Secondhand Smoke [Mass Market Paperback]

Patty Friedmann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2004

She's nasty, she's prejudiced, and she's finally killed her husband (or at least, that's what her kids believe). She may be the most obnoxious woman in all of New Orleans. But by the end of this remarkable novel, readers will also find Jerusha Bailey infuriatingly lovable-a hilarious antiheroine.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The chronic discontent and over-the-top dysfunction of a Southern working-class family are at the heart of this dark comedy. Wilson Bailey has a Ph.D. in organic evolution but he is helpless in the face of his wife's infidelity and his father's cancer. His estranged sister, Zib, is a nihilistic assistant manager at Winn-Dixie, where she is constantly rebuffing the advances of her sleazy boss. Their mother, Ru, is a chain-smoking racist prone to bouts of physical and verbal violence. Both siblings have forged independent lives away from their native New Orleans, but their father's death brings them back together for another round of domestic insanity. Friedmann (Eleanor Rushing; Odds) careens among the viewpoints of Ru, Wilson and Zib; their narratives and the story as a whole are as humorous as they are sad. Zib resents her brother's intelligence and has spent her life pretending to be stupid, compensating by having reckless one-night stands; Wilson was so traumatized by his mother's bullying that he can't even go to the bathroom without thinking of her; and the irrepressible Ru is so ferocious and misguided in her opinions that she's downright enthralling. When she accidentally burns down her house, she begins living on the streets, where she meets Murray, a black homeless woman who challenges her racist beliefs. Friedmann's characters occasionally seem like caricatures, and the different narrators create an erratic tone overall, but the outrageous developments and swift pace make this novel hard to resist.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

A Confederacy of Dunces meets The Corrections in Friedmann's (Eleanor Rushing) warm and wacky tale of family dysfunction and redemption, set mostly in New Orleans. At its center is the indomitable Jerusha ("Ru") Bailey. Exposed for many years to the smoking and venom that spew from her mouth, Ru's husband finally dies, and she must drive to Arlington with his ashes for a military burial. There she meets up with her two grown children, who still bear the scars of a childhood spent with their mother. Son Wilson is a college professor living outside Chicago and barely surviving in his second marriage. Daughter Zib, trying to live as far away from her mother as possible, has managed to escape only as far as Florida, where she toils as an assistant manager at a grocery store, fending off unwanted advances from her boss. Isolated and alone, Ru develops an unlikely friendship with a ten-year-old boy in her neighborhood who is struggling to survive his own incompetent mother. Both funny and sad, this novel deserves the wild popularity it is sure to achieve.
Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., VA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (November 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425198286
• ISBN-13: 978-0425198285
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,298,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patty Friedmann released both the young adult novel Taken Away and the e-novel Too Jewish in late 2010. She also is the author of A Little Bit Ruined, Side Effects, Secondhand Smoke, Eleanor Rushing, and Odds, all currently in print from Counterpoint, and of The Exact Image of Mother (Viking 1991) and Too Smart to Be Rich (New Chapter 1988). In 2001-2002, she was writer-in-residence at Tulane University. Patty has reviewed for Publishers Weekly, Brightleaf, Short Story, and the Times-Picayune; her short stories have appeared in Horn Gallery, Short Story, LaLit, Xavier Review, and elsewhere; and she has had essays in Oxford American, Speakeasy, and New Orleans Review. Stage productions under the direction of Carl Walker are The Accidental Jew and Lovely Rita. She was included in The Great American Writers Cookbook and Christmas Stories from Louisiana in 2003, as well as in the collections My New Orleans in 2005, Intersections in 2006,and Life in the Wake and New Orleans Noir in 2007. In 2009 Oxford American included her Secondhand Smoke with Gone With the Wind, Deliverance, and A Lesson Before Dying as one of the 30 Most Underrated Southern Books. Patty is technically married until Medicare. She reared two children, one of whom is Esme Roberson, and she has three grandchildren, one of whom is Summer Roberson. She lives in New Orleans.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bells, Whistles, Flags and Banners for Secondhand Smoke, July 11, 2004

By 

Deborah Reed (Ochlockonee Bay, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secondhand Smoke (Hardcover)

I've bought ten copies of Secondhand Smoke. I've sent it to friends who tell me they don't read, to English professors, deep-sea divers, architects, people who take pits out of olives, and relatives. This book is universally adored. If Patty Friedmann had a good PR team, her fuzzy-haired profile would be on dollar bills and the U.S. Mint would relocate to New Orleans where it belongs. This isn't merely a great story, but one that covers all the bases, mini and magnificent. Don't read any further--click the thingamajig and read an excerpt from page one. I'd give a toe, not the great toe, maybe the little one, no, a tooth, that's it, a molar, to write like Friedmann.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recognition long overdue, January 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Secondhand Smoke (Hardcover)

Patty Friedmann's earlier books were just quirky enough to keep readers such as me looking for her next work, but this new book is such a quantum leap that I was wondering what took her so long. Comparisons to Flannery O'Connor and John Kennedy Toole are obvious, but nonetheless accurate. If O'Connor had let one of her characters speak in the first person voice, she might have anticipated Friedmann's Jerusha Bailey. MIGHT have, but Friedmann's creation is totally unique. Vulgar, profane, and a failure as a parent...Bailey is still a compelling woman. You would not want to be her child, or her neighbor, but you won't forget her.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The most I've laughed out loud in years, November 22, 2004

By 

Melissa Meade (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Secondhand Smoke (Hardcover)

I don't know why there are so few reviews for this novel; I'm assuming that they all must have been erased? At any rate, I was so glad to have stumbled upon the paperback edition of this tender, gutsy, and above all hilarious hit. The protagonist Jerusha offers so many layers of character development, and her constant bigotted proclamations cling to just enough plausibility that you can't help but enjoy her superstitious downward social comparison. What a wonderful outlet for all of life's affronts it would be to have every downtrodden class, race, and religion as your fall guy.

Friedman's editors have done a fabulous job of keeping the pace tight, often skipping unnecessary redundancies between the three narrating characters. A coming-of-age novel for the perpetual middle-aged adolescent, we could all use this little reminder of core ethics, self-determinism, and personal growth.