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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
strange but entreating relationship drama,
This review is from: Small Acts of Sex and Electricity (Hardcover)
Mid thirties Jane and Mattie have been best friends since childhood, but during college they competed for the affection of Michael with the former easily winning the prize and marrying him. Jane and Michael have two daughters, teenage Livvy and preadolescent Mona. To Mattie's envious eye Jane has everything with her California family while she remains single in the Midwest.
When Jane inherits a house and a Jaguar from her recently deceased grandmother Franny, she decides to take the car and leave her family behind to seek glamour and men not spouses and children. She assigns her visiting pal Mattie to inform Mike that she left him and their kids. Mattie, who came to appraise Franny's art collection, becomes surrogate mother and wife in Chicago while Jane seeks adventuress men. SMALL ACTS OF SEX AND ELECTRICITY is a strange but entreating relationship drama starring two women, me-me Jane and envious Mattie. They sort of switch places as Mattie, feeling as if she is IN MY SISTER'S COUNTRY, gets a chance to see what could have been if Mike chose her and Jane seizes the opportunity to find out what should have been if she stayed carefree and single. Fans of odd but perceptive family dramas will appreciate Lisa Haines' unusual character driven tale. Harriet Klausner
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Road Not Taken Beckons Once Again,
By
This review is from: Small Acts of Sex and Electricity (Hardcover)
Mattie, the 30-something narrator of Small Acts, returns to her childhood environs of Santa Barbara, where she's tempted to switch places with her once-best friend Jane. Jane seems to have it all: perfect husband, two daughters, beach house, material luxury.
This novel explores the solitudes we build for ourselves even within the electricity of a sizzling love affair. The storyteller reveals a present inner world tangled with flashback, using cinematic bursts of exquisite prose. Small Acts contains many scenes to savor like an assortment of epicurean chocolates: some unexpectedly spiced, others melt-in-the-mouth--an alluring variety of secrets between layers. If you have ever wondered about the road not taken, and found yourself at that crossroads, again...
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beguiling journey set in California,
This review is from: Small Acts of Sex and Electricity (Hardcover)
I loved this book. As a reader I loved the flow of the story and the many precise, surprising details. Vivid images like the descriptions of the little girl Mona spinning in a circle, and Franny's wonderful collection of shoes kept me reading. But as a therapist I loved how this book captured the messy, uneven, disturbing experiences of life. The children's experience of loss when their mother Jane takes off echoes the narrator Mattie's experience of loss when her neglectful parents leave Mattie to fend for herself as a kid. There are lots of details that resonate like this. Also the book is set in California--one of my favorite places. I highly recommend.
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