Post by tomwilliams on Apr 24, 2012 10:47:41 GMT -5
Bliss is a single mum, driven to return to the parental home. Four girls, a voluble mother and a taciturn father who can't live up to his responsibilities form a family that Austen fans will find strangely familiar. There's a saturnine man who apparently disdains her and a much more superficially attractive fellow who woos her. So here we have a Darcy and someone who could pass themselves off as George Wickham.
If the characters may have snuck out of the 18th-century, the plot is very much of our time. Bliss's sister, Diana, has the starring role in a reality TV series called The Virgin, in which a string of appalling young men take turns to vie for the hand of the chaste Diana. The book has a lot of fun with details of this TV programme, a concept so tacky that it can only be a matter of time before it turns up on television for real.
In addition to its satirical sideswipes at reality TV, the story also tries to address some issues about race in the USA. From over here in Britain, some of the nuances of race and class in the States were as opaque to me as the British class system seems to be to the average American, but most of the issues are addressed with broad enough brush strokes for me still to enjoy the plot.
The story does get rather cluttered with assorted subplots. Bliss is a postgraduate student, desperate for a fellowship to study in Europe. She secretly (and unsuitably) lusts after her professor, whilst still holding a torch for her ex-husband. She has a daughter who is adorably sweet but who has some unspecified handicap that has left her with poor vision and callipers on one leg. I found the daughter's disability a bit of a problem. Every so often, it is raised as being something quite significant, but then it seems to vanish as an issue for quite extended periods. I suspect there has been some rewriting which is made the disability irrelevant, and the plot would be less cluttered if the girl was just left to be the adorable moppet which is clearly her primary role.
Despite the clutter, the basic plot is simple and, though conventional for its type, satisfying. Bliss is torn between two men with different charms, one of whom is the sensible long-term choice and, after dallying with the other for a while, Elizabeth (yes, that's Bliss's real name) and her Darcy are united. It worked for Jane Austen and it works well enough for Susan Fales-Hill.
The prose is crisp and clear, often witty, and sometimes laugh out loud funny. The characters are well drawn and sympathetic, even when their behaviour is appalling. (One minor character is presented as a complete bitch, but when we see her desperately trying, and failing, to cope as a working mother, we can't help but have a twinge of sympathy for her.) The plot calls for a fairly substantial suspension of disbelief here and there, but that's surely the nature of fairytale romance. In the end, Susan Fales-Hill is going to give us a happy ending come what may. If you're reading this book, a happy ending is what you wanted and you can hardly complain when reality is bent a little here and there to ensure that you get one.
Jane Austen's ghost is unlikely to feel threatened by the competition and even Bridget Jones's Diary leaves this trailing pretty definitely in its wake, but as a solid rom com, this ticks all the right boxes. Open the Chianti, tuck into the ice cream and enjoy.
If the characters may have snuck out of the 18th-century, the plot is very much of our time. Bliss's sister, Diana, has the starring role in a reality TV series called The Virgin, in which a string of appalling young men take turns to vie for the hand of the chaste Diana. The book has a lot of fun with details of this TV programme, a concept so tacky that it can only be a matter of time before it turns up on television for real.
In addition to its satirical sideswipes at reality TV, the story also tries to address some issues about race in the USA. From over here in Britain, some of the nuances of race and class in the States were as opaque to me as the British class system seems to be to the average American, but most of the issues are addressed with broad enough brush strokes for me still to enjoy the plot.
The story does get rather cluttered with assorted subplots. Bliss is a postgraduate student, desperate for a fellowship to study in Europe. She secretly (and unsuitably) lusts after her professor, whilst still holding a torch for her ex-husband. She has a daughter who is adorably sweet but who has some unspecified handicap that has left her with poor vision and callipers on one leg. I found the daughter's disability a bit of a problem. Every so often, it is raised as being something quite significant, but then it seems to vanish as an issue for quite extended periods. I suspect there has been some rewriting which is made the disability irrelevant, and the plot would be less cluttered if the girl was just left to be the adorable moppet which is clearly her primary role.
Despite the clutter, the basic plot is simple and, though conventional for its type, satisfying. Bliss is torn between two men with different charms, one of whom is the sensible long-term choice and, after dallying with the other for a while, Elizabeth (yes, that's Bliss's real name) and her Darcy are united. It worked for Jane Austen and it works well enough for Susan Fales-Hill.
The prose is crisp and clear, often witty, and sometimes laugh out loud funny. The characters are well drawn and sympathetic, even when their behaviour is appalling. (One minor character is presented as a complete bitch, but when we see her desperately trying, and failing, to cope as a working mother, we can't help but have a twinge of sympathy for her.) The plot calls for a fairly substantial suspension of disbelief here and there, but that's surely the nature of fairytale romance. In the end, Susan Fales-Hill is going to give us a happy ending come what may. If you're reading this book, a happy ending is what you wanted and you can hardly complain when reality is bent a little here and there to ensure that you get one.
Jane Austen's ghost is unlikely to feel threatened by the competition and even Bridget Jones's Diary leaves this trailing pretty definitely in its wake, but as a solid rom com, this ticks all the right boxes. Open the Chianti, tuck into the ice cream and enjoy.