4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
deep look at a disenchanted middle aged woman, June 15, 2008
This review is from: Anybody Any Minute (Hardcover)
In 1995, Manhattanite fortyish Ellen Kenny heads to Montreal to spend time with her sister Karen and her infant nephew Olivier. However, the former hippie stops in Eagle Beck, New York and on a whim buys a fixer upper house not occupied since 1988; all on a credit card. Her spouse of seventeen years Tommy is stunned when she calls to tell him.
Ellen realizes that her purchase may have had a consequential side effect of devastating her marriage, but feels she did the right thing. However as she tries to become part of the small town, Ellen feels like an outsider even though she becomes friends with the local Hatfield and McCoy, feuding Rayfield and Rodney while Olivier is living with her for now.
This interesting character study looks deep at a disenchanted middle aged woman who finds her current secure life unsatisfactory and makes a whimsical spur of the moment decision to capture what she feels she lost but could cost her marriage with Oliver. When the tale focuses on Ellen's relationships with her husband, sister, and nephew, the subplot is powerful and emotional. When the novel turns humorous with her being pulled by the feuding duo and other locals the story line is more amusing but dissipates some of its steam. Still this is a fine look at a former hippie turned middle class trying to regain the idealism of her lost youth paradise , but the reality does not always match the memory.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
couldn't stop laughing except when I was bemused, August 22, 2009
This review is from: Anybody Any Minute (Hardcover)
When over a year ago I heard Julie Mars read a couple chapters from Anybody Any Minute, I couldn't get over how different it seemed from her previous book A Month of Sundays, a memoir of her sister. Anybody, a novel about a woman--a forty-six-year-old ex-hippie on the lam from her marriage to a New York City public defender--seemed close to farcical. Ellen Kenny, aka Florence the Ripper, has been fired from her job working for a producer-director of political documentaries. On impulse having bought a ramshackle house in the boonies near the Canadian border by charging it on her credit card, Ellen moves in for the summer and without ado befriends a couple of male characters who transform from caricature to beloved companions, becomes a stand-in mom to her toddler nephew Olivier, adopts a narcoleptic dog Mutley, and produces a cornucopia of veggies by watering her organic garden with a watering can.
Becoming a homebuyer on a credit card and then calling her husband to tell him is no funnier than what happens to Ellen when she is caught in a rain barrel naked, when she takes too big a yawn, or when she plays getaway driver in a scene from The Graduate, but these events give way to a deeper seriousness about achieving ipsissimus ("she who is most herself") and opening her heart to whatever unexpected occurs at any minute. With a knack for attracting men whose names begin with R (Reginald, Rodney, and Rayfield), Ellen struggles through ambivalent moments about retrieving her marriage to Tommy while being a devoted sister to Karen whose Peruvian husband is in a coma throughout most of the book.
Ellen's self-centeredness leaves plenty of room for others as she makes her way from attachment to non-attachment in a well-paced set of chapters. Her humor is no more directed at others than at herself: "I guess that's why I ended up a researcher when I always wanted to be a backup singer," she says. Her tone is alternately self-mocking and manic. A line that doesn't fully do her justice because it overlooks all her retreats is "For Ellen, though, slamming in, head-on, was a way of life." Her relationship with Rayfield Geebo (reluctant ex of a woman nicknamed Wide Load) develops unexpectedly, and Ellen's openness to the previous owner's chainsaw art and his mother's legacy cap the plot. The miracle of the funereal statue and the discovery of sixty-year old gold coins are touchstones for healing and reconciliation. And finally, the hilarious reason the locals have decided Ellen bought the house is a perfect segue for her husband's reappearance at the end. Julie is my former colleague at Central New Mexico Community College, and I'm glad I finally took time to read this endearing and often outrageous book.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Characters That Stay With You, July 8, 2008
This review is from: Anybody Any Minute (Hardcover)
Every now and then I read a novel and the characters stay with me long after I close the book. Anybody Any Minute is one of those distinct pleasures. I found myself cheering for the entire cast of complex characters - each in a different way. Julie Mars created an ensemble that cracked me up and made me cry. I only wish these people were real because I would love to meet them. The story went unexpected places -which kept me riveted -- but in the end - it all made perfect sense. I would recommend this book to anyone who is pondering their meaning in life -- and what it takes to truly live in the now. Great, great read!
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