Customer Reviews

Late Night Talking: A Novel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A smart, funny, modern-day Rock Hudson/Doris Day romantic comedy with all the trimmings. The twists and turns and sophisticated banter keep the plot moving at an entertaining pace, and the outrage spewed by Jeannie Sterling, talk show host extraordinaire, will spark a familiar fire in all of us who are fed up with the outright rude behavior we're bombarded with on a daily basis.

In this hilarious novel, Schnur has created a truly original and loveable heroine in Jeannie. She's so human and frail and tough -- all at the same time. Any woman who has ever walked behind a litter bug, sat next to an obnoxious, loud person at a restaurant, or stood helplessly as someone cuts in line ahead of her will identify with Jeannie's crusade against all the boorish behavior in life. This book does what all wonderful novels do -- absorb us and amuse us and make us root passionately for the central character. This is as much a novel of manners as any Jane Austin novel. Schnur is a wonderful observer of life and frailty. It's a gift to be able to laugh at our shortcomings and this book is a wonderful way to spend a rainy weekend.

Following her all night talk radio show Sterling Behavior, Jeannie Sterling enjoys walking home. Jeannie has two things she obsesses over; first to end rudeness especially in Manhattan and second to find a love forever. On her way home, a stud driving a Hummer almost hits her. She calls him a turkey even as he steps out of the vehicle. They have a confrontation before she scratches the Hummer.

He thinks she is a kook, Jeannie rants about him on her radio show until she realizes he is zillionaire Nicholas Moss. Since he listens to her show as a fellow insomniac he realizes that this hostess calling him a pig is a righteous prig who considers herself the arbiter of right and wrong. She assumes he inherited wealth when instead his parents were East Village working stiffs. His goal is get even with Jennie by buying the radio station WBUZ. Thus as her seventy-five years old dad Lou arrives to stay in her apartment with his companion Mouse the dog and her beloved reporter friend Tommy Whitney returns from overseas, Moss buys the station. Soon a new format of Jeannie and her sidekick Luce working rudeness on the street leads to a TV show even as she begins to wonder what is right for her professionally and personally.

The concept of talk radio comes across as a winner as Jeanie is an interesting humorous host whose tales are realistic and sadly amusing as we all have done some of the rudeness she rants against. The support cast is strong as each enables the audience to better understand the lead characters especially Jeannie. Although, as characters like Luce point out, Jeannie's incessant rants can become irritating, contemporary fans will enjoy this romance over the air waves.

Harriet Klausner

The premise of this book was great. The idea of a radio show focussed on being considerate of others is a good one (do these actually exist?). I think I thought the premise was so great that the plot didn't quite live up to what I expected. Parts of it were slow and the whole plot line with her best friend Tommy was distracting. It wasn't bad though and it wouldn't stop me from reading another one her books.

Thirty-something New York Jeannie Sterling has a late-night radio talk show that deals with rude people. If someone steals a cab, litters, jaywalks, loiters or runs over a red light, Jeannie is there to give them the third degree and, along with her best friend-slash-producer Luce, talks about on the show. That is how she meets gorgeous Nicholas Moss -- self-made multimillionaire. After he drives a gigantic Hummer, he does some rude things, and Jeannie talks about it on her show. Moss listens to the conversation, which is why he makes a decision that is very unlike him: he buys the radio station without reviewing the marketing potential of such an act. Jeannie's show grows in ratings, and as she deals with her father, her new pet dog, her friend Luce, and her spanking new romance with Tommy, her longtime crush, she discovers things about herself. Jeannie Sterling, do-gooder and city patrol, may not be so sterling after all.

This is a cute romantic comedy with a nice backdrop of New York City. The dialogue is fluffy and fun, and the storyline is rather sweet. Jeannie is kind of annoying in her quest to put an end to people's bad city behavior. I know the whole point of the novel is that Jeannie has to get a grip and realize that nobody is perfect and that her quest is going out of control, but still, she got on my nerves a lot throughout the novel. Her holier than thou behavior is very insufferable and I almost gave up on the book several times. Other than that, I enjoyed reading Late Night Talking. The secondary characters -- especially Luce and Moss -- are great and I enjoyed reading about them. Even Jeannie's dad is a fun and entertaining character. I recommend this as a wonderful light read to read during a warm day on the beach (or in your backyard, whichever is most comfortable and relaxing for you).

I've never worked in radio or broadcasting... but hell if I wouldn't consider the career now! Even if it was midnight shift and on AM radio like Jeannie Sterling, the main character of this fun, fast paced novel that had my nightstand prime spot for about two evenings. But it isn't just my superficial fascination with all careers revolving around entertainment that kept my nose in this book. It is more the peek inside Jeannie's head. The emotions are real. The thoughts honest. And I just couldn't help but relate to Jeannie. It's like her conscious is another character in the book--which is just fabulous.

The book covers everything from family relationships, death of a parent, childhood, love, work/career, and pet peeves (and let me tell you, this is the funniest part of the book). As outlandish and Jeannie appears on the outside, she's human. And that makes the book a definite read.

LATE NIGHT TALKING by Leslie Schnur
June 10, 2007

Amazon Rating: 4/5 stars


Take a late night talk show and combine it with a young woman who is out to change her world, and you get LATE NIGHT TALKING by Leslie Schnur. Jeannie Sterling hosts her own radio talk show, and loves her job. She gets to rattle on about her pet peeves in the early morning hours and feels she's doing something about her part of New York.

In the opening chapter, Jeannie manages to anger a very important New Yorker, Nicholas Moss, who is one of the wealthiest men around town. He is so angry he decides to pay a little visit to Jeannie's little radio station, and he ends up purchasing the station and is now, therefore, Jeannie's new boss. His first change to the show is to modify the format. It is now to be a live show, and Jeannie gets to roam the streets, putting an extra edge to the show and help boost ratings.

Jeannie and Nicholas rub each other the wrong way, but she takes to the new format in a big way, to a point where she's going way over the top with her near-vigilante antics live on the streets of New York, where she's inspiring others to take things into their own hands, just like Jeannie. Nicholas, as well as others, is not too happy with the way the show is going, but Jeannie doesn't see the problem and continues on with her campaign to clean up New York.

While the center of the novel is the talk show, the meat of the story is Jeannie and her relationships, including with her best friend Luce who works with her at the station, her other best friend Tommy, who she soon thinks she's in love with, her father who has been absent from most of her life, and of course Nicholas, who she will soon discover has more in common with her than with anyone else.

I didn't know what to expect from LATE NIGHT TALKING but was pleasantly surprised. I think readers will enjoy this novel by the author of THE DOG WALKER. Some may not take to Jeannie and her self-righteous personality at first, but she grows on you. By the end of the book, I was glad at how things turned out for her, and was glad I had spent the time reading LATE NIGHT TALKING.

Jeannie Sterling is the proud host of her own late-night radio talk show, "Sterling Behavior." She is on the air in the early morning hours, blasting rude and inconsiderate people and their behavior. Be it throwing wads of gum on the street, not scooping up doggie poop, or throwing trash on the side of the road, Jeannie believes it's her job to point these faults out to the world in order to help make her section of New York a better place to live.

Jeannie encounters business tycoon Nicholas Moss on the street early one morning as he's driving his friend's SUV while talking on a cell phone, one of Jeannie's many pet peeves. When his vehicle stops for a moment, she has an unforgettable encounter with him. Moss later hears about this very incident on the radio, retold by Jeannie on her show, as she gives a piece of her own mind to the man who drove the Hummer while chatting away on his cell.

Little does Jeannie know the huge impression she left on Moss or that he wants to take revenge by buying out the radio station. He hopes to put a little fear in her life for a while, but he also can't stop thinking about her; although she annoyed him, he feels a deep attraction for her.

The radio show eventually goes live on the street, and then Moss decides it's time for "Sterling Behavior" to transition to television. He predicts great things for Jeannie, if only she pushes it a bit more. Jeannie does, and now she can't seem to stop her near-vigilante attempts at fixing the world, seeing only one thing: her vision of how to make the world right.

While Jeannie's career takes off flying, her relationships change for the worse. Best friend Luce, the producer of her radio show, is keeping a secret from Jeannie --- and when Jeannie finds out, she feels hurt, not understanding why Luce felt the need to keep such big news from her. Jeannie also has begun dating her longtime best friend, Tommy, about whom Luce has had a few doubts. Jeannie doesn't notice these negative qualities in Tommy, and is almost angry with Luce for thinking them. Then there is Jeannie's absent father, who makes a reappearance in her life along with a mutt named "Mouse." It's through these relationships that one can almost gauge where Jeannie's personal life is going, as it takes her a while to learn who the most important people in her life are and who she can do without.

Although she is afraid to admit it, the most important person right now is Moss. A man who came along and almost ruined her radio career by buying out the station, he actually is someone who is more in tune with her than Tommy ever will be.

LATE NIGHT TALKING is interspersed with dialogue from Jeannie's shows, and through the exchanges between Jeannie and Luce, we get to see what the program and Jeannie herself are all about. The more I got to know her, however, the less I liked her. And I think this was author Leslie Schnur's intention. I started to get irritated by Jeannie's holier-than-thou attitude and her need to point out everyone's faults and errors, no matter how minute. Those around her eventually find her behavior on the show appalling. Jeannie, we learn, is a very self-centered person. While she appears to love her friends, there is something missing in her personality that prevents her from really caring about them for who they are.

Any book that makes me feel as angry as I did at a fictional character has to be good. There were moments when I wanted to admire Jeannie for taking a stance on issues and topics that bother the average person. Unfortunately, though, most of the time she is living with blinders on, too full of her self-importance and her need to fix the world. While she did redeem herself in the end, her transformation from a self-centered, driven woman to a compassionate individual happened much too quickly for me to believe. Nevertheless, the story is well-written and I will certainly take a look at Schnur's debut novel, THE DOG WALKER.

--- Reviewed by Marie Hashima Lofton