for a no-strings-attached hookup. Many of the wives are exhausted and uninterested in their husbands’ rabid sexual appetites. While the women initially laugh at the outrageous prospect, one wife, Nancy, decides to pursue the matter with Lucy. Feeling like her marriage is on the rocks, Nancy hopes that by allowing her husband to sleep with another woman, it will help revive their relationship. After establishing the ground rules, Lucy enjoys an afternoon with Ted, and all parties reap the benefits: while Nancy and Ted’s relationship appears to be on the mend, Lucy receives a few favors in return. Since all parties seemed pleased with the endeavor, Nancy concocts a plan—The Program, an opportunity for overwhelmed married women to contract with local divorcées to help satiate their husbands’ desires. No money would be exchanged—only favors—and an oath of absolute secrecy would help keep the peace. But could it really be so simple? Lucy feels conflicted over her new role, frequently wondering if she's violating a moral code. To make matters even more difficult, Lucy is juggling some fledgling potential relationships with her list of husbands from The Program. Though her needs are being met, she struggles to figure out this new version of herself.
With vivid characters, quick dialogue, and over-the-top situations, Chickering’s debut novel alternates between moments of true hilarity and deep introspection.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-250-09131-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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
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
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