Spin Doctor [Paperback]

Leslie Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 24, 2006

Question:
What do Amy, the new mom;
Meriel, the West-Indian housekeeper;
Claude and Naomi, the alternative couple;
Faith, the elegant widow;
and Talia, the super-skinny ballerina
have in common?

Answer:
Abso-freakin'-lutely-nothing!

Except that they all live lives of not-so-quiet desperation on the Upper West Side of New York City. What gets them through? Their unusual therapy sessions with supershrink Susan Lederer, held in the depths of the laundry room. Susan knows that all of life's problems eventually come out in the wash, but while the washers keep breaking down, she helps her female friends take control.

But Susan's life has become an agitated mess. Her teenage daughter seems destined for a fast-food future; her son's adolescence hasn't quite hit yet . . . and her perfect husband is hiding something. Susan could use a really good shrink.

Instead, her dirty linen exposed, she finds that it's her friends who rally 'round her, and by the final spin, she realizes that while it might not take a whole village, it does sometimes take a laundry room to get rid of the nastier wrinkles in life.

Now if only she could find the formula for getting rid of that ring around the collar.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dirty laundry gets cleaned, dried and aired in the newest women-in-the-city soap opera from Carroll (Play Dates), an exuberant ode to friendship among women and the need for affordable mental health care (at least in New York City). When a Manhattan psychotherapist decides to offer pro bono counseling in her apartment building's laundry room, her lucky neighbors jump at the chance to wash away "the emotionally damaging detritus of their lives" while they wash away stains from their whites. Dr. Susan Lederer thinks of herself as the ultimate mother hen, dividing her time among her detergent-scented community work, her paying gig at the women's health center and her more literal motherly duties: taking care of a husband, Eli, their two children (aged 11 and 16) and an incontinent dog. That Susan's laundry room patients eventually join together to help Susan through her own domestic crisis is no surprise, but Carroll handles her material with wit and wisdom. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Most therapists see their patients in an office. Susan sees hers in the laundry room of a ew York apartment building. Each week she counsels the women in her building in informal sessions, working through problems with their careers and families. The women are diverse in their backgrounds and their dilemmas--a lesbian couple is struggling through the adoption process; a young actress is grieving for the grandmother who raised her; a West Indian housekeeper tangles with her employer, a stressed new mother. When her own life begins falling apart, Susan realizes that she needs her laundry-room patients as much as they need her. In a novel that celebrates the power of female friendships, Carroll creates sympathetic characters from all walks of life--a rarity in most women's contemporary fiction--and readers are sure to appreciate it. Perfect for those looking for more than another single-gal-in-the-city story. Aleksandra Kostovski
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (January 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060596139
• ISBN-13: 978-0060596132
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,209,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I used to tell people that I was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx; but the truth is that apart from the stellar education I received at the Fieldston School in Riverdale, much of who I am was shaped by my two grandmothers, who encouraged me to follow my bliss long before it became the sort of catchphrase you find on tee-shirts and new-age tchotchkes. My East Side grandmother took me to FAO Schwarz, the New York City Ballet, and afternoon tea at the Plaza Hotel, where I dreamed of becoming another Eloise. My West Side grandmother took me to the Central Park carousel and the zoo and treated me to colorful paper parasols and gummy, lukewarm pretzels from the vendors whose wares my East Side grandmother deemed too "dirty" for human consumption.

There are writers on both sides of my family, and although I always loved to write, I never anticipated that it would become my profession. I had wanted to be a ballerina; and though my club feet were corrected at birth (from the stilettos I adore now, you'd never know) and my short Achilles tendons made my toes turn in (corrected at the age of 9), I was never going to end up en pointe.

About a year later, I decided to become an actress when (if?) I grew up, and I never looked back. I majored in Theatre at Cornell University, worked in summer stock, and took classes with a couple of acknowledged masters. I performed a lot of Shakespeare and other classics in New York parks, basements, church choir lofts, and the occasional Off-Broadway theatre; then founded and ran my own nonprofit theatre company for several years. And when things got slow, and I found myself working three survival jobs simultaneously (one of them as a journalist and editor), I decided it was time to pursue an additional creative avenue.

Fast forward a decade. I'm now a multi-published author in three genres, as well as a freelance journalist. And I've also adapted a number of classic texts (IVANHOE; THE PRISONER OF ZENDA; THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL; Mark Twain's "The Diaries of Adam and Eve") for the stage. I began writing women's fiction and historical fiction simultaneously, but my first published novel was the urban romantic comedy MISS MATCH in 2002. In 2005, as I continued to write about feisty female New Yorkers, my first historical novel was published under the pen name Amanda Elyot. While keeping those literary plates spinning I made my historical nonfiction debut in the spring of 2008.

In what I laughingly refer to as my spare time, I'm still a professional actress, working when the scripts and the roles excite me.

I'm such a native New Yorker that I still don't have a driver's license, "Big Sky Country" means Central Park, and the farthest I've ever been from the Upper West Side for any great length of time was my four-year stint upstate in Ithaca, at Cornell, known for its rigorous academics and its equally harsh permafrost.

My birthday falls on the same day as two of my heroes--F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jim Henson. So I reread THE GREAT GATSBY every year and number Miss Piggy among the great actresses of her generation. My favorite color is deep hydrangea blue, and it just kills me that it doesn't look good with red hair.

I live in Manhattan with my husband Scott--who is my hero and everything I ever dreamed of. For the past couple of years we've been considering an addition to the family in the form of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars wash it away, June 12, 2006

By 

R. Roehm "it's all good" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spin Doctor (Paperback)

Too many characters with too many problems. Like another reviewer mentioned, I was confused as to who had what problem because there was too much going on.

I wanted so bad to really enjoy the book but I couldn't. The premise seemed like a fun story. I was very excited to read it but then I started and it dragged. Characters weren't developed and Susan's problems with her husband seemed to be added at the last minute for character development that never happened.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I would not recommend this book, February 5, 2011

By 

Ace Sands (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spin Doctor (Paperback)

I did not expect it to be literature (checked it out of the library randomly to take it with me on vacation). But wow it was bad! I skipped ahead a lot to "finish" it. I think the main reason I read it was because I became intrigued by how bad it was. It was not so bad it was good. It was plain and simple bad. I kept thinking how is it that someone wrote this, editors read it, various people decided it was a finished product, and it got published? I suppose it is possible there are other books as poorly written as this, but I am not used to reading them.

The book failed primarily due to poor writing. Though the events were far-fetched, the basic premise and plot could have worked in the hands of a good writer. The main character was neither believable, nor likable. Sadly, the other women were not interesting either. They were supposed to be, but none of the voices felt genuine. Especially the teenage daughter and the gypsy fortune teller! The story attempted to cover a lot of important issues in the women's lives (grief, motherhood, adoption, gay marriage, teenage ennui, betrayal, anorexia, interracial relations, illness, you name it) but everything was so poorly executed, it all ended up in a mess and I could not care about any of it. There were also numerous spelling mistakes, and factual errors that could've been averted with a quick wikipedia search (e.g., endomitriosis (sic) does not mean you throw your hands up and declare infertility!).

I would not recommend this book.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE DOCTOR IS IN -AND SHRINKS AS SHE WASHES, January 26, 2006

By 

Grammy L "New York Grandma" (Riverdale, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spin Doctor (Paperback)

Leslie Carroll has done it again! She's written a charming and insightful story about a group of women living in an Upper West Side (of Manhattan) apartment building who've found their salvation in the laundry room. They let their emotions tumble, airing their dirty laundry both literally and figuratively, as they wash their clothes. They've all found a sympathetic ear in the person of psychologist Susan Lederer, their pro bono therapist. Listening to their woes and advising them has a cathartic effect on her as she realizes that she, too, has benefitted from the creation of this impromptu, offbeat "office". The characters are an assortment of diverse women old, young, married, single, upper and lower class all brought together because they need to talk to someone who can sort out their problems. Its one of those unique "only in New York" stories...and it's wonderful. It's a quick read...for the subway, for the beach or relaxing by the fire with a glass of wine. You'll want to tell your friends about it.