Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Amy Lignor, July 31, 2007
This review is from: Don't Make a Scene: A Novel (Hardcover)
Diane Kurasik is rapidly approaching her fortieth birthday. She is the director of a Greenwich Village revival house cinema and a single woman who is watching her friends give birth, marry, and divorce - even her niece is entering sixth grade - talk about mortality issues. She wonders if the "life lessons" that she was supposed to have learned by this age have truly eluded her for good. The Bedford Street Cinema, her home away from home, is a fantastic place to spend hours and hours in peace and quiet, reliving the on-screen gems that Hollywood produced once upon a time. The building that sits beside it has been donated to the Theatre so they can restore and add-on another screen to the historic landmark. In comes...Vladimir Padron, part of a construction/design team that is hired to do the job. Vladimir is strong, intelligent, and beyond interesting. He is a man who fled Cuba a decade earlier, leaving behind an estranged wife in Havana who will not grant him a divorce. In addition, the wife, who he has not seen in twelve years, has moved in with his family who desires and demands Vladimir's return. There are good characters that pop up in literature once in a while and Diane Kurasik is one of them. Not only is the romance that develops between her and Vladimir compelling, but the token "mysterious stranger" that shows up in this novel is dynamic and passionate. In a nutshell, movies are Diane's life. They show the world what we all want so badly for ourselves; a place where good guys win and every husband looks like Clark Gable, talks like Cary Grant, and waltzes you around the room like Fred Astaire. There is a "side" avenue in the story about Diane being evicted from her apartment because they are going to turn it into a high-rise. Her search for a good apartment within her price range is hysterical. She bounces from friend to friend and family member to family member. Her parents, who are both loving and supportive, are also constantly trying to see her married, so she leaves her childhood home quickly to "bunk" at her sister's house. I have to tell you the family dynamic is charming. I understand Diane. This is a hardworking, witty, and intelligent female. There are tidbits of sheer genius in the text like the paragraph where she gets a call from a friend who hasn't called her in months. She wonders to herself...if she just noticed that this person has completely broken off contact with her after six months...does she really care? Another wonderful moment is when Diane tries to remember when she reached the age of No - no smoking, no drinking, no blind dates, no fat - no thank you. (Fabulous lines.) The other star of this book is the unbeatable, fun, bizarre, and charming landscape of New York City. The West Village, the real estate market - every perfect street and imperfect sidewalk makes you want to travel to the East Coast as fast as possible. Sparkling dialogue, witty conversations, and great characters; there are two other titles by this author, and I suggest checking them out too.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Make a Scene Should Be a Movie!, August 17, 2007
This review is from: Don't Make a Scene: A Novel (Hardcover)
If Valerie Block keeps writing books as good as this one and None of Your Business, a previous novel, someone is going to make a movie based on one of them. Diane Kurasik, the protagonist of Don't Make a Scene, is a single woman approaching "the rapids of her 40th birthday" when she receives an eviction notice from her landlord. This is a terrible blow to a renter who must compete with other desperate souls for the scarce housing available in Manhattan. Diane is tossed from pillar to post as one promising housing solution after another falls through for one reason or another. In the meantime, she must continue to fulfill her duties as the manager of a Greenwich Village vintage cinema theatre. That situation is complicated when she falls romantically for the Cuban architect who is designing an addition to the theatre. Valerie Block is great at describing an interesting setting, populating it with fascinating characters and keeping readers interested. The ending to this offbeat romance is quite unexpected. Here's a bonus: Before reading this novel, my idea of Cuba was a place where people were reasonably happy with a benevolent dictator who had done great things for them. The Cuban escapees in Don't Make A Scene tell quite a different story! If you're interested in Cuba, the book is worth reading for those viewpoints alone.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A cut above the usual chick-lit fare, January 18, 2008
This review is from: Don't Make a Scene: A Novel (Hardcover)
As an average single woman-about-town, I enjoy a good romance (read "chick-lit") as much as the next gal. I read BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY and saw the movies (both of them!), and I have worshipped at the shrine of Mr. Darcy (the ultimate chick-lit hero). But as the years roll by (and yes, mother, I still have not met Mr. Right), some of those stories start feeling a little stale. It's one thing to be adorably single and in a dead-end job when you're 29 or 30 --- but the cuteness wears thin when you're beginning to look 40 in the face. That's the great thing about Valerie Block and her new novel, DON'T MAKE A SCENE. It's a breath of fresh air in the sometimes-stale world of modern women's fiction. Block's heroine, Diane Kurasik, is no starry-eyed twentysomething with a dead-end job in publishing. She's 39 years old, a passionate film connoisseur with her own classic theater (the Bedford Street Cinema) and a great rent-controlled apartment in the Village. What more could a woman want? Well, true love, for one thing. Like single women everywhere, Diane bemoans the frustrations of Dating Hell: "A man's complete attention wasn't a realistic possibility at this late stage of the game. All the generalists --- the easygoing, well-adjusted fellows such as her father, her brother-in-law, the husbands of most of her friends --- who were capable of giving their complete attention to a woman, had married before the age of thirty. The remainder tended to be specialists, obsessed with something --- often their work, but not always. In twenty-five years of dating, fifteen of them dedicated exclusively to specialists, she'd met Lactose Intolerant Man, Open Up American Trade with Vietnam Man, Blues Man, Bluegrass Man, Second Amendment Man, and Windsurf Man." What modern woman over 30 can't relate to this? As the charm of being single grows increasingly thin, the unthinkable happens --- Diane loses her lease on her apartment and is evicted. She hunts for a new affordable Manhattan apartment (something that, I know firsthand, can only be compared to Dante's Seventh Circle of Hell) while staying on the couches of friends. In the midst of this search, Diane begins some much-needed renovation work on her theater --- and meets the most Special Specialist of them all, Vladimir Hurtado Padrón, a sexy Cuban architect with a handful of issues, complications, a 17-year-old son, and an estranged wife in Cuba who he hasn't seen in 10 years and who refuses to give him a divorce. Those who have read Block's previous books, WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID? and NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, are already familiar with her impeccable comic timing and well-drawn characters. Diane does not disappoint, as she has the sly wit, warm personality and slightly fractured charm that fans of Block have come to expect in their heroines. As a Cuban-American myself, I was particularly enthralled with Vladimir --- rarely have I come across a Cuban character created by a non-Cuban author who was so realistic. And Block takes a more balanced look at the situation in Cuba than one would expect in this kind of novel. While New Yorkers will appreciate the reality of the apartment-hunting scenes more than most ("Aren't all New York stories ultimately about real estate?"), and the references to directors, film stars and classic movies of all genres will appeal especially to cinema buffs, anyone looking for an absorbing story a cut above the usual chick-lit fare will find something to love about DON'T MAKE A SCENE. --- Reviewed by Lourdes Orive
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
