SWEET REMEDY: A Novel [Hardcover]

Linda Phillips Ashour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 1996

After the break-up of her marriage, Polly Harrison spends her time writing country music lyrics and obsessing over her ex-husband's new love affair, until her grandmother's legacy and the lessons she learns as a single woman help her heal herself and her family. 12,500 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There's a glut of perkiness in the way 40-year-old Polly Harrison tells of a major wobble in her life and how she got things spinning truly in the end. Life went seriously awry the moment she caught her husband, Tom, getting cozy with another woman in the garden of an oddball beach hotel not far from their L.A. home. She promptly kicked him out, and now, six months later, she's all alone raising Kate and Toby, her surly adolescents, and writing mournful, painfully bad country songs in her spare time. Then, all the way from Granite, Okla., comes Polly's octogenarian grandmother, a feisty old bird in overalls who's a dead ringer for Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies. Can Granny Settle's folksy down-home wisdom pull Polly out of her funk? It's hard to tell, amid the teeming masses of peripheral characters and tangled subplots Ashour pours into her sprawling third novel (after Joy Baby). There's Polly's next-door neighbor, Russell, a wealthy contractor who's got the hots for her; crazy cousin Rory, an old Harley-riding hippie; and Barney, the creepy stalker. And aging country-music legend Johnny Day just might be persuaded to sing one of Polly's songs on tour. With so many balls in the air, Ashour is hard-pressed to keep her chatty narrative moving in the same direction for more than a few pages, but readers who hang in there will eventually learn what becomes of plucky Polly. But by then, they may have forgotten why they ever wanted to know.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

With her third novel (following Joy Baby, LJ 6/1/92), Ashour has a winner. Readers will genuinely care about the cast of realistic characters she has created, especially the many generations of Settle family women: 40-year-old Polly Harrison; Granny, Polly's mother; and Kate, Polly's teenage daughter. Polly is recently separated from husband Tom and, when she isn't working temp jobs, writes country-and-western song lyrics. The novel is set in Los Angeles but evokes a sense of nature and of the Settle family's roots in Granite, Oklahoma. Ashour's style is funny and moving, and the lyrics she includes are perfect; one can almost hear the songs as they are read. She has a perfect pitch for dialog and descriptions and works wonders with the themes of love, family, forgiveness, and continuity. Tom and Polly's hard-won reconciliation is on the mark, Granny Settle is an original, and the whole novel is writing at its best. Recommended for popular collections.
Rebecca Sturm Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 8, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684818337
• ISBN-13: 978-0684818337
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,775,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatest book ever written., April 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: SWEET REMEDY: A Novel (Hardcover)

I think Linda Ashour is the greatest writer in the world. I think who ever is her publisher should pay her a lot of money for her next book. She's hot!