Crazy As Chocolate [Mass Market Paperback]

Elizabeth Hyde (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2003

When Isabel's mother turned forty-one, she locked herself in the garage and sat in a Dodge Dart with the engine running. Now, Isabel is turning forty-one, and her father, sister, and seven-year-old niece are flying in to Colorado to help her get through the day-even though she never asked for help. In fact, her family may be the ones who need help. And as Izzy is flooded with memories of her past, and wonders about her future, her unsteady marriage, and her dwindling chances of having a baby, the here and now demands her attention, as she is forced to confront a choice that breaks her heart, and may tear her family apart.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Izzy's world is about to turn upside down. Tomorrow is her 41st birthday, a particularly momentous occasion because the day her mother turned 41, she committed suicide. As Izzy puts it, "I was about to enter virgin time, the second half of a life unlived, a life my mother never knew." Her unpredictable sister, Ellie, and their quietly suffering father are flying to Colorado to help her cross this critical threshold. Hyde (Monoosook Valley) impresses with her nimble use of language, humor in the face of tragedy and an uncanny ability to portray the fractured life resulting from being raised by a mother with severe emotional problems. Like Anne Tyler, Hyde captures the quirky, heartbreaking core of a character and puts it on the page with shining prose. The story, from Izzy's viewpoint, alternates between her present-day difficulties keeping a wary eye on her sister, who seems to be slipping into the same madness that claimed their mother, and juggling life with her husband and her legal practice and the past, in which the story of Ellie and Izzy's childhood unfolds. A picture emerges of a life filled with adventure and bursts of spontaneity, as well as shattering embarrassments and emptiness. The experiences of a 12-year-old girl handling the tragic circumstances of her mother's death and the ensuing funeral glow with clarity and empathy. Throughout, the author maintains a delicate tension as Izzy comes to terms with her difficult sister's life and her own guilt about their mother's suicide, in a novel full of originality and sparkle.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-A page-turner with well-molded characters. Isabelle, the narrator, is on the brink of her 41st birthday-particularly auspicious since that was precisely the age and occasion when her mother committed suicide 25 years earlier. Thoughts of her mixed-up childhood are rampant as she prepares for a visit from her father and sister, who are flying to Colorado for her birthday. Her older sister comes bearing raw memories, a woeful marriage scenario, a precocious seven-year-old daughter, and some shades of the same unsettling behaviors that their mother possessed. Although not always apparent, everyone tries to make Isabelle feel at peace with this milestone, including her husband with whom she recently reconciled after despairing that they could not have children. Flashbacks of her youth are infused with vivid description. She recalls impulsive and pernicious road trips, plus the confounding daily events that represented the unique mothering she received in her home state of Washington. The past and present bump along logically, leaving room for conjecture and hope. This is a quick read that has the potential to spark discussions about mental illness, family relationships, and the realities involved with growing up.
Karen Sokol, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (September 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425192466
• ISBN-13: 978-0425192467
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,513,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I grew up in Concord, NH, the third of 4 daughters. After majoring in English at the University of Vermont, I went on to law school, at Hastings College of the Law, in San Francisco. During law school, the only novel I read was Mary Gordon's Final Payments. Then, after I'd just taken the bar exam, someone handed me a copy of The World According to Garp, and I was lucky to go back to Vermont for the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, where I studied with John Irving and the late John Gardner. I did practice law, but only for 2 1/2 years, in Washington, DC, with the Justice Department. It was in Seattle that I wrote my first novel, Her Native Colors (Delacorte); after that I got married, had my first child, wrote Monoosook Valley (Delta), moved to Boulder, had twin girls, wrote Crazy As Chocolate (MacAdam/Cage), went to a lot of soccer games, and wrote The Abortionist's Daughter. I'm currently working on a novel about a river trip in the Grand Canyon, which will be published by Knopf.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some pain, some fun, and everything's okay in the end, October 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Crazy As Chocolate (Mass Market Paperback)

I agree with the other reviews that this is a quick read. Ms. Hyde is an adept writer and the story flows with no unusual jumps or manuevers. I felt for the main character, Izzy, but grew tired of the sister's character. I think sometimes there is a tendency when writing about people with mental illness to make their behaviors and outlandish acts funny and quirky so that they seem outwardly charming. I can tell you that it ain't that much fun to live with a mentally ill parent. But this is a fine enough book. My chief complaint is that everything ends up very happy and perfect in the end, which to me is too easy and a borderline cop-out.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sane as strawberries!, July 20, 2006

By 

groovymamma (toronto) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crazy As Chocolate (Mass Market Paperback)

An interesting story about two women who deal with their mothers' suicide their whole life but most especially on Isabel's 41st birthday, as it was her mothers' 41st birthday when she killed herself.

The character of Isabel is straighforward and logical. Her sister Izzy is volatile and emotionally fragile, much more like their mother was.

I was kind of scared when I found myself identifying a lot with the wacko mother. At one point her beloved dark green Plymouth she called 'Ethel' had seized up on the side of a mountain road in Washington state. While their father went for help, their mother pushed the car down the mountainside into a lake. I found that a strangely uplifting thing to do. Yes, she was a crazy lady and I guess nobody wants a crazy lady as a mother but I admired her balls.

Ultimately this book is about overcoming our history, our upbringing and most especially our mothers.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I laughed, and then I cried., January 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Crazy As Chocolate (Paperback)

Izzy is about to celebrate her 41st birthday... her mother had committed suicide on her 41st birthday. Izzy's older sister, Ellie is 43 and is just as flamboyant has her mother was. Their mother was someone I would have considered to be a cool mother if you had subtracted the mental illness part. Some of the antics that "Mom" pulled were so wonderful, it would be enough to satisfy most children, it would strengthen forever the bond between mother and daughter and teach the child to be an individual, but when the realization that Mom was crazy set in, it is painfully described in heart-wrenching detail. You feel the pain of each and every character in the book.

This story is about Isabel's struggle to find her adult path in her remaining family, which includes her maybe/maybe not so stable sister, her loving father, and her husband and the baggage between them. It is excellently written and you can easily visualize Izzy's childhood adoration of her mother, as well as feel her adult contempt at being abandoned by her.

It is a short book, plan on spending about four to six hours where you can shut off the phone and enter this world. You'll get a great return on your investment.