Customer Reviews

The Cure for Modern Life: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"Suspicion torments my heart
Suspicion keeps us apart
Suspicion why torture me?"

(Elvis)


Your scenario:

1. You're a high level executive with a pharmaceutical giant
2. Your ex-girlfriend's into medical ethics on a professional level
3. Your best friend is probably on his way to a Nobel Peace Prize for finding cures for insect borne diseases.
4. #2 and #3 are now a couple
5. The shifting relationship between the three of you is love, love, hate, but not necessarily in that order
6. You try to sing "She's Out of my Life", but unfortunately it's not working
7. You performed a rare and spontaneous act of kindness that proved to be rather expensive
8. It also brought you into contact with a ten-year old street kid and his undernourished 3 year old sister
9. Your life changes forever

Meet Matthew, the self-centered executive who's too busy working on his career and fortune to be bothered with relationships and commitment. Matthew is the protagonist in this highly improbable scenario, where the main themes are manipulation, suspicion and deception.

There are several stories running through this book, and while each situation provides food for thought in isolation, the merging is a little hard to swallow. The main thing is that the three principal adult characters are forced into self-examination of their lives, and have to make tough decisions in order to balance their professional goals with their other burning desires.

Forgetting the messy merging and implausible incidents, this book will have you turning the pages to see what comes next, but it would have benefited from the removal of some extraneous material and a few I-Pod plugs.

Rated 3.5 stars



Amanda Richards, July 26, 2008

That's the first sentence of THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE: "Was Matthew Connelly a bad man?" It is promptly followed by, "He'd never once asked himself that question." Will he by the book's conclusion?

More universally, the central question of the novel could well be summed up as: Is everyone in modern America a commodity just waiting to be exploited? However, THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE touches on so many orbiting 21st-century issues: drug abuse, both hardcore and recreational; the perennial have/have not dichotomy; children's rights; prenatal testing ethics; the debate about the marketing strategies adopted by behemothic drug companies; the limits of friendships; and the question of whether marriage is merely a utility.

The first chapter opens by accompanying Matthew Connelly who has spent years shepherding a new wonder drug into the marketplace for Astor-Denning. Tomorrow he would board a plane to Japan to correct some misinformation about the product, Galvenar. But tonight, late, he is walking home from a dinner engagement, slightly stoned, when a boy steps into his path on the bridge near his building and yells and cries, " 'Help! Please, Mister! My baby sister! Help!' "

Ten-year-old Danny (actually christened "Cobain" after you know who) has dubbed himself a gallant, if belated, knight of King Arthur's court. His underdeveloped three-year-old sister, Isabelle, is sick and needs Emetrol and Gatorade, so he performs his "sacred duty" and targets and accosts a man whose clothes peg him as affluent.

When rubbery-legged Matthew finally consents to help the ragged kids, their druggie mother materializes and tags along. In his apartment, after he fetches the medicine and Gatorade, Matthew is too weary to shoo the little band out immediately. When he wakes in the morning, the children are asleep on the floor, but their mother has vanished...with his spare $5000 in cash.

Thus begins an leery, tentative association between the medical doctor whose time-consuming job is his life, the street-wise boy who loves his sister, and adorable little Isabelle who takes a rapid shine to Matthew.

Also in the mix are Amelia and Ben, a couple for whom Matthew played matchmaker, even though Ben is his best friend and Amelia the woman he, Matthew, had formerly lived with and loved. In old screwball comedy style (though with a darker twist), a series of incredible plots pile on. Ben, the brilliant research scientist; Amelia, the think-tanker who scorns as evil the drug companies and those who do their bidding; and Matthew who prides himself on managing his protocols scrupulously can not reconcile their respective views of life. Their struggles highlight the dysfunctions in their threesome and sweep needy Danny and Isabelle into their drama.

Yet out of this seeming ethical wasteland and emotional jumble, the characters succeed in gaining the sympathy and perhaps even empathy of the readers (at least this reader). Danny can con with the best of them to try to gain some stability and permanence for his sister and himself, but we can forgive him his calculating ways more easily than we can the adults. We care about these remarkable kids. Tucker's novel also gets us to care about Matthew, and, to a lesser extent perhaps, Amelia and Ben. When it comes to life, they're all on a pretty steep learning curve, and the question becomes whether they will adjust their value systems to see the world realistically and yet compassionately, and whether they will stop seeing everything as vendible and will deal more honestly and with love.

Tucker juggles her many thematic balls with a lithe, cinematic touch. Anyone who enjoys contemporary novels about memorable characters in socially relevant dilemmas is encouraged to dig into THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE.

Parts of the plot defy belief, and one of the characters (Amelia) is so self-righteous and judgmental I often wanted to smack her on the head, but despite these minor flaws, The Cure for Modern Life is a totally captivating book. The characters seem real and alive--flawed people trying to do their best in difficult and unusual circumstances. And while they find that there's no cure for modern life, and obstacles keep sending you off-course from where you planned to go, sometimes, if you get lucky, you might end up where you belong anyway.

Lisa Tucker is a graceful and thoughtful writer, and her novel delves into the search of love and family, what it means to do the right thing in a complex world, and what our responsibilities are toward other human beings on the planet. I highly recommend this book.

With each book Lisa Tucker gets better and better. She's that rare author who writes beautiful, original stories with deep and meaningful characters.

This book has her trademarks - people who crave family and carve it out of thin air if that's what they have to do - people who break your heart on one page and make you laugh on the next.

Humor, pathos, pain, love, social issues and above all hope... fiction at it's finest!

In Philadelphia they were young and in love with plans. Now they have become enemy combatants. Amelia Johannsen has devoted her life to helping the poor; while business executive Matthew Connelly has devoted his life to making money.

On a freezing night, Matthew walks to his loft across a bridge only to be accosted by a desperate ten year old child. Danny "the knight" as he calls himself that night pleads with Matthew to help his three years old sister Isabelle as both are homeless. Matthew wants to rid himself of the pest, but Danny refuses because he knows what will happen to his sibling. One thing leads to another with Danny involving Matthew who involves Amelia who involves their old college friend Ben.

This is a terrific character driven morality tale in which Lisa Tucker makes the case that it takes people caring about the welfare of others to make an ethical society. Danny is a fascinating character as he uses several names depending on who he hits upon and classifies his marks; for instance he assumes on first impression that Matthew is a selfish Republican SOB. Amelia is the bleeding heart liberal while Matthew is the cold hearted conservative and Ben is the pragmatic middle that the two extreme sides assume lacks passion. THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE is truly to care and help other people.

Harriet Klausner

Lisa Tucker's latest novel, THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE, forces us to consider what it means to be a good person in today's social, political and spiritual climate. Matthew, an executive of a pharmaceutical company, comes face to face with hard questions of morality when he meets, Danny, on a bridge one night. Should he ignore the ten-year-old's cry for help? Should he turn away from the small homeless and motherless (his mother is a drug addict) boy and his three-year-old sister on the cold Philadelphia night? Matthew agrees to let Danny and his sister, as well as Danny's mother stay with him in his Philadelphia loft. Amelia, Matthew's ex and a medical ethicist, comes back into his life. What happens next is a "battle" between Matthew, Amelia, and Danny's wants and desires. The question remains is there a winner at the expense of the other two? Or is there a way to live with the compromise? You'll have to read and find out.

Tucker does a brilliant job of drawing real characters in her novel. She treats her characters with dignity and compassion...even when they don't always deserve it. Tucker's sense of humor and the twists and turns in the novel will have you up all night figuring out who ends up the winner. More importantly, you'll keep asking yourself, long after you're done with the novel, what would you have done?

Haven't read Lisa Tucker before? Then check out ONCE UPON A DAY, another favorite of literary critics and readers alike.

What I found most interesting about this book was the contemporary story line. It addressed, in an exaggerated fashion, many issues that surround our society today. The characters were relatable and represented people you would cross paths with throughout life. This was such an easy read and I found myself not wanting to put it down. I have recommended this book to several people and think it is well worth the read.

Ten-year-old Danny's mother has a drug problem. He only vaguely remembers when she was able to hold down a job and really take care of him and his three-year-old sister Isabelle, when they had a real home. Now, the family lives in a Philadelphia crack house (a dubious step up from the abandoned car they occupied previously), and Danny's mom is always either high or sick from withdrawal symptoms when she is unable to score a hit. As for Danny, he spends his days begging for money to buy Isabelle's necessities and worrying about his mother's addiction and his sister's developmental delays.

Forty-year-old Matthew Connelly also has a drug problem, although his is both more subtle and more insidious than Danny's mom's. Matthew is an executive at a major Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical company. He has worked his way to the top, starting at the company in his 20s after leaving medical school, basing much of his professional achievements on the success of one particular pain-killing drug --- a medication he has overseen since its R&D phase, one that is now the most commonly prescribed medication for chronic pain.

With his high-powered job, chic urban loft, high-end electronics and a series of beautiful but shallow girlfriends, Matthew seems like the last person in the world to want a family. But when his path crosses those of Danny and Isabelle, he takes them in on a whim. He may regret his decision the next morning, but not before the two children have enmeshed themselves in his life and in the lives of his closest friends.

These include Ben, Matthew's unlikely best friend and an award-winning medical researcher who has devoted his life to solving diseases that strike the world's poor, and Ben's girlfriend, Amelia. Amelia used to be Matthew's girlfriend, even (if he had to grudgingly admit it) the love of his life. But Amelia, a bioethicist who became disillusioned by Matthew's professional activities, has now devoted her life to exposing the injustices and immoral practices of big pharmaceutical companies (including Matthew's) and to Ben, a morally upstanding man who couldn't be less like Matthew.

Lisa Tucker's fourth novel is both impressively ambitious in scope and startlingly intimate in its explorations. She delves into big social issues, including the corruption of the health care field, the questionable practices of large corporations, and the relationship between the press and business. But she also explores, in a particularly insightful approach, the questions of why we love the people we do, even when that love seems to make no sense. In doing so, she writes from the point of view not only of Amelia but also of Matthew and Danny. For the most part, she credibly and convincingly offers insights into the emotional lives of an anti-emotional man and a boy who is as innocent as he is world-weary.

THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE, with its numerous plot twists and steady pacing, is simultaneously a compelling page-turner and a provocative examination of how a small, diverse group of characters is doing their best to navigate the unfamiliar, treacherous moral landscape of modern life. Frequent flashbacks and a strong sense of place add to the novel's cinematic feeling. Readers will find themselves hoping that it will make its way to the big screen; in the meantime, they can content themselves with the many fruitful discussions that Tucker's latest work will bring to book clubs around the country.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

Lisa Tucker prefaces her novel with a quote from Dr. Seuss, which emphasizes the requirement to care a great deal in order to make the world a better place. It's a poignant stage curtain to open on this story which begins with a high-powered executive's opportunity to brush off a ten-year-old homeless boy and his three-year old sister.

Matthew Connelly is a vice president for pharmaceutical company Astor Denning, and is by all accounts successful and wealthy. He is walking across a bridge one November night in Philadelphia when a boy named Danny approaches him for help. Matthew, in an unusual state of mind, offers to help, which leads to a life entanglement from what was a mutually intended brief encounter.

Danny lives with his sister, Isabelle, and his mother, a drug addict. This ten-year-old boy is the man of the family and does what he can to take care of them. His life on the streets has provided wisdom beyond his years; he has panhandling down to a science.

Amelia, Matthew's ex-girlfriend from college and now professional arch-nemesis, is a journalist whose articles regularly attack the ethics of big pharmaceutical companies. She is obsessed with both the evil of Astor Denning and the memories of her and Matthew's past love life.

The Cure for Modern Life is fueled by a theme of ethics. Tucker's characters are constantly barraged with the debate of doing the right thing. They play a game called "What If?" asking each other moral questions like "Would you strangle a kitten to save ten thousand acres of rain forest?" Matthew, Amelia and the third member of their triangulated relationship, Ben, spend a great deal of time arguing about ethics and saving the world. But Danny, who doesn't have a philosophy degree, seems to stick to his principles better than his college-educated counterparts. These adults have a lot to learn about integrity from children who act on their principles rather than talk about it. Children keep it simple because they haven't been influenced by big business and big politics and big money. Yet.

While parts of the story are heartwarming and moving, the story structure is occasionally jarring. The beginning of the story moves us back and forth between Matthew and Danny's perspectives too quickly for comfort. And while a novel does not necessarily need to be linear, the chronology of this story is a little jumpy and sometimes difficult to follow. Sometimes the flashbacks disrupt and confuse rather than enhance or complete the story.

The main characters are definitive, passionate and well-drawn. Tucker speaks from their differing and distinct points of view, including little Danny, with equal credibility. While the story is slightly predictable, it is plausible and the level of humor seems to increase as the story progresses. The suspense devices are blatant, however, and leave the reader feeling like she does after a news program's lead-in to commercials. It's frustrating to read words like "that night" and "it" and "that thing." What thing? Why throw it in our face like that? If the mystery had arisen more organically, it wouldn't feel so manipulative. It's as if the author doesn't have enough belief in the story to keep us reading. And if she doesn't believe in it, how are we supposed to feel about it?

The Cure for Modern Life is thought-provoking, though, in that it throws out many ethical questions. It takes the debate of the right thing to do to another level. Do you do the right thing right now for yourself at the expense of a larger, potentially global good? While the answer to that question from a distance may seem obvious to some, it's different when you are in it, and this story helps describe what it's like to be in that situation, enough to ask yourself: What would I do?


Reviewed by Margaret Andrews for Curled Up With A Good Book

I enjoyed this book but I am not sure I would recommend in that sometimes things are good but you can still do without - if that makes sense. Admittedly, it's a page turner, you start off wondering where it's all going to go from here and I can't say I was ever bored and wanted to skip to the end... but maybe it's because it's such an implausible scenario that I just have a hard time saying "you must read this book." But then perhaps I am biased - Amelia was very human and yet I did not like her character one bit!