Customer Reviews

Cover the Butter

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4 star:		(10)
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If you're a middle-aged woman whose life has not turned out as you'd hoped, if your husband bores you, if your non-career is not appreciated, and most importantly, if you still have hope, this is the book for you.

Kate Cadogan is every woman, stumbling through life and trying to make the best of things. She has some pretty heavy baggage in a mother who can best be described as horrid, jealous, and vindictive, a milquetoast father who doesn't stand up to the mother for more than five minutes and can never quite commit to being on Kate's side, and a husband who just doesn't get it.

But Kate has other things on her side: an indomitable spirit; two friends who are treasures; a son she adores; and the life-long dream of a career in the domestic arts.

Will she ever be able to win her mother's approval? Or does it really matter? Can she ever have a marriage in more than name only? Or is there some way to break free? Suffice it to say that Kate's journey is not an unusual one. She encounters many common problems, yet Carrie Kabak's razor-sharp wit keeps the reader turning the pages and sticking with Kate through the ups and downs of an often troubled, often happy life.

What an unusual title for such a "touching" book! Ms. Kabak is a terrific writer who breathes new life into her characters with every stroke of her pen (click of her computer keyboard?). Her main character, Kate, has special meaning for me because a very dear friend struggled through similar situations with the men in her life.

This author hit on a universal theme to which many women will relate, and she brings Kate's story to a satisfying conclusion with wit, charm, and a keen understanding of the frailties and strengths of the human spirit.

I highly recommend this book by this insightful new talent who has a unique gift for description. I will follow her career with interest.

COVER THE BUTTER, Carrie Kabak's exquisite debut novel, examines the buoyancy of the human spirit. After finding her lovingly restored home in shambles from her teenaged son's party (a rollicking yet poignant scene that alone is worth the price of admission), Kate takes a searing look back at how her life, too, has come to be such a mess. Belittled by her domineering mother, failing to find an ally in her feckless father, Kate struggles to make her own voice heard beneath the white noise of everyone else's demands. Kabak's writing brings alive even the most prosaic objects (I defy anyone to find better descriptions of décor and food, for example) but her gifts are most evident in her rendering of human relationships. Kate's interactions with her mother, Biddy, are by turns horrifying, hilarious and heartbreaking; Kabak perfectly captures the mother-daughter dynamic, the tangled knot of loyalty and knowing when to let go. Kate's relationships with the men in her life are drawn with equal force and a keen wit-most notably the scenes with Rodney, her priggish yet sexually peculiar husband. ("His hair stuck up in tufts and I tried to find it endearing," Kabak writes. "I tried to yearn for the touch of those thin lips that bristled with a moustache the texture of coconut husk.")
Kabak's voice is so vibrant and achingly personal I felt as if I'd known her heroine for years, and her story-and ultimate redemption-stayed with me long after I turned the last page. Carrie Kabak is a brilliant new talent, and I eagerly await her next effort.

One Sunday, Kate Cadogan Fanshaw decides that her life is long overdue for a change. She's 44 and miserable in a life that is nothing like the one she once dreamed of having. As Kate looks back on the past 30 years, she remembers her mother's constant control and her father's constant attempts to keep his little girl to himself. She remembers her dreams of being a caterer. She remembers the men in her life-who betrayed her trust. And she remembers her two best friends, Ingrid and Moira, who were there by her side through it all. Most of all, she remembers her life with Rodney, who came along at a low point in her life and offered her stability. While he gave her a beautiful little house to take care of-and a beautiful son, Charlie-he never gave her the love and attention she needed. Kate decides that it's time to take control of her life for the first time-to follow her dreams and finally find happiness. It's never too late, she realizes, to start over.

This spectacular debut is an insightful journey through Kate Cadogan's life. It's so full of heart and emotion that it's nearly impossible to detach yourself from it. Kabak creates a wonderfully genuine heroine-one that you'll both relate to and feel for...one who will feel as real as your best friend. (I'll admit that, on more than one occasion, before going to bed at night, I set down the book and had to remind myself that I was angry with Kate's husband-not mine.) You'll laugh with her, you'll cry with her, you'll learn from her, and you'll inevitably see a bit of yourself in her. Cover the Butter is skillfully written with passion, energy, and just the right amount of humor. It's a delight to read.

Kate Cadogan walks into her home in Wales to find the remnants of a teenage party gone wild. Her husband's and son's complete indifference push her over the edge and she tumbles backwards and relives her life, starting with her childhood with her domineering, control freak of a mother and her proportionately weak father. We follow Kate as she makes friends, loses her first boyfriend, gets pregnant, and eventually marries Rodney, a man her mother is wild about. "Rodders" comes from a good (read: wealthy) family, and while Kate feels more or less ambivalent about him, she marries him anyway. After a twenty year loveless, almost sexless marriage in which she learns to despise her husband and his indifference to her while he's totally preoccupied with playing squash and golf and so forth, she learns to stand up on her own two feet. And that's despite her mother, her husband and her child - you just can't help rooting for this woman who is trying so hard to please everyone else and still find herself. More than just a warm and funny coming of age story, this well written debut novel is charming, sensitive and thought provoking. It also has one of my favorite titles this year and a beautiful cover - and sometimes you really can judge a book by its cover.

COVER THE BUTTER by Carrie Kabak
June 19, 2005


COVER THE BUTTER by Carrie Kabak is the story of a woman who struggles to be who she wants to be, but finds herself always following someone else's dictates, be it her mother or her husband. The story begins in the present, 1995, with Kate walking into her home and finding it a disaster. Apparently, her teenage son decided to throw a party while she and her husband Rodney were out of town, and now Kate is ready to have a fit. It's not just her son that is upsetting her. As she goes to bed, feigning illness, she sinks into a dream world, and her past comes back to her, and it's not a good dream.

The book now takes us to 1965. Kate is fourteen years old and is arguing with her mother. This scene sets the tone for the rest of the novel, which is in a way a coming-of-age book, and as with all stories with this theme, Kate is trying to find out who she really is. She battles her mother (her father is usually silent), and finds love and affection from her grandparents in Wales. And in-between she sneaks out on dates (her mother would kill her if she knew), rebels as many teens will do, and tries to be a normal teenage girl growing up in Great Britain in the 1960's and `70's.

While the reader will find themselves chuckling at times, at others they will feel Kate's anguish as she tries so hard to please her mother, and at the same time feels a rage against her parents for not being able to understand her. In the end, Kate always seems to find a way to please her mother, despite what it does to compromise her own values and feelings.

I really enjoyed COVER THE BUTTER by Carrie Kabak. An impressive debut, the author holds promise as a wonderful storyteller, creating characters that will make readers smile or bring tears to their eyes. Kabak did a great job with tying in the past with the present, and allowing Kate to find her way to true happiness, although it's a long, long journey. I recommend this book to lovers of women's fiction, but I also think those who are not regular readers of this genre will definitely enjoy the book.

I'm So happy I discovered this book. I was at a bookstore and saw it on the shelves, looking very innocent and tempting. WELL, this is a great book! And the author is new so there are more books from Ms. Kabak on my list to be sure. I just hope she writes fast enough for me to devour them. Okay, back to the book. What a wonderful read. I won't repeat every detail or give anything away, but this novel took me back to my past and made me rethink so many things that had happened to me in terms of my relationships, especially with my own mother and ex-husband. It's the kind of novel where you say to yourself: Yes, I am that woman. That was me. And you feel Katie Cadogan's (the protagonist) embarassments, frustrations, joys and awkward moments as she journeys back to her teen years, then through all the incidents (some horrifying) in her life that brought her to where she is now, and where she ends up: a completely independent woman who knows what she wants and makes decisions based not on other's needs and demands--not anymore--but on her own. Read this novel. Buy it. It's a very special, beautifully written book.

Looking forward to many more!
I have finished Carrie's first novel 'Cover The Butter' and found it to be humorous, touching, sensitive and very realistic to every day life. Kate is a person many of us can identify with easily. The book was well written and a great read. I look forward to many more from this new and talented author!

A brilliant first novel, COVER THE BUTTER is superbly written and filled with humor, crisp dialogue, and clear-eyed descriptions that will leave the reader gasping with pleasure. Kabak doesn't merely tell you about Provence; she takes your hand and leads you so close you can smell the lavender and feel the sun on your skin. Her unique voice and poignant prose will linger in your mind long after you've turned the last page. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book as much as this one, and I look forward eagerly to Ms. Kabak's next novel.

Carrie Kabak has written a marvelous novel that opens the intimate details of Kate Cadogan's life though her journal, revealing her relationships with the people who impacted her life. Each character came to life as Carrie engaged us to feel anger, pity and compassion for these people

As I whirled through the decades of Kate's life, her struggle between being a good Irish Catholic girl and becoming an empowered woman was heartfelt. I am looking forward to reading Carrie's next book. This is an excellent read for a rainy day snuggled up in a chair with tea and crumpets.

Armchair Interviews agrees: If you want to read a good writer who has good characters and storyline, you'll enjoy Cover the Butter.