Customer Reviews

The Club

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Jane Heller has created a funny and believable heroine in Judy Mills, cookbook editor who has just been fired by a young know-it-all. During Judy's search for a job, her husband suggests she network at his country club. Judy is recruited by the police to help solve a murder at the club, and the resulting investigation will keep you in stitches. The characters you meet will keep you chuckling through the entire book - from Nedra, the who is having a torrid affair with the tennis coach, to Brandon, the chef who can't cook and many more. This book is fun and entertaining and the whodunnit question will keep you guessing right up until the end.

Heller's strength in this novel is satirizing the country club set. My parents have always belonged to a similar place and Heller has got that aspect of the story down cold. I laughed myself silly. She also puts in a love-romance part of the story and creates two possibilities, her protagonist's rediscovering her life with her country club-golf obsessed husband or taking up with the policeman who recruits her to investigate the club undercover because of the murder of a noted feminist who was a member. The romance aspects are ok but the reason for reading this novel is the LOL hilarity surrounding the cast of characters who belong to the club.

I just finished this book and loved it to the last page. Jane Heller is a first class satirist--the best satire is only a hair away from the real thing. I'm a New York editor (working, unlike Judy Mills) who's been downsized twice, I live in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and board the train every day probably minutes from where "The Club" is supposed to be. I'm a lousy tennis player and hate golf. So let me tell you, she has it right down to the details of every stereotype, from the men's and women's apparel, the attitude, the commuters, etc. Of course the characters, from WASPs to radical feminists are all exaggerated, but they're supposed to be. I was laughing through the whole thing, even though one of my favorite people got killed. But don't get me wrong--there are a lot of great people in this county, and I wouldn't be anywhere else in the continental U.S. I don't mind laughing at myself and my environment when it's well done.

THE CLUB by Jane Heller
May 1, 2005

Rating 3.5/5 stars

I've read a few books by Jane Heller and I hate to say that this was my least favorite. It wasn't a bad book, but this was the first time one of her books did not have me wanting to read non-stop. There were parts that I felt were boring to me, or maybe I should say I didn't seem as interested in this book as I did with my last read, WHISPERS AND LIES.

Judy is the narrator of this novel - she's almost 40 years old, is married to a very handsome and successful man, Hunter Dean Price III, but she is finding her marriage is growing stale and she is getting rather upset that they rarely have sex. She works for a publishing company and is the editor in charge of cookbooks when she is let go. The company has been bought out by a larger company and they are trying to cut back. It was odd, since the cookbook division was making a lot of money for the company. Arlene, Judy's good friend, also finds she has been let go, and she was the editor in charge of romances, another moneymaker for the company. While Arlene finds a new job relatively quickly, Judy finds herself without a job. Apparently no one is hiring cookbook editors.

In the meantime, she starts going with Hunter to the country club they belong to, THE OAKS. She hates this place, hates the people that belong to it, but Hunter lives and breathes for this place, thinking it is a way for him to move up in his company. The only person she particularly likes is Ducky, whose wife Nedra is one of the top tennis players in the club, spending all her time with the tennis instructor Rob.

When Claire Cox, a famous women's lib advocate, joins the Club, it stirs up a lot of members at the club. Claire's great-grandfather or someone like that was once a member, so she is allowed in by default. Unmarried woman are not normally allowed into the club - woman have to be married to existing members to be let in. Judy on the other hand is ecstatic and decides that she needs to make friends with Claire in order to pitch a cookbook idea to the famous woman and maybe getting her career back on track.

Not soon after, at the 4th of July party, Claire is found dead. Oddly enough, the local police, in particular Detective Tom Cunningham, ask Judy to help spy for them at the club and find out who the killer may be. Thinking she has no real friends at the club, she may have an easier time of spying on the other members.

The novel then turns into a story of intrigue and suspense, and soon Judy finds her life in danger. The book actually takes off from this point, with the killer turning out to be someone I didn't suspect at first. As I said, this was not a favorite of mine by Heller, but it did have the usual witty banter she is famous for. I'm giving this a 3.5.

The Club is perfect for a beach read. It is light and witty with a murder mystery thrown in. Heller's books are always fun.

Jane Heller is always a funny, witty read, but this book is also a heart-warming look at modern married life and the joys and stress therein. In her usual biting satire, Ms. Heller exposes the foibles and humanity of "the counrty club set" as well as her heroine and heroine's family. Even in her quick, snappy writing, real people with real feelings shine through.

This book is a fun read for the beach. It is light and whimsical. It is not the book to read, however, if you are looking for a substantative read, this one isn't it. If you just want to kill some time and have a few laughs along the way, this is the one

I rate this book highly for it's take on the eternal 'How many children do you have?' question -
It may be reasonable for some to asusme that if you are married and aging, you must have children but it is HIGHLY annoying to some who do not choose to have children.
I spent time in an area in which people assumed that being a female over the age of 18 meant that I must have children.
As a childfree Pagan this question is just as infuriating as its cousin: "What church do you go to?" (Asked of by a person who actually has no basis for forming an idea to what religion you belong).

("Not, 'Do you have children?' but 'How many children do you have?' as if it were inconceivable that I didn't have a fifties, Leave-It-To-Beaver life just like hers.")

I'm not sure when I've read a more unsatisfying book. The heroine is a self-absorbed snob and doesn't seem to realize what a cliche she is. She verbally abuses her husband because after seven years of marriage he's kind of boring and won't put her ahead of his ten-year-old daughter (complains about him spending money on his daughter's education.) She makes stupid mistakes over and over (wears a beaverskin coat to a job interview at a publishing company that specializes in environmental-issues books.) She takes offense when one of the women she meets at the country club assumes she has kids ("Not, 'Do you have children?' but 'How many children do you have?' as if it were inconceivable that I didn't have a fifties, Leave-It-To-Beaver life just like hers.") You're forty, married, and living in the 'burbs, okay? So someone assumed you had kids. Get over it.

She describes a second character, someone shrill and self-righteous, as "charming" and "a refreshing change from the other female members." None of whom have jobs, of course -- that seems to be their besetting sin in the eyes of the protagonist.

I really wanted to like this second character, a lawyer who forces the country club to admit women with full privileges. But when she accuses the tennis pro of "sexual harrassment" because she sees him touching his clients too much while he's instructing them, I have to wonder what definition of sexual harrassment she's using. He may be a jerk, but he doesn't have any power over the women he's touching so freely. They instead have power over him, as they're all rich women who, as members of the club at which he works, are the tennis pro's bosses.

I kept waiting for the protagonist to develop a little personal insight, to realize she might have a wee chip on her shoulder. She never did. This isn't satire. Satire requires wit. This is just relentlessly whiny and got boring fast.