Customer Reviews

Temporary Insanity

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

 

 

I first read Carroll's Play Dates and loved it. I wanted to read another one of her books and see if she was a one hit wonder or if she had some substance. She is the latter that's for sure! Very talented writed. I'm looking forward to reading her other 2 books.

This books takes us through a journey with Alice and her out-spoken grandmother and Alice's so-called boyfriends. I love how Carroll also inserts summaries into the story and does not give us a day to day basis story. That helps move the story along nicely and yet takes the reader to what is really important.

This book has so many twists and turns and I never saw them coming! That's what kept it interesting and I always wanted to read on and not set the book down.

However, once the play that Alice wanted to audition for was mentioned, I had a funny feeling of what was to come. I wouldn't say it gave it away completely but it steered me in the direction that I thought the series of events would happen and they did.

All in all, great read and fun.

However much charm and wit may have been in her first two books, TEMPORARY INSANITY is easily Leslie Carroll's best work to date. Where her earlier work focused on romance, this is a persuasive tale, humorous yet at times harrowing, in which the plucky heroine copes with demeaning temp jobs, loutish bosses, and the brutal difficulties faced by someone struggling to be an actress in New York city. What helps her get through it all is her passionate belief in her dreams and her admirable unwillingness to settle for less than what she feels she can achieve. Her refusal to accept being dismissed by insensitive jerks in positions of relative power is bouyed by the support of a couple of loyal friends and by the unconditional love of her grandmother, a former Follies girl now in her nineties, to whom the endearing heroine is fiercely devoted. With her customary verbal facility and enthusiastic descriptiveness, but with an added measure of authentic, sometimes complex personal emotion, Ms. Carroll presents the reader with a life fully lived yet longing to be more fully realized. Readers may be surprised (or not) at how true and touching Alice Finnegan's struggles can be.

I read Temporary Insanity with some trepidation. I was not a fan of Ms. Carroll's previous books, Reality Check and Miss Match, finding them cliched, but Temporary Insanity is a big step forward in the right direction. Chick-lit is Ms. Carroll's niche. Alice Finnegan is in her thirties and trying to juggle a day job, while pursuing her first love acting and taking care of her elderly grandmother, a former showgirl. The heart of the book is Alice's relationship with her grandmother, their's is the real love story in the book. Alice's grandmother has nurtured her theatrical ambitions by giving her unconditional love and support. Alice also has two best friends Izzy and Dorian, fellow performers, who call themselves the Three Muskateers, all for one and one for all. Alice's temp jobs are sharply drawn as she richochets from one bad temp job to another. All the details are there, the guilt one feels at pursuing your dream while on someone else's payroll, the boredom of extra work. Most of the book has heart, something missing from Ms. Carroll's previous works. The only weaknesses in the book are once again Ms. Carroll's lack of research. It's unusual for anyone who temps to only temp with one temp agency. If you're temping, you work for the agency, not the company you're temping for, so if you go on unemployment, the temp agency would be the one to refuse benefits not the company (I should know I was on unemployment most of last year.) Also, soap operas don't have seasons and an Executive Producer would never be able to run the show from across the country. But those are minor quibbles. If Ms. Carroll keeps up the effort with her next book, she might just become an author of note.

I have been a fan of Ms. Carroll's since MISS MATCH & REALITY CHECK. In TEMORARY INSANITY, this talented author takes what she does best (intelligent, clever women with brains, beauty and balls) and creates a delightful novel that has universal appeal. How does one decide between art and commerce? Passion vs. paying rent?
Do not dismiss this book as "chick lit" -- it is so much more! By all means, take it to the neach. But re-read it in the fall and share it with your friends in the winter and spring. Ms. Carroll is one talented author who has a voice to be reckoned with!

Juggling two careers - office temping and auditioning for roles

in New York theatre is how Alice Finnegan spends her working life

in Manhattan. True to life scenarios of both careers make

TEMPORARY INSANITY A DELIGHTFUL READ.

Thirty-something Alice Finnegan pays the rent doing odious temporary office jobs for nasty bosses while hoofing the mean streets of Broadway seeking acting gigs. Her nonagenarian grandmother, a long ago retired showgirl, lives with Alice and encourages the dream.

Besides her beloved grandma, Alice finds solace from being an out of work actress with her perfuming pals Izzy and Dorian. The Three Musketeers are there for each other. The support of these two and her granny keeps her going when office dating turns out wrong and her daytime bosses assign her the handling of trash projects. As directors tell her what they want her to fix about herself that is when they don't want to taste the goods personally, Alice, in spite of all that negativity, expects to one day be the toast of the city with her musketeers at her side.

This is a fun chick lit tale starring a delightful protagonist who with the help of her friends takes blows, but keeps on trying. Alice is a wonderful protagonist; many readers will root for her to turn Broadway into her wonderland especially when they watch the invasion of the permanent crowd on the residents of temp world. Deeper than the amusing REALITY CHECK and MISS MATCH, TEMPORARY INSANITY is a solid look at someone trying to make it to the majors, but must eat first.

Harriet Klausner

I quickly ordered this book after reading the first five pages on Amazon.com, convinced that I would love it. However, I was sorely disappointed. The characters were likeable enough, however too much of the plot was given away on the back cover of the book or by foreshadowing within the book itself. The few details of the story that weren't so easy to guess (or read on the back) were not very exciting. I found myself simply wanting to finish the story, and was never really absorbed by the plot. Very unsatisfying. On a positive note, there were some very amusing parts concerning the main character's daytime jobs -- reminded me of a few of my summer jobs in college! All in all, it was simply average entertainment. I am not sure if I would call it a waste of time, but it was pretty darn close!

I found this novel very good. However, we didnt find out if Dan Carpenter was married or if the little girl was his daughter?? or did I sleep through those pages??That character didnt seem to be finished.

The other reviews go in to detail about the book and what it is about so I won't repeat what was already written.

I can't wait to read more books by this author as this one was very enjoyable.

The main character Alice is a struggling actress in New York City. Between auditions she has taken on temp jobs to make ends meet. She is hired at the law firm of Newter & Spade to paraphrase and sum up legal documents. The first day she has already made an impression on her female boss and a male lawyer trying to make partner at the firm. Two people, two different impressions. Alice is caught up in a drama that she didn't know she was starring in or even auditioning for the part, both professionally and personally.

She and her two friends, who are also wannabe actors from college, are getting frustrated that their passion and dreams of acting seems to be stepping from their grasp.

I found this book comforting in the fact that even in this quai-fictional book, life at times can just plain stink and there is now way to map life out.

Leslie Carroll's exploration of a single woman's professional life and search for romance is intelligently written and touching. Her experiences with temp-agencies in New York City had a frighteningly familiar ring of truth! It's a show-biz novel without the glitz and glamour, but it's also the story of professional struggle that any working woman can relate to, no matter what her career.