Customer Reviews

Herb 'N' Lorna: A Novel

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I just remembered I owned this book, and I came in here to check out what I thought would be dozens of glowing reviews, but found only two! The story is original, funny and heartwarming, about two people who are madly in love, and spend their entire lives together with a secret each between them. There are parts of this book I would not dare to read in public, because I know I will break into hysterical laughter. I spent years forcing my friends to read it, and now I am trying to force strangers. You must read it! It's wonderful! And the photographs are priceless.

Savor this wonderful, funny, fabulous book. To say that it is sweet is, well, true, and yet, that doesn't quite catch the theme, as readers will know from the first page. This book is definitely on my top ten list-- I have enjoyed all of Eric Kraft's books about Peter Leroy and his family and friends, but this one is my all time favorite. My copy has made the rounds through over 10 friends and I've bought as many as gifts, and each and everyone of the readers has been delighted and enraptured by the story of Peter's grandparents and their romance. To be able to share this novel is truly wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Kraft!

This is hard to express, but after finishing this novel I can't tell you if I liked it or not. I can't tell you if I would recommend it to anyone. It is not the easiest read. There is little that is terribly sexy contrary to the reviews published on the book cover. The subject of the book...the erotic jewelry made by Herb and Lorna is a sexy subject but it isn't conveyed to the reader in that way. Herb and Lorna get all turned on, and so do others that see the jewelry, but it doesn't translate into something I would consider sexy. Nor, does it really tell a "Happy Story" as claimed.

It is an excellent biography with superb characters and beautifully detailed settings. The story is interesting in its scope of history from WW1 thru WW2 and beyond...relating the adventures and misadventures of the families...telling of the rise and fall of Studebaker Motors, the depression, the recovery, etc..

I enjoyed picking up the book to continue reading it, but it also could have lain there for a few days before I went back to it.

All in all, it's okay, but not an unusually fine pick for Amazon.

What a shock for Peter Leroy to discover after the deaths of his warm and cuddly "Gumma" and "Guppa," that they had been involved in a rather unusual cottage industry! This is possibly my favorite of Eric Kraft's books. It's the one I frequently suggest to my friends that they start with. It's a warm, loving, and very funny story of the couple written posthumously by their fictional grandson.

Originally published in 1988, this edition of Eric Kraft's "Herb 'n' Lorna is an "AmazonEncore" item, an effort to spotlight books that may have artistic strengths but were overlooked in the popular marketplace.

This is one such book. The title characters, Herb and Lorna Piper, are an unassuming couple who spend the bulk of the story living a rather simple life in a coastal Long Island town during in the years before the Great Depression and following World War II. As their lives are influenced by the grand scale of events around them, they carry with them what can best be described as a dirty little secret: they are master crafters of what the book calls "coarse trade", small pieces of animated sculpture featuring couples performing various erotic acts. Herb and Lorna came to this unique calling via separate paths, and one of the running jokes of the book is whether or not their creations are inspired --or not-- by acts they practiced on each other.

Kraft tells their story in multi-generational detail, primarily from the point of view of their grandson. The family members who variously contribute charm and conflict reminded me of the quirky populations in a John Irving or Anne Tyler novel. Kraft does this in the form of a fictional biography, complete with period photographs of the locales and some of the characters.

While Herb and Lorna share lifelong devotion, their relationship is not without stumbles, and Kraft uses their flaws to contrast effectively with the strength of their relationships.

Like many peers of their generation, Herb and Lorna end up in Florida, where their cottage industry moves out from underground and into the mainstream.

While the themes are clearly adult, there is nothing gratuitous in this funny, literate and extremely entertaining novel Read it and become part of the Pipers' fun!

Herb and Lorna Piper are such a tight pair you just think of them as Herb'n'Lorna, still in love, still loving life, as they grow old together. Yet one of the things that unites them is a secret they each hold separately--a secret vocation, or avocation, that brings them good fortune.

Other than that, Herb'n'Lorna are ordinary people, simple folks who wouldn't stand out in any crowd, who love each other and their family, and bring happiness to those who know them (even those who might think they're a little daft). I won't tell you much more, because I don't want to spoil it for you. You'll just have to read this book and share their lives.

Author Eric Kraft writes in a flowing, conversational way that draws you in from the very first paragraph. He spins a delightful yarn about his characters, their travels, their homes, their inventions, and the history of their towns that is reminiscent of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon. It shouldn't be that much fun, but it is. I couldn't stop smiling as I read the book and neither will you. Herb'n'Lorna may be fictional characters but they've become real to me. I recommend this one highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

Herb and Lorna may not lead extraordinary lives, but those are often times the most interesting lives. This is the sweet, quirky, endearing story of Peter Leroy's Gumma and Guppa. It spans two world wars, and chronicles in loving detail their lives including Lorna's upbringing in the memorable character filled town of Chacallit (short for Whatchamaycallit) on the river Whatsit. Herb and Lorna's eventual engagement is a first-rate word parlay which ignites a fire in more ways than one and leads to a subsequent life-long romance. A life-long romance; what can be sexier than that? Throw in a hush-hush (for adults only) secret that neither one knows about the other, and you are in for a joyous romp that will keep a smile on your face long after you finish. I would also recommend Andrew Nicoll's "The Good Mayor".

Everybody has a book or two they recommend not just because the book's good, but because they want to share the special pleasure of a secret joy. This is my book. Herb and Lorna are the sweetest, kindest, sexiest grandparents imaginable. And their lives get spun out in one of the most clever, funniest, slyest, biggest-hearted novels ever. You can imagine how much fun Kraft had writing Herb n'Lorna and how sad he must have been to leave them. The Buffalo reviewer called it a triumph of love and art over folly. It's a triumph of love and art AND folly.

This author does, in one of his many charming faux-authoritative quotations (this one attributed to T. Wallaston (Stretch) Mitgang). While the social commentary isn't as trenchant, the writing has the gentle, delightful humor of Vonnegut at his best: a dead-on ability to affectionately chronicle the foibles of middle-class Americans. (I was irresistibly reminded of the "Call Me Mom" Hoosier in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle). The main characters, Herb 'n' Lorna (the 'n' a concession, the author explains, to the fact that some couples are too inextricably intertwined to require the full article) are the most lovable of married couples, a too-young veteran and his war bride gradually learning intimacy and sexual fulfillment with the help of the "coarse goods" market in which they both secretly work. I expected a plump, cheerful couple of sleazebags in 1950s polyester; what I got was a pair of lovebirds I wish I could invite to dinner. All this without ever being saccharine, overly prurient, or humorless. I almost gave it 4 stars because the author, while great at post-war pastiche, is a little tone-deaf about earlier times (there's an extended exchange, attributed to the Marx Brothers, that suggests the author's never blissfully wasted a Sunday morning with their physical and verbal gymnastics). However, his depiction of the image-conscious, conscientious, Horatio-Algerish couple is spot on and more than endearing. Generally, I read a book once and pass it on but this one made it onto my permanent bookshelf with Vonnegut, Douglas Adams and P G Wodehouse - and it holds its own against those comic titans. I wish I knew Herb 'n' Lorna. I wish I knew Eric Kraft. I'm definitely buying his next book.

Do you remember your young, innocent days when you learned about "the birds and the bees" and couldn't conceive of your parents ever having done anything like "that?" That was just too gross! It was something a kid could not consider...or even think about.

I suppose we all wanted our parents to be Saints, far removed from lesser mortals...

And heaven forbid that our grandparents ever "did it," as we called the act in those days.

Well, this is the problem faced by Peter Leroy, the narrator of this witty, heartwarming book, when he learns that his beloved grandparents were in the "coarse goods" trade. On the day of his Gumma's funeral, three years following the death of his Guppa, he learns about it from her best friend, May Castle.

He is stunned when May gives him a box filled with erotic jewelry; it's all Peter can do to get through the funeral where he has to speak. He has his own image of his typical, down-to-earth grandparents and he treasures those `50s memories. In his own words from the book: "To learn that my grandparents had played a leading role in the development of erotic jewelry in their time was much too much to handle at one time."

Another thing that bothers Peter is that he's the last to learn about it. This sets the course of this book as Peter sets out to learn everything he can about their lives and get to the truth of the matter.

What adds to the hilarity of Herb 'n' Lorna--set during the period prior to World War I--is that Lorna keeps her artistry in carving the erotic figures from her husband Herb, and Herb keeps his secret from her. Herb constructs and designs the mechanisms that animate the erotic, intertwined figures carved by Lorna. The subterfuge that each undertakes to keep their secrets is hilarious.

And you'll never believe what happens on the night Herb and Lorna finally decide to confess. (Yes, both were ashamed of their secret life, even while each delighted in their individual skills. This was a more Puritanical time, after all...)

I won't reveal more of the plot, but believe me when I say that Peter Leroy uncovers their entire story, relating it with grace, dignity and gut-busting, bawdy humor.

This is much more than a romantic comedy; it's a masterpiece of literature, depicting the great love Herb and Lorna share throughout their lifetime. Peter does such a thorough job uncovering his Gumma and Guppa's lives that I think of this as two superb character studies.

I agree with The Washington Post review on the front cover: "Herb 'n' Lorna is the happiest of books--not to mention the sexiest...The kind of sweetness and passion and laughter Kraft draws from these ordinary lives is rare and enduring."

Accolades to the author, Eric Kraft, for bringing readers hours of fun and excitement as we enter the lives of Herb 'n' Lorna.

Reviewed by Betty Dravis, July 30, 2010
Author of "Dream Reachers" (with Chase Von) and other books