A thoughtful and frequently uproarious book about an aspiring dramatist at a small college and the therapuetic effect her new play has on all who participate in it.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Dowdy Alma Porch arrives at a school where she will teach drama to students whose primary goal is to lose weight during the month-long session. While the novel is intentionally, but not successfully, absurd, Australian Jolley "offers some provocative reflections on loneliness, self-delusion, role-playing and the always blurred line between reality and imagination," PW observed.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
Hilarious, wry, disturbing, and optimistic. (Boston Globe )
Delicious . . . a novel of pungent charm. (Angela Carter )
Hilarious and bawdy. (Robert Coover )
Not just a delicious caper. . . .[It glows] in the mind because . . . informed by Jolley’s understanding of our common loneliness and her sympathy with the myriad, ingenious connections we try to make to alleviate it. (Roberta Silman - The Arts Fuse )
A witty, sophisticated novel. (Library Journal )
A literary romp...merges fiction and fact in a campy style...Alma Porch is a well-drawn and endearing guide. (Washington Post )
Reminiscent of Shirley Jackson….This darkly comic tale will appeal to those who love novels of eccentricity and the many foibles of human nature. (MostlyFiction Book Reviews )
The work of Elizabeth Jolley is a reminder of the glorious contradictions of literature: it's a specific chronicle and a universal exploration, endlessly experimental and easy to read, heartbreaking and hilarious and wise and naive. It's like life, and reading Jolley makes one feel alive. (Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Delicious . . . a novel of pungent charm. (Angela Carter )
Hilarious and bawdy. (Robert Coover )
Not just a delicious caper. . . .[It glows] in the mind because . . . informed by Jolley’s understanding of our common loneliness and her sympathy with the myriad, ingenious connections we try to make to alleviate it. (Roberta Silman - The Arts Fuse )
A witty, sophisticated novel. (Library Journal )
A literary romp...merges fiction and fact in a campy style...Alma Porch is a well-drawn and endearing guide. (Washington Post )
Reminiscent of Shirley Jackson….This darkly comic tale will appeal to those who love novels of eccentricity and the many foibles of human nature. (MostlyFiction Book Reviews )
The work of Elizabeth Jolley is a reminder of the glorious contradictions of literature: it's a specific chronicle and a universal exploration, endlessly experimental and easy to read, heartbreaking and hilarious and wise and naive. It's like life, and reading Jolley makes one feel alive. (Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
reprint of an amusing Australian satire,
This review is from: Foxybaby (Karen and Michael Braziller Books) (Paperback)
Trinity College hires novelist Alma Porch to teach a summer seminar at the school's Better Body Though the Arts program. Her students are all overweight women wanting to lose weight. However, her first day at the college starts off with a bang when Miss Porch rams in the back of bus leaving her vehicle disabled and escape futile. She meets her roommate Mrs. Castle who cannot take a breath without talking about her darling three grandchildren; who after fifteen minutes Miss Porch loathes sight unseen. .She introduces her class that seem to exclusively include gays and lesbians only to what Miss Porch believes will soon be a classic drama, "Foxybaby" that she is still writing, but insists the students perform. The story line focuses on a sandwich generation single mom on the run with her child and her father. Although her preference is classical music like punk and hard rock to accompany her play, school director Mrs. Peycroft and her friend Miss Paisley intrude. This is a reprint of a 1985 character study that uses hyperbole to satirize relationships. The story line is an amusing Australian absurd musing on relationships between lonely souls. Although at times the need to connect with others is confusing due to extreme sublime understatement, Foxybaby is an intelligent humorous look at people's basic needs to relate to others, but not always in a positive way. Harriet Klausner
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