Colloquium

Book Review and Winner: Good-Bye to All That

JHS — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:01:33 +0000

Do you ever see celebrities on the red carpet at premieres and other events, and wonder about the people who work behind the scenes to create those photo opportunities? Do you ever consider the advertisements you see for movies and television shows: Who conceptualizes them? Who executes the creative ideas? Why do the marketing campaigns convince you that you want to see the movie?

And what are the lives of the people behind the scenes like? Is the entertainment industry really as cutthroat and competitive as it has been portrayed in various books, movies, and television series?

In her latest book, best selling author Margo Candela provides answers to some of those questions, but Good-Bye to All That is much more than a superficial tale about Hollywood archetypes. It is an intelligent, witty, fast-paced, and surprisingly thoughtful story about one ambitious young woman’s foray into corporate life.

Welcome to the Crazy Book Tour for Good-Bye to All That

Synopsis:

Raquel Azorian, 25, is one of the folks working behind the scenes at Belmore Corporation, a Hollywood production and marketing company. An executive assistant, she works night and day to her make her boss, Bert Floss, look good in hopes that he will reward her loyalty with the promotion she dreams about.

Meanwhile, her family is in turmoil. Her mother has left her father and is ensconced in Raquel’s apartment, while her married brother is miserable.

Office politics and backstabbing lead to a humiliating breakdown for Bert. When he is exiled from the office, Raquel has to figure out how to save his career and, in the process, her own. Reduced to being a receptionist, locked out of her computer files, and targeted for dismissal by Bert’s arch rival, Raquel calls upon the few allies she has to help her with what will either be a major coup — sure to garner that long-awaited promotion — or a fiasco that will decimate her budding career.

Meanwhile, Kyle Martin, an up and coming Belmore executive, has taken a romantic interest in Raquel. But are Kyle’s affections genuine? Should Raquel trust him? Or is she a fool to get entangled in an office romance, especially when the distance between her spot and Kyle’s on the corporate organizational chart is so vast?

Review:

Good-Bye to All That has deservedly been named “Best Beach Read” for 2010 by Los Angeles magazine. It has all the elements needed to lose yourself completely in the world of Raquel Azorian for a few hours while basking in the hot summer sun.

First, Raquel is an empathetic heroine. There’s a little bit of Raquel in each of us. She’s a contradictory mixture of self-doubt and determination. Imaginative and cunning, with just the right amount of chutzpah thrown in, she subsists on a diet with which most single women are familiar: Diet Coke and strawberry Pop-Tarts. When she sets in motion a scheme designed to salvage her boss’ faltering career and prevent her own from being declared dead on arrival before it has really even begun, you just can’t help but cheer her on. Suddenly, the pages begin flipping even faster as the plot literally thickens and Raquel races to outwit and outplay her corporate nemesis.

Secondly, Candela’s cast of supporting characters are as vibrantly drawn and intriguing as her protagonist. Raquel’s dysfunctional family members are both hilarious and heart-breaking. Marlene, her needy, co-dependent mother parks herself in Raquel’s apartment, drinking and watching television all day, but Raquel can’t bring herself to banish her. Meanwhile, Raquel’s undemonstrative father is at home where the neighbor women are beginning to fill her mother’s absence with food and flirting. Cricket, Raquel’s annoying sister-in-law, wants to have the perfect suburban life: A husband, home, children, and security. So why is Raquel’s brother so desperately unhappy and looking to escape domesticity?

Candela is at her best, however, in the multi-story Belmore world where parking place assignments reflect corporate status, conference room seating is based upon rank, and alliances are tenuous. Anyone who has ever worked in an office will appreciate the nuanced manner in which Candela pulls you into the daily drama at the place where Raquel, et al. dwell. Her descriptions are so vivid that you can practically smell swiveling leather chairs, photocopy toner, and the gum balls that Raquel loads into the machine in Bert’s office. The population of Belmore is drawn to perfection, as well, from the sole executive assistant who offers solace and advice to Raquel — but has his own self-interested agenda — to the nameless, faceless coworkers who scurry past Raquel’s desk without looking at or speaking to her when it appears that both she and Bert will soon be unemployed.

And, of course, there is romance. Kyle Martin seems too good to be true: Handsome, intelligent, charming, and able to see past Raquel’s drab, dressed for success style. But when the choices he makes are revealed, there is no satisfaction in having guessed correctly. The real question, though, is whether Raquel will be strong enough to deal with the fall-out.

Finally, Candela’s dialogue is crisp and believable, and the story moves at a brisk pace, never bogging down for even a page or two. There are a couple of surprising plot twists that demonstrate how expertly Candela has constructed Good-Bye to All That: You will find yourself wondering how you missed the clues.

Candela wisely avoids a classic happy ending worthy of the book’s setting (Hollywood). Rather, she crafts a believable conclusion that is, like real life, poignant and ironic, and leaves the reader pondering Raquel’s future, as well as Kyle’s.

Good-Bye to All That is one of the few books that I will probably read again in order to appreciate Candela’s attention to detail and the clever way she reveals key story points. Candela says she admires “tidy writers like Delia Ephron and Anne Tyler, who write about messy life situations.” Clearly, she has learned from two of the best because “tidy” is an excellent way to describe Candela’s own taut writing. Good-Bye to All That is the first of Candela’s books I have read, but it definitely won’t be the last.

I read Good-Bye to All That in conjunction with the 2010 Read ‘n’ Review Challenge.

Linda Henderson

Linda has been notified that she is the randomly selected winner of an autographed copy of Good-Bye to All That, graciously provided by Margo Candela!

Thanks to all who participated in the Got Books? event!

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Got Books? Winner

JHS — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:44:01 +0000

Jacinda!

An email has been dispatched to Jacinda advising her that she is the randomly selected winner!

A copy of Claire Cook’s wonderful latest book, Seven Year Switch, will be sent to Jacinda!

Thanks to all who participated in the Got Books? event!

Be sure to drop by tomorrow to read my review of best-selling author Margo Candela’s just-released novel, Good-Bye to All That, and learn which lucky participant has won an autographed copy!

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Author Interview: Margo Candela

JHS — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:01:02 +0000

Welcome to the second and final day of Got Books?, a celebration of books and the wonderful bloggers that tell the world about them. This event is designed to celebrate book bloggers around the world by shining a light on their efforts and spreading the word about their sites to increase readership! And what better way is there to celebrate books than by hosting some fun contests and giveaways?!

Meet Margo Candela

It is my honor and privilege to welcome best selling author Margo Candela to Colloquium! Not only did Margo graciously consent to participate in an interview, she has provided one copy of her just-released novel, Good-bye To All That, to be given to a lucky reader — and even agreed to autograph the book! (Entry details below.)

Margo Candela was born and raised in Northeast Los Angeles. She moved to San Francisco to attend college and ended up staying for a decade before moving back home in 2005. Her first three novels, More Than This (Touchstone, Aug. 2008), Life Over Easy (Kensington, Oct. 2007) and Underneath It All (Kensington, Jan. 2007) are set in San Francisco. More Than This was a Target stores Breakout Book and an American Association of Publishers national book club selection at Borders Books with Las Comadres.

Her new novel, Good-bye To All That, published by Touchstone, is her first novel set in her native Los Angeles.

About Good-Bye to All That

Raquel Azorian, 25, has worked her way from temp to executive assistant and is close to a promotion at Belmore Corporation, the media behemoth she’s devoted herself to. All she needs is for her boss to sign her promotion memo. Instead of putting pen to paper, he suffers a very public meltdown that puts not only his future at Belmore, but also Raquel’s on the line.

It’s not just Raquel’s professional life that’s a mess, her whole family is in turmoil and Raquel is forced to become the intermediary—all while trying to figure out how to save her job and not derail her office romance with the man of her dreams.

When the chaos of juggling so many lives reaches a breaking point, Raquel realizes she’s going to have to choose—success at work or happiness at home. Whatever choice she makes, Raquel knows it going to cost her, but part of her is still pulling for her very own Hollywood ending.

The Interview

In one recent interview, you described Good-Bye to All That as “Working Girl meets Mad Men with a dash of Entourage.” That description totally fits. How did you get the idea for the storyline?

I knew I wanted to write about office politics and how one woman lets her job become the sole focus of her life. There’s a certain freedom people enjoy at work even though they have to be there to get paid. A person can be one way at work and another at home and lots of people use their jobs to escape from home lives. Raquel, the main character, uses her ambitions to succeed at work as a way of replacing any sort of life outside of the office. Her hyper-focus on her professional life comes at the expense of her personal life, but real life keeps interfering with Raquel’s work. This is where the fun was for me as a writer. How can she figure out what’s more important if both are equally screwed up? It’s a great question to try to answer as an author.

When it came time to boil down the concept of the story for myself and my editor, I had to think of the themes that I wanted to touch on. The movie Working Girl was spot-on because Raquel is convinced that if she just works hard enough, things will fall into place. The company she works for is very rigid in its hierarchy and archetypes like on the show Mad Men. And because it’s set in Hollywood, I got to have fun with some Entourage like situations. When I put that sentence together, “Working Girl meets Mad Men with a dash of Entourage,” it was a true ‘a-ha!’ moment for me and allowed me to move forward with structuring and writing the novel. It also gave my editor a clear indication of what kind of manuscript she could expect to me. Lucky for me, she loved the concept and from there it was just a lot of writing and revising under a tight deadline.

In another interview, you said “I’m fascinated by it and can listen for hours when friends talk about their lives at the office.” As someone who resides in an office many hours per week, you’ve totally nailed what it’s like in Goodbye to All That, but I have to know what you find so fascinating about office culture!

I’m suffering from a severe case of office life envy. I work from home and alone which might seem ideal to someone who’s stuck in an office for 8-plus hours a day. What I miss is the routine and knowing there’s somewhere I need to be and I need to be dressed accordingly for it. At the same time, I know I’m very fortunate to be able to do what I do. I still like to indulge in the fantasy of having a good office job where I know what’s expected of me, there’s some financial security and there a people around who I can commiserate to in the break room. Since I had to find a way to scratch that itch, I wrote Good-bye To All That. Writing the novel allowed me to listen to friends talk and, yes, complain about their jobs and put a little more reality into my fantasy. As bad as some of the stories I heard were, not one of my friends said they’d give up what they do. Maybe they’d like to change certain things, but they all were committed to their jobs.

What was the worst job you ever had on your way to becoming a published novelist?

Honestly, being an aspiring novelist is the worst job I’ve had. There is tremendous uncertainty, frustration and a good measure of hopelessness that goes with trying to crack the publishing nut. You not only have to write the best novel you possibly can, you then have to convince strangers to feel the same way about it. Actually, being an aspiring novelist isn’t so different from being a published novelist.

That’s the hard truth, but there has to be some reason we do it. For some writers it’s because they have a burning desire to be successful, others feel compelled to write. In my case, I don’t consider myself a masochist — I truly enjoy writing fiction. What keeps me going is that there is a new idea to explore and I’m curious to see if I can pull it off. This is what keeps me at my desk.

Do you read the reviews for your books and, if so, how do you keep from being discouraged if a review isn’t entirely flattering?

I try not to take bad reviews personally. I read books as a reader and expect a certain experience. If the writer fails to deliver, I feel cheated out of time and money. As a writer, I understand that people feel the same way. Of course, there is a difference between a review and someone just going off on a writer or their book. I’ve had plenty of blah reviews and I shrug them off. The ones that have gotten to me are those where the reviewer gets personal. That’s so easy to do on the Internet because people can hide behind anonymity. In the end, my hope is that readers enjoy what I’m offering and that I do it well enough so I end up with more happy customers than not. I celebrate the good and try and learn from the bad.

Without revealing too much, Good-Bye to All That does not have a classic Hollywood happy ending. As a writer of women’s fiction, do you feel pressured to provide a more traditional happy ending to your books?

I could write tidy and happy endings, but I don’t think they’d be in keeping with the stories I tell or the type of writer that I am. My endings are more about a hope that there is potential for a happier tomorrow and I do that on purpose. Not that I have a problem with happy endings. I read books where you know a couple of chapters in that she’s going to end up with him and everything is going to be just great. I enjoy them for just that reason. For me as a writer, it’s much more challenging to try to convey to the reader that not all endings have to be in your face happy. My editor, who has worked with me on all four of my novels, has always been supportive of how I structure my books and my point of view, it’s just a matter of finding readers who are willing to go along on the ride with my characters. My endings will never be conventionally happy but I do like to joke that my next book is going to be full of enough happy to choke a depressed horse.

The way books are sold has changed dramatically in the past decade or so, this interview and the blog tour that inspired it being prime examples of that fact. What do you think about virtual book tours and reviews published on blogs by folks (like me) who are not professional book reviewers? I assume this type of promotion involves a lot of work for the author … is it effective? Do these new marketing techniques really sell books? In the end, are they worth the effort?

Marketing and publicizing a book are above and beyond my expertise and comfort zone, but I have do whatever I can to get the word out on Good-bye To All that and my other three novels. Tooting your own horn is a reality most authors have always faced, but it’s now a fact of publishing life. Publishers are drastically cutting back their marketing and pr budgets and that leaves the bulk of the responsibility on the author’s shoulders. Personally, I enjoy interacting with readers because that’s the whole point of this endeavor-to reach out to readers and build a strong word-of-mouth reputation as a writer whose delivers a good read. I’m always tremendously flattered when someone takes the time to write a review, ask a question or recommends my books. Writing and reading is a passion and it’s always heartening to share the experience with someone who understands.

Enter to Win an Autographed Copy of Good-Bye to All That

In order to enter to win an autographed copy of Good-bye To All That, leave a comment discussing something you learned from my interview of Margo.

Bonus Entries:

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Books can only be shipped to United States addresses (no P.O. boxes).

Entry Deadline:

Sunday, July 25, 2010, at 11:59 p.m. (Pacific time)

The winner will be selected at random and announced on Monday, July 26, 2010, when I publish my review of Good-Bye to All That!

My thanks go to Margo for accepting my invitation to participate in an interview and generously donating an autographed copy of Good-Bye to All That!

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Got Books? Enter to Win One of Five Novels

JHS — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:01:33 +0000

Welcome to the Got Books? extravaganza, a celebration of books and the wonderful bloggers that tell the world about them. This event is designed to celebrate book bloggers around the world by shining a light on their efforts and spreading the word about their sites to increase readership! And what better way is there to celebrate books than by hosting some fun contests and giveaways?!

You have an opportunity to win a (new) copy of one of the books that I recently read and reviewed! The choices are:

Click on the book cover to read my review!

How to Enter

Leave a comment stating which book you would like to win and why you would like to read it!

Bonus Entries:

Leave a separate comment for each bonus entry -

Follow me on Google Friend Connect
Follow Colloquium on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter -- be sure to leave your Twitter name in the comment
Subscribe to Colloquium via RSS or Email and confirm your subscription

Books can only be shipped to United States addresses (no P.O. boxes).

Entry Deadline:

Saturday, July 24, 2010, at 11:59 p.m. (Pacific time)

The winner will be selected at random and announced on Sunday, July 25, 2010!

Be sure to drop by tomorrow to read my interview with best-selling author Margo Candela and enter to win an autographed copy of her just-released novel, Good-Bye to All That!

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Book Review: Tattoos on the Heart

JHS — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:01:06 +0000

A homily is defined as “a sermon, especially one intended to edify a congregation on a practical matter and not intended to be a theological discourse” or “a sermon that is usually on a Biblical topic and usually of a nondoctrinal nature.” Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion is a homily, delivered eloquently, simply, and powerfully by Father Gregory Boyle, pastor of Dolores Mission, situated in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Boyle Heights has the highest concentration of deadly gang activity and Dolores Mission is the poorest congregation in the Los Angeles archdiocese. The statistics on California gangs are beyond staggering. In Los Angeles alone, there are 1,100 different gangs comprised of 86,000 members. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly the entire population of Lodi, the small Northern California city in which I live.

Since he began serving Dolores Mission in 1984, Father Boyle has stood over 168 caskets bearing (mostly) young victims of senseless gang violence. And yet, Tattoos on the Heart is ultimately a homily filled with a message of hope. For atheists and even many agnostics, that may seem impossible. There may even be those among the fellowship of believers in a higher power, regardless of the name ascribed to that being, for whom Father Boyle’s commitment to his parish and community, and perseverance in the face of so many heart-breaking losses, is unfathomable.

Tattoos on the Heart is not an easy book to read for the simple fact that a good number of the “homies” with whom Father Boyle has interacted over the years have led unspeakably difficult, often tragic, lives. But the tales of gang members finding self-respect, a sense of belonging and purpose, and a promising future for their own children are also uplifting and told with an infectiously joyous spirit. A few are also as hilarious as they are poignant, such as the story of Joey, a former gang member who confided in Father Boyle that he had found a job at Chuck E. Cheese.

“Well … that’s great, son,” I assure him, feeling my nose grow. “But what do you do there?”

“But that’s the thing. Gee, you can’t tell the homies.”

I nod.

“I’m the rat.”

The mascot, a rat, IS Chuck E. Cheese.

“Wow … I mean that’s great.” I try and convince him … and myself.

Joey complains that the costume is hot and the kids, with their pushing and tugging, bug him. But when Father Boyle continues probing into Joey’s motivation to work, “Joey gets sober and clear-eyed, and there is no doubting, for him, how he was led to this moment and place and rat suit. ‘In two months, my son’s gonna be born. I want him to come into the world and meet his father — a workin’ man.’”

I wonder what happened to Joey, and his son, as well as all the other folks’ whose life experiences — and the lessons they provide — are related in a series of chapters devoted to themes such as “Compassion,” “Slow Work,” “Gladness,” “Success,” and, lastly, “Kinship.” In particular, I wonder about the lives impacted and transformed by their intersections with Father Boyle’s constituents. For instance, since reading Tattoos on the Heart, I have found myself pondering the fate of a particular nurse. As she wheeled the lifeless body of Manny, gunned down by a rival gang member on a freeway onramp, to the operating room where his organs would be harvested and given to donors, she turned to the nurse accompanying her and shook her head in disgust as she gazed at Manny’s tattoos.

“I mean,” she says, rolling her eyes, “who would want this monster’s heart?” The other nurse stops the gurney midhallway and turns on her coworker with a clarity that may well have surprised herself. “How dare you call this kid a monster? Didn’t you see his family, his friends, his son? He was nineteen years old, for God’s sakes. He belonged to somebody. Shame on you.”

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a covenant between equals. … Compassion is always, at its most authentic, about a shift from the cramped world of self-preoccupation into a more expansive place of fellowship, of true kinship.

~~Father Gregory Boyle

Ultimately, Father Boyle’s message is that we all belong: To ourselves, the one who created us, each other. We are all equal and we are all deserving of compassionate care within a community — a kinship.

Tattoos on the Heart is not a book that can be read in one sitting, not because it is hard to remain focused and interested in the subject matter, and not because of Father Boyle’s writing style. He writes, in fact, in a crisp, engaging, conversational style, as though he were delivering this homily from the front of the sanctuary to an enthralled congregation. Rather, Tattoos on the Heart evokes an intense emotional reaction that demands periodic respites. It is also, however, not a book to be read just once. It is the type of volume that you will want to return to over time for inspiration and reflection.

And for encouragement, when needed, just as Anthony did. Anthony wanted to be an auto mechanic, but had no training or skills. So Father Boyle paid a visit to his own mechanic, Dennis, and asked him to give Anthony a job because he was “eager, and I think he could learn stuff.” As Father Boyle stuttered through a litany of unconvincing reasons why Dennis should give Anthony a break, Dennis stared at him, puffing his cigarette. Finally, completely spent, Father Boyle decided to “give up and shut up.” At that moment, Dennis calmly looked at the priest and said, “I will teach him everything I know.” So, as Father Boyle sums it up succinctly, “Anthony became a mechanic.” Later, Anthony showed Father Boyle a photo of himself and Dennis with their arms around each other, grease on Anthony’s face, and his trademark cigarette hanging from Dennis’ mouth. Not only did the picture reveal that Anthony was “a transformed man.” It also demonstrated conclusively that Dennis was “an equally changed human being” because he opted to be “in the world who God is.”

Tattoos on the Heart is written from a spiritual perspective, but not preachy. Plainly, if Father Boyle is interested in making disciples, it is only through his own example of how bestowing compassion upon others can effect change from the inside out. There is no fire and brimstone to be had in this sermon. On the contrary, this sermon derives purely from New Testament (new covenant) lessons. Tattoos on the Heart is Father Boyle’s quietly affecting, loving witness to the myriad ways in which being a faithful servant has enriched his own beliefs and strengthened his resolve to continue serving with the fervent hope that he does not find himself standing before any more caskets bearing the bodies of young men and women who have been felled on the gang-controlled streets of Los Angeles.

I read Tattoos on the Heart in conjunction with the 2010 Read ‘n’ Review Challenge.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of Tattoos on the Heart free of charge from the publisher, Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., in conjunction with the Condor Book Tours review program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Father Boyle founded Homeboy Industries nearly twenty years ago. In that time, it has served members of more than half of the gangs in Los Angeles. Homeboy Industries’ various businesses include baking, silkscreening, an landscaping. Gang affiliations are left outside as young people work together, side by side, learning the mutual respect that comes from building something together. 100% of the profits from sales of Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion go directly to Homeboy Industries. You can purchase the book here via Condor Book Tours which is donating 100% of the commissions generated through book sales on their website to the Homeboy Industries Review, a yearly publication of poetry and essays written and published by the young men and women involved in Homeboy Industries’ writing and publishing skills program.

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Teaser Tuesday: With Friends Like These

JHS — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:01:04 +0000

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Each week participants open to a random page in the book they are currently reading and share two (or three) “teaser” sentences from that page, being careful not to include spoilers, i.e. too much information that would ruin the experience of reading the book for others.

That morning the women recognized that being together was like rediscovering a pair of lost slippers. Their friendship still provided comfort that improved with time. They knew one another like a new friend never could, with a shorthand that understood when to react and when to overlook, when to boost and when to protect.

With Friends Like These by Sally Koslow, page 313–14.

Don’t miss my review when the With Friends Like These Virtual Book Tour makes a stop here at Colloquium on August 11, 2010!

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Book Review: Fly Away Home

JHS — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:01:10 +0000

We have all watched them on newscasts, after which their wardrobe choices, hair, makeup, and every movement — how many times did the camera catch a grimace or flinch of discomfort or revulsion? — have been dissected by the various commentators and their guest body language experts. We have wondered how they could bear to stand before the cameras and question-shouting reporters. Since Hillary Clinton opted to stand by her cheating, lying man, a slew of political wives have faced the nation alongside their husbands as they either confessed to various betrayals and begged their constituents’ understanding and forgiveness, or denied engaging in scandalous affairs and liaisons with prostitutes, members of their staffs or even strangers in the men’s room at the Minneapolis airport.

Jennifer Weiner, the New York Times best selling author of Good in Bed and In Her Shoes, found herself asking, “How, in an age of feminism, when, instead of marrying a powerful man you could be powerful yourself, could these wives choose to stand by their disgraced spouses …?” Her fascination with the spectacle inspired her to pen her new novel, Fly Away Home, available in bookstores tomorrow, July 13, 2010.

Synopsis:

Sylvie Serfer Woodruff has devoted herself to being the ideal political wife. The first night they got together in college, Richard Woodruff informed her that he wanted to someday be President of the United States. From that moment on, their lives have adhered to a carefully orchestrated trajectory, beginning with law school and culminating with Richard’s current status as the senior senator from New York. Throughout a thirty-two year marriage, Sylvia has dutifully dieted in order to maintain her weight, been conservatively and impeccably coiffed, made dreaded public speaking engagements, and maintained a New York apartment more perfectly styled for entertaining than raising their two daughters, Diana and Lizzie. As Sylvie puts it, her only real job has been staying twenty pounds thinner than she was in law school. Through it all, she has managed to remain in love with and faithful to Richard.

Ironically, Sylvie’s mother, the Honorable Selma Serfer, the former chief judge of New York, graduated first in her class from Yale Law School — a class that included a total of only seven women. Selma has never made any secret of her disappointment that Sylvia opted to make a career out of supporting her husband’s political ambitions, rather than putting her own degrees from Barnard and Yale to good use.

En route from a public appearance, Sylvie receives a call from her best friend, Ceil, that changes her life. Ceil informs Sylvia that at that very moment, is CNN is reporting that Richard not only had an affair with a legislative aide, but also secured a job for her in the Washington, D.C. branch of his former law firm.

Review:

Sometimes all you can do is fly away home …

Weiner describes Fly Away Home as her attempt to answer the questions we have all asked ourselves while watching women like Silda Spitzer or Dina Matos McGreevey publicly endure the humiliation of being betrayed by their husbands’ scandalous indiscretions: What kind of woman would marry a politician and choose to stand by him under such circumstances? What could her reasons be?

Fly Away Home is an exploration of choices and consequences, examined through the life of a woman who literally sacrificed her own education, career, and, indeed, her very identity when she entered into partnership with a man driven toward a singular goal. Sylvie practiced law for only two years before choosing to focus all of her energy on Richard’s political ambition. Their life has been a carefully choreographed, highly controlled series of public appearances, speeches, and photo opportunities. Most of the control over how and where she spends her days lies beyond Sylvie’s grasp.

The choices parents make impact the lives of their children in profound ways, of course. Diana, their oldest daughter, is enjoying a successful career as an emergency room physician. She is married to Gary and they have one son, Milo, as well as a lovely home. Diana stays in shape by jogging regularly, and is very cautious about Milo’s diet, exposure to television programs and movies, etc. In many ways, she is, at least on the surface, the antithesis of her mother: A career-oriented control freak married to a weak and passive man that she has never really loved. Diana settled for security and predictability when she married Gary. And in response, she is making choices that will have a destructive impact upon her and her family.

Meanwhile, Lizzie, Sylvie and Richard’s younger daughter, has just completed a stint in a Minnesota rehab facility. She is living with Diana and Gary, serving as Milo’s nanny for the summer. The arrangement was foisted upon her, as well as Diana and Gary, by Sylvie and Richard in order to give Lizzie a place to stay until her job as a photographer’s assistant begins in the fall. It is also a means by which Diana can keep an eye on Lizzie to be sure that she is not using drugs. Lizzie has always felt like an outsider — the only underachiever in an accomplished family. She is keenly aware that her life has been out of control, but she is floundering, unable to take charge of her own destiny.

Fly Away Home is refreshing because it is unique. The subject matter has not been tackled from the vantage point of the political wife before.

Sylvie is forced to face one inescapable, universal truth: When you give yourself over completely to another person and that person’s dreams, and that person betrays you, you are left with nothing. Not even yourself. From the moment Sylvie learns of Richard’s duplicitous behavior, she gradually comes to the realization that her life as she knew it is over. Weiner deftly and believably leads the reader through Sylvie’s emotional awakening and break down, expertly evoking a lump in the throat and emptiness in the pit of the stomach right along with Sylvie. For instance, Sylvie demands that her driver pull into a roadside rest stop. There, she stands glued to a television screen upon which the story about her husband’s infidelity is splayed. The scene makes for excruciating — but delicious — reading. Sylvie’s emotions are raw, her reaction horrifically intense, disbelieving, but authentically empathetic. Sylvie is broken.

The same is true of the scene in which Sylvie arrives back at their New York apartment where Richard is watching the newscasts in his study with his assistant. Richard is also broken, but for different reasons. Their confrontation is stunningly, heartbreakingly realistic. Weiner’s pacing and dialogue are pitch-perfect. Richard and Sylvie’s marriage is broken. Their family is broken.

But still there is the obligatory press conference. Sylvie’s maternal instincts drive her to agree to appear with Richard solely to protect her daughters, whom she refuses to have paraded before the camera as props in Richard’s attempt to salvage his senatorial career. As soon as the press conference ends, however, Sylvie exits, escaping to her family’s Connecticut beach house where she spent summers as a child. There she begins the process of evaluating the choices she made long ago, sorting out the consequences of those choices, and piecing together her future.

The revelation of Richard’s affair distinctly impacts Diana and Lizzie, as well, and their parents’ separation causes them to examine the choices they have made over the years in reaction to the family dynamic with which they were raised. Diana’s controlled life implodes and veers off track, surprising no one more than her. She realizes that the veneer of success and happiness she constructed was nothing more than that. And if she wants to find real happiness for herself and her child, she has to come to terms with the impact that her upbringing and relationship with her parents had on the way she has structured her life.

As for Lizzie, she has to make critical choices about her future, some of which take her by surprise. A gifted photographer, one her rehab counselors suggests that she has made a habit of using her camera as a shield, hiding behind it rather than being part of the scenes she films. “If you’re taking pictures, it takes you out of the story … it turns you into an observer instead of a participant.” Lizzie has to decide if she has the courage to stop engaging in self-destructive behavior and take a chance at being happy by stepping out from behind the lens to participate in her own life, as well as the lives of her family. As Weiner puts it, Lizzie, along with her mother and sister, has to decide if she is ready to really be in her own life.

Weiner carefully leads the reader through the details of Sylvie’s self-imposed exile where, day by day, little by little, she reinvents herself while she contemplates whether her marriage to Richard can survive. Abandoning her conservative suits, hair dye, and perpetual diet, Sylvie experiments with simply being Sylvie. Weiner is wise not to turn Sylvie into a bitter, angry woman scorned. Rather, Weiner recognizes that a marriage that has endured for thirty-two years may be, from the perspective of its partners, worth salvaging despite an adulterous affair. Accordingly, the complex, often conflicting emotions Sylvie experiences ring true — her memories of her life with Richard run the gamut from sweet and heart-warming to devastatingly heart-breaking.

Eventually, both girls end up at the beach house with Sylvie who, by then, is ready to take advantage of the second chance she has been given to mother her daughters. The three women have never been particularly close. Along with her introspective evaluation of her marriage, Sylvie gradually develops an understanding of the effect that her total and unwavering devotion to being Richard’s helpmate had upon the lives of her daughters and comes to see that the choices they made were, in part, fueled by the environment in which she and Richard raised them. Sylvie acknowledges that she devoted herself completely to taking care of Richard and his needs, “a job that left little room for taking care of anything else … sometimes not even her daughters.” Weiner wisely allows Sylvie to experience some maternal guilt about the trade-offs she made as her children were growing up, but not wallow for too long or too deeply in regret. Slowly, the mother and daughters begin to understand, forgive, and appreciate each other.

Sylvie’s mother, Selma, serves as a proverbial Greek chorus, giving voice to readers’ thoughts and reactions. A feminist who fought to achieve her career goals at a time when the legal profession was not readily open to women, she cannot fathom why Sylvie chose to subjugate her own ambition in favor of Richard’s, whom she refers to as a “crotch.” She is frequently hilarious, as when, for instance, she advises Sylvie not to wear teal should she be interviewed on 60 Minutes. “Wear red,” Selma advises. “Red says you’re strong and you’re not going to take it. And you’re not. Going to take it. Are you?” It is Selma who reminds Sylvie, “In Chinese, the word for crisis is the same word as opportunity.”

Weiner notes that “a woman who loses everything is a fascinating woman to write about.” In Weiner’s hands, that woman is also the basis for a fascinating and compelling in-depth character study. Each of the female characters is fully developed, vividly described. Their conversations are natural, each having her own unique voice, thus demonstrating Weiner’s keen insight into women’s psyches — how they think, feel, and relate to each other.

Sylvie’s reinvention, necessitated by the situation into which she is suddenly thrust, is believably absorbing. Every reader who has at some point found him/herself at a crossroads will understand the enormity of the options available to Sylvie, which Weiner reveals with both wit and compassion. Her writer’s touch is surprisingly light, allowing material that could, in a less skilled author’s hands, be dark and maudlin, to flow as liltingly and soothingly as the tides on the Connecticut shore.

When Sylvie takes her leave from Richard, Weiner signals that Sylvie’s strength will allow her to survive the public relations and emotional tsunami that has just decimated her life as she has known it up to that point. Weiner’s strength lies in her ability to keep the reader interested in learning exactly what Sylvie’s life will be like after she sorts through the wreckage of her marriage. And, of course, whether or not, by the time the last page is turned, Sylvie and Richard will still have a marriage.

Weiner rightly believes that “women never get tired of reading about funny, familiar, relatable characters trying to make sense of their lives.” Fortunately, she loves writing about them. Fly Away Home is yet another excellent summer read, perfect for an afternoon at the beach or in your own backyard. Regardless of where you read it, make sure you set aside plenty of time because once you pick it up, you won’t be putting it back down until you reach the very last page.

I read Fly Away Home in conjunction with the 2010 Read ‘n’ Review Challenge.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of Fly Away Home free of charge from Engelman & Co. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Book Review: Beachcombers

JHS — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 07:01:42 +0000

Four women. Each at a crossroads in her life. Each unsure what her future will be like, aside from the fact that it will bear no resemblance to her recent past. One beautiful summer on Nantucket island leads to personal discoveries, revelations, growth … transformations.

Sound like the theme of a perfect summer novel? Indeed it is, courtesy once again of Nancy Thayer, author of Summer House, Moon Shell Beach, The Hot Flash Club, and Between Husbands and Friends.

Welcome to Pump Up Your Book’s Beachcombers Virtual Book Tour!

Synopsis:

The three Fox girls’ mother, Danielle, brought her daughters to the beach at least once a week, all year long, to scour it for treasures. They would take them home and vote to see who had discovered the best treasure, with the winning discovery proudly displayed in the family kitchen on the shelf between the cookbooks. “Whatever the weather, the surf always brought treasures; their mother had taught them that.” And it was their mother who started the Beachcombers Club.

Abbie is the oldest of the three sisters. She hasn’t been home to Nantucket — or seen her father and sisters — for nearly two years. A series of distressed emails compel her back from London.

Emma had it all: A successful career as a broker with an investment firm in Boston from which she took fabulous vacations with her fiancee and fellow broker, Duncan Fairly. And then the financial market collapsed, taking with it her own savings, the money she had invested in high-risk markets for her father, her job … and her fiancee who announced a few months later that he was in love with another still-employed broker. Emma has returned to Nantucket. Devastated and depressed, she isn’t budging from her bed.

And Lilly is the youngest. At twenty-two, she has not yet left home. She writes a weekly social column for Nantucket Talk which means, essentially, that she attends all of the summer events and reports who makes an appearance, what they wore, who they were with. If she’s lucky, the attendees grant her an interview.

The girls’ father, Jim, a contractor, finds himself struggling to make ends meet when his business suffers an economic downturn. A small cottage adjacent to the family home served as a playhouse for the girls when they were growing up. Now it generates much-needed income for Jim as a summer rental for Marina, whose friend advised her to go to Nantucket for the summer to spend time resting, relaxing, and healing after her marriage disintegrated.

Jim has remained single in the years following the mysterious sudden death of his wife. His protective daughters, all back home for the summer, are not sure they want their father to move on with his life — especially when theirs are all in a state of turmoil and it looks like the woman he might be interested in is none other than Marina, their new tenant.

Abbie and Emma advertise their services as Nantucket Mermaids, available to perform small, odd jobs around the island. Abbie signs on to babysit adorable but troubled Harry, whose mother is a Type A shrew, while Emma spends her afternoons reading to elderly Millicent Bracebridge, an island native whose eyesight is failing. Lily, meanwhile, lands a job as the personal assistant of a wealthy older socialite. And the formerly career-driven Marina learns to live her life at a slower pace as she evaluates her options.

Of course, there are men: Little Harry has a kind-hearted, desirable father, Howell, for whom Abbie falls hard. Mrs. Bracebridge has an intelligent, available grandson, Spencer, and Lily is courted by a local boy, Jason, who dreams modest dreams that don’t involve living anywhere other than Nantucket. Whenever men are involved, there are complications, drama, and angst. Beachcombers proves there is no exception to that rule.

Review:

Bestselling author Nancy Thayer has lived on Nantucket for twenty-five years. Like an artist lovingly and painstakingly applying oil paint to a blank canvas, Thayer’s familiarity with and love of the island paint a vivid portrait of the various locales where the action unfolds. The result is that Nantucket itself becomes a character in the story. Into her narrative, Thayer also injects island history and customs, as well as social commentary about the manner in which the summer people look with disdain upon the year-round island residents, contextually undergirding much of the drama.

Who wouldn’t be drawn to spend a summer in the seaside cottage Marina rents from Jim? “It resembled a dollhouse, with wild roses rambling all over the roof and clematis and wisteria blossoming on the trellis on the outside walls. The windows were mullioned like a fairy-tale cottage. The door was bright blue.… Windows on three sides provided views of the birds nesting in an apple tree on her right, a pine tree on her left, and a hawthorn tree straight ahead.” The cottage is situated in the heart of the town, “off an idyllic lane in the illustrious historic district. She could walk to the grocery store, the pharmacy, the post office, the library. Tucked away at the far end of a long garden, it had once been the Playhouse for the family …” It is easy to empathize with Marina’s perception that, fresh from her husband’s betrayal, the island’s “flamboyant, generous beauty both hurt and healed her. Some days the intensity of the wild blue sea, the dense clouds of pink climbing roses, flew straight to her heart like an arrow, searing her with emotions, … But some days the beauty soothed her, even cheered her.” Mired in disappointment and heartbreak, Marina longs only to be able to walk along the beach with a smile on her face. Nantucket’s shore beckons her closer, along with the reader.

Thayer effectively conveys her innate understanding of women’s thoughts and emotions by supplying dialogue to her female characters that is believable and authentic. Perhaps no relationship on earth is as complicated, multi-layered or impenetrable than that of sisters. That Thayer clearly understands the complexities of sisters’ relationships is underscored by the fact that not a single word of the Fox girls’ many conversations seems contrived or out of place. Rather, the rhythm of the sisters’ discussions rings true, providing insight into each character’s back story and motivations.

Through the girls’ verbal sparring, the dynamics of their individual relationships with each other surface. Nowhere is this more evident than in Lily’s pouty outbursts. The youngest sister, Lily feels left out of what she perceives is a private sorority into which membership has only been granted to Abbie and Emma, as when she protests their becoming the Nantucket Mermaids without including her. Lily was only seven years old when their mother died and her strongest memory is of her mother singing her lullabies. Abbie was forced to become a substitute mother to Lily and, essentially, raise her, as well as, to a lesser degree, Emma. But at twenty-two, Lilly, who has remained at home with their father after the two older girls went off to live elsewhere, resents Abbie’s resumption of her motherly role, especially when Abbie and Emma push Lily to be take on more responsibility for household maintenance. The two older girls express their exasperation with the baby sister they think is spoiled and privileged through their own childish attempts at revenge, such as when Emma refuses to loan Lily her stylish clothing to wear to a social event upon which Lily is reporting. The siblings’ love-hate relationships are, at times, hilariously familiar and always heart-tuggingly recognizable.

In addition to Nantucket itself, Thayer supplies a varied and intriguing cast of supporting characters, including wealthy socialite Eartha Yardley, one of the summer people, who needs Lily to assist her with cataloguing her wardrobe and jewels, and ensure that she does not wear the same ensemble to any two events. In contrast, matriarch Millicent Bricebridge is a sly old native who is as devoted to the island and her family’s contributions to its heritage as she is to seeing her grandson live a happy and fulfilled life, despite his greedy mother’s interference and machinations.

And then there are the four men at the center of the girls’ and Marina’s lives. Jim is easily the most fully developed and empathetic. He has deferred his own happiness not only because of his daughters’ needs, but also because of the guilt he has kept to himself about his marriage and his inability to save the girls’ mother. When his relationship with Marina falters, his reactions are believable and well-founded in long-held fears, his behavior convincingly exasperating.

Less sympathetic is Howell. Harry’s father becomes too quickly dependent upon Abbie to rescue him and his young son from an ill-conceived marriage.

Two aspects of Beachcombers are troublesome. A couple of plot developments unfold too quickly, the prime example being Abbie’s affair with Howell. It would have been more believable and satisfying if the romance had been allowed to evolve a bit more gradually, although mutual attraction can sometimes be unexpected and become apparent quite suddenly.

The second aspect of the story that seemed a bit contrived was the fate of Marina’s former best friend. That shocking plot development serves as the impetus for Marina’s immediate need to make a critical decision about her future. The dramatic tension logically builds to the point that Marina must choose where and with whom she will spend her life. However, the plot device employed by Thayer felt highly implausible, too conveniently thrusting Marina’s story into overdrive and demanding resolution.

Both complaints are minor, though, in light of the fact that Beachcombers never bogs down, holding the reader’s interest to the very last word on the very last page.

Beachcombers is accurately heralded by the publisher as being “full of both abundant joy and heart-wrenching sorrow.” Thayer is an expert at evoking a plethora of emotions from her readers and Beachcombers does not disappoint in that regard. The opening scene of the three young girls at the beach with their mother, and later revelation of what really happened between their parents and, ultimately, to their mother, beautifully illustrates how the girls’ histories led them to their current individual states of crisis. Thayer’s story ultimately succeeds by proving Dylan Thomas wrong. You can go home again … to mourn the past, to regain your strength and courage, to evaluate what has transpired in your life, to remember who you love and who loves you, and plot your future course. And reclaim the treasures that you left there long ago. Amid the familiarity of that place you call home and the people who inhabit it, you might also find some unexpected, new treasures. You might find hope. Like the Fox sisters and Marina, you might just find yourself transformed.

Pack your beach tote, making sure you have a copy of Beachcombers tucked inside, along with your sunscreen, water, towel, and the other things you will need for a relaxing day at the beach or by the pool. Then get comfortable, sit back, and lose yourself in the story of the Fox sisters on Nantucket … you will thoroughly enjoy your time on the island.

I read Beachcombers in conjunction with the 2010 Read ‘n’ Review Challenge.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of Beachcombers free of charge from the author in conjunction with the Pump Up Your Book review and virtual book tour program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Book Review: Seven Year Switch

JHS — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:01:11 +0000

Summer arrived in Northern California uncharacteristically late this year. Normally, the temperature soars past 100 degrees by Memorial Day, and by the time we “ooh” and “aah” over the Fourth of July fireworks display, we have enjoyed a number of days lounging on the beach or by the pool, leisurely reading an engrossing novel … or a few. This year, we didn’t experience our first 100 degree-plus scorcher until June was nearly a memory.

Fortunately, by the time our first really long, hot summer day arrived, I was by the pool reading Claire Cook’s seventh novel, Seven Year Switch, which received well-deserved beach read shout-outs from People, USA Today, and the New York Times. Seven Year Switch marked the first time I read one of Claire Cook’s books, although Must Love Dogs is one of my all-time favorite movies. I enjoyed Seven Year Switch so much that I plan to read (and review) her previous six novels.

Welcome to the first stop of Pump Up Your Book’s Seven Year Switch Virtual Book Tour!

Synopsis:

Jill Murray’s life hasn’t turned out the way she envisioned and planned it. For the past seven years, she has been raising her daughter, Anastasia, now ten years old, on her own. Her husband, Seth, suddenly abandoned them. To make ends meet, Jill teaches Lunch Around the World cooking classes at the community center and works from home as a telephone operater for her friend Joni’s travel service. “Great Girlfriend Getaways. Feisty and fabulous man-free escapes both close to home and all over the world. When was the last time you got together with your girlfriends?” Jill greets callers in eight-hour stretches while she prepares dinner for Anastasia, drills her on her spelling lesson, and wonders if and when her husband will reappear. Ironically, although Jill regales callers with exciting details about the various available getaway packages, she hasn’t enjoyed any getaways herself. And she doesn’t have any girlfriends to get away with, unless you count Joni or Cynthia, her annoyingly beautiful next-door neighbor.

Jill also provides business consulting services. A new client, Billy Sanders, needs assistance expanding his line of designer bicycle rentals into the Japanese market. For the first time in seven years, Jill allows herself to contemplate more than a casual bicycle ride with her handsome, somewhat eccentric new client.

Naturally, Seth resurfaces just as Jill is pulling her life together and beginning to feel like her old, confident self again.

Review:

Jill thought she was leading a perfectly happy life with her husband, Seth, and three-year-old daughter. Railing against the domesticity into which they have settled, Seth can’t understand why Jill doesn’t see that he is suffocatingly unhappy. So Seth simply walks away, leaving Jill financially and emotionally destitute, and fully responsible for raising their daughter.

In response, Jill does what any mother in those circumstances would: She figures out how to survive … step by step, day by day. Not without anxiety. Not without worry. Not without anger and resentment toward the man she loved and she believed loved her, their child, and their life together. And not without subjugating her own needs for the sake of her daughter’s. She doesn’t date, she doesn’t buy nice clothes for or take proper care of herself. She can’t afford to hire someone to perform routine maintenance on the modest house she has managed to purchase in a marginal neighborhood that is on the cusp of becoming trendy.

As the story opens, it is clear that Jill has lived every day of the last seven years on a precipice — waiting for whatever comes next. And she is understandably tired of it. But effecting change in your life is difficult when you have a ten-year-old who is completely dependent upon you — only you.

Cook creates thoroughly believable main characters with whom readers can readily identify. Anastasia, in particular, is appropriately, exasperatingly, charmingly precocious. She is ten going on thirty, as are most girls that age. Concerned about what her friends will think if she lets her mother kiss her good-bye before she gets on the school bus, she longs to fit in with the other kids as she perpetually fusses with her headband and writes with a pink or purple feathery pen. She tests her mother in the ways that only a bright and cheeky ten-year-old can. Bemused, Jill had come to love Anastasia’s “little acts of rebellion. I read them as signs of progress, evidence that she had not only survived, but was finally starting to thrive. She had friends at school. Her grades were good. She loved to read.” And, in Jill’s estimation, “[t]he last thing either of us needed was for Seth to come back into our lives and screw them all up again.” Of course, he does.

Wisely, Cook crafts a convincing portrait of a little girl poised to enter puberty who still longs for and misses her daddy. The story would have been far less satisfying had Anastasia been portrayed as a stereotypically angry, rebellious teenager and Jill the harried mother desperate to communicate with an out-of-control child. Because Anastasia is ten, rather than 16 or 17, Jill’s instinctual desire to protect her just a bit longer is understandable, So Jill’s ethically questionable method of assessing her daughter’s need to have her father back in her life is justifiable and, from the reader’s perspective, forgivable.

What makes Cook’s writing remarkable and elevates Seven Year Switch from just another enjoyable story to a memorable one, is the book’s hilariously authentic cast of supporting players. Like one of my all-time favorite authors, Janet Evanovich, Cook injects her narrative with nuances and details that make the most tangential characters, even if they only appear in the story for a few brief words or paragraphs, come alive in the reader’s mind just as vibrantly as those central to the story. From the opening paragraphs in which Cook describes Jill’s eclectic menagerie of students at the community center through the last few chapters when the reader meets the group of women with whom Jill finally gets away to Costa Rica for a surfing adventure, every character has his/her own unique voice and is expertly positioned to propel the dialogue and plot forward at a crisp clip.

Perhaps most intriguing is Cynthia, Jill’s next-door neighbor. Cynthia wears flirty little tennis outfits, has her hair and nails done regularly, is a some-time interior decorator, and owns a complete set of the “pinkest of pink” power tools that she loans Jill in their silver and pink case resembling a “heftier version of the Barbie briefcase that Anastasia had talked me into buying her a few years ago.” Jill wanted to hate Cynthia because she “oozed entitlement from every well-peeled and dermabraded pore, but I also kind of wanted to be Cynthia. Somehow I thought I’d do a better job of it.” Every woman has at least one friend like Cynthia, whose life isn’t quite as perfect as, at first glance, it appears. Full of puns and a few unfulfilled dreams of her own, it becomes impossible for the reader to hate her, either. By the end of the book, Cynthia becomes uproariously endearing.

The least developed character is Seth, but that does not detract from the story. Rather, the omission keeps the reader’s attention focused on Jill and her metamorphosis. Thankfully, Jill doesn’t spend a lot of time trying to understand why Seth left her and Anastasia, even when he offers a lame explanation. His abrupt departure, reminiscent of Berger’s break-up with Carrie on Sex and the City, and equally sudden reappearance, don’t send Jill into prolonged hand-wringing, “where-did-I-fail-you?” or “how-did-I-miss-the-signs?” fits of soul-searching. The truth is that Seth is a coward and Jill is entitled to be unremorsefully furious with him for the rest of her life. But Jill is determined to be the best mother she can be and when Seth wanders back into their lives, hoping to pick up where they left off seven years before, Jill continues to elevate her daughter’s needs over her own. Coward or not, Seth is Anastasia’s father, after all.

Jill informs Anastasis that her father has returned, and the little girl demands to speak with him immediately. Jill relates that “[i]f I’d had to take a test to define the emotions I was feeling, I would have failed miserably.” Any parent who has, purely for the sake of their child, endured holidays, birthdays, and other occasions in the company of an ex-spouse or partner when they would rather have omitted his/her from the guest list can readily relate to Jill’s frustration and jealousy when Anastasia becomes completely enchanted with the parent who has been inexcusably absent from her life. But for her daughter’s sake, Jill faces the moment she has dreaded for seven years: Anastasia’s reunion with her father.

I tiptoed into the living room. Anastasia was sitting on the couch, flipping through the album of photos of Seth.

“Hey,” I whispered. “How did it go?”

She smiled up at me. “We’re having a welcome home party. I’m going to make the decorations, and Dad’s going to bring the presents. What do you want to do?”

I looked at her. I twisted my mouth into a smile.

Scream, I thought. While the daughter and the father plan their reunion, what the mother wants to do is scream.

It is said that every seven years one becomes a completely new person. The dramatic tension in Cook’s story emanates from Jill’s being forced to decide if she wants to revert to the person she was seven years ago when her world was turned upside down by Seth’s departure, or reinvent herself. With Seth’s return, things cannot remain as they have been for the past seven years as she and Anastasia found their way together. Jill loved Seth but she has to decide if she still loves him or can love him again, despite what he did. Now that he has been reintroduced to Anastasia, he will remain a part of both of their lives. And there is Billy, with whom Jill has tentatively embarked upon a refreshing new relationship. A surprising twist causes her to question whether she can continue her professional or personal relationship with Billy.

Jill is the “everywoman” in this piece. Every parent who reads Seven Year Switch better buckle up before reading the first page because he/she is going on an emotional roller coaster ride along with Jill. It is impossible not to empathize with Jill’s heartbreak at seeing her daughter long for her absent father and, when he resurfaces, her desire to shield Anastasia as she thrusts herself headlong into a renewed relationship with him. (What if he hurts them again?) It is easy to appreciate why Jill, humiliated and embarrassed, isolated herself from her friends, and threw her full energy and attention into raising her daughter after being rejected so emphatically and cruelly by an outwardly loving husband. And every woman who has girlfriends upon whom she relies for companionship, honesty, and unconditional support will rejoice when Jill finally acknowledges that she deserves her own Great Girlfriend Getaway. Every great book boasts at least one character with whom the readers identify and for whom they cheer. In Seven Year Switch, that character is Jill.

Seven Year Switch is ultimately an exploration of what it means to be selfless and forgiving, while safeguarding one’s own emotional boundaries, along with those of the people who depend upon us for care and protection. Few people will find themselves in a situation as unusual as having a spouse return after going missing for seven years, but readers will relate to Jill’s determination to do what is best for her daughter, as well as the morass of unresolved feelings Jill must sort through as she struggles to discern what comes next in her life — and her child’s. The pages of Seven Year Switch flip quickly, but its theme and characters resonate long after the book has been put back into the beach tote with the sunscreen, sunflower seeds, and extra towels while the reader contemplates the incoming tide. It is, as Allison Winn Scotch, author of The One That I Want observed, “a perfect beach read,” sure to become a summertime classic!

I read Seven Year Switch in conjunction with the 2010 Read ‘n’ Review Challenge.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of Seven Year Switch free of charge from the author in conjunction with the Pump Up Your Book review and virtual book tour program. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

If you have not already read it, make sure you don’t miss Claire’s wonderful guest post, written especially for Colloquium, Buried Dreams! Thank you, Claire!

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Buried Dreams

JHS — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:01:07 +0000

I write because I can. I’d love to be a musician or a painter, but writing is the place where my urge to create and my ability intersect. I think we all have that place. For some, the trick is finding it. For others, it’s all about having the courage to live the dream.

I’ve known I was a writer since I was three. My mother entered me in a contest to name the Fizzies whale, and I won in my age group. It’s quite possible that mine was the only entry in my age group, since “Cutie Fizz” was enough to win my family a six-month supply of Fizzies tablets (root beer was the best flavor) and half a dozen turquoise plastic mugs with removable handles.

At six I had my first story on the Little People’s Page in the Sunday paper (about Hot Dog, the family dachshund, even though we had a beagle at the time — the first clue that I’d be a novelist and not a journalist) and at sixteen I had my first front page feature in the local weekly. I majored in film and creative writing in college, and fully expected that the day after graduation, I would go into labor and a brilliant novel would emerge, fully formed, like giving birth.

It didn’t happen. I guess I knew how to write, but not what to write. Looking back, I can see that I had to live my life so I’d have something to write about, and if I could give my younger self some good advice, it would be not to beat myself up for the next couple of decades.

But I did. At the same time, I pretended I wasn’t feeling terrible about not writing a novel, and did a lot of other creative things. I wrote shoe ads for an in house advertising agency for five weeks, became continuity director of a local radio station for a couple of years, taught aerobics and did some choreography, helped a friend with landscape design, wrote a few freelance magazine pieces, took some more detours. Eventually, I had two children and followed them to school as a teacher, where I taught everything from multicultural games and dance to open ocean rowing to creative writing.

Years later, when I was in my forties and sitting in my minivan outside my daughter’s swim practice at 5 AM, it hit me that I might live my whole life without ever once going after my dream of writing a novel. So, for the next six months I wrote a rough draft in the pool parking lot, and it sold to the first publisher who asked to read it.

My first novel was published when I was forty-five. At fifty, I walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the movie version of my second novel, Must Love Dogs. I’m now the bestselling author of seven novels, and rarely a day goes by that I don’t take a deep breath and remind myself that this is the career I almost didn’t have.

So many readers have approached me after book events or emailed me through my website, ClaireCook.com, to share their buried dreams. They tell me that my story has been an inspiration to them. I love the idea that someone reading this right now might take a minute to think about dusting off her own dream.

I’ve learned a couple of things these last few years that I hope will help you out. The biggest one is to rise above other people’s negativity. People told me you can’t get published without connections. I didn’t know a soul. Lots more people told me the Must Love Dogs movie would never be made. Ha-ha. Long shots happen every day. Believe in them. Believe in yourself.

That being said, I think you have to do it because you love the work, not for fame or fortune, or even a movie. I sometimes hear from aspiring writers who are so focused on seeing their book on the shelves, they’re not putting the time in on the important thing — the writing. It has to be about the writing. You have to love the words, and be willing to dive back in again and again, until your book is as good as it can be. I’m grateful that I don’t have to, but I would absolutely sit at the computer all day long and write my next novel for free. Each book teaches me so much, about the characters, about the world they live in, about myself.

In one of the many gifts of midlife, I’ve also learned that I don’t have to write everybody’s books, just mine. My gift as a novelist is to make people laugh. And also to recognize themselves and their quirky families and maybe feel a little bit better about them. I play to my strengths. I understand people, so my novels are character driven. I’m a huge eavesdropper, which has taught me to write dialog that rings true. So think about who you are and what unique qualities you have that will help you write the book (or paint the painting or compose the song) that only you can write (paint, sing).

I don’t think you can be a writer unless you’re an avid, joyful reader, so if that’s your dream, read everything you can get your hands on. Somewhere in some mysterious part of your brain, a template will form, and it will help you write your own book. Seven novels in, with a draft of my eighth just finished, I still don’t really know how to write a novel. I think it’s my inner reader that saves the day every time.

I love the idea that someone reading this right now might take a minute to think about dusting off her own dream.

And my final piece of advice: pick one thing and finish it. Creative people are good at lots of things. But if you choose one and focus all your energy and creativity on it, you’ll go from good to better. I can’t tell you how many times an aspiring writer has told me about her partially completed drafts of two novels and three short stories, not to mention that screenplay, all of which she’s abandoned because she just got a great idea for a children’s book.

Been there. And still, halfway through every novel, I struggle not to jump to a “better” idea, because the grass is always so much greener in front of the book I’m not really writing. I think some of it is fear. Once you finish something, you have to put it out there and hear what the world has to say about it. That part never gets any easier. But you do it anyway, because that’s how you learn and grow, and how you get better at that place where your urge to create and your ability intersect. And even on your worst days, you’ll be lucky enough to be living your dream.

Claire Cook’s latest novel, Seven Year Switch, has received beach read shout outs from People, USA Today and The New York Times. She is the bestselling author of six other novels, including Must Love Dogs, which was adapted into a Warner Bros. movie starring Diane Lane and John Cusack, as well as The Wildwater Walking Club and Life’s a Beach. Her reinvention workshops have been featured on the Today Show, and she has been a judge for the Thurber Humor Prize and the Family Circle fiction contest. To win a beach bag filled with her books, and for more reinvention and writing tips, go to Claire Cook.com and connect with Claire on Facebook, and Twitter.

My thanks go to Claire for accepting my invitation to serve as a guest author!

If you have not already read it, make sure you don’t miss my review of her latest novel, Seven Year Switch, published in conjunction with her Pump Up Your Book virtual book tour!

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