Your Oasis on Flame Lake [Mass Market Paperback]

Lorna Landvik (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 1999

Lorna Landvik hypnotizes readers, telling stories with quiet power, brilliant wit, and amazing resonance. USA Today praised her novel, Patty Jane's House of Curl, as "fun and funny, spiked with tragedy and sad times." Now, in Your Oasis on Flame Lake, she continues to create real, resilient people we come to know and love.

All you have to do is see a fiery sunset reflecting on the water to figure out how Flame Lake got its name. The small Minnesota town onshore is home to a close-knit group of old friends who discover their comfortable lives taking some unforeseen turns.

Best friends fast approaching forty, Devera and BiDi (short for Beverly Diane) were recently voted "Least Changed" at their twentieth high school reunion. Once overjoyed, Devera now finds the label insulting. Oh, she loves her husband and still believes being a wife and mother is the main entree on life's plate. She just longs for the more exotic side dishes.

BiDi is adored by her second husband Sergio but her only passions are her perfect household and her perfect body. These priorities sadden her daughter, Francine, a stocky fourteen-year-old and the only girl on the high school hockey team. Francine feels closer to her stepdad, a spirited, supportive soul who loves her right back. BiDi can't figure it out. Nor can she pinpoint the reason why her own sex drive is stuck in neutral, despite a thin and gorgeous chassis.

Then there's Devera's husband, Dick Lindstrom, an ace car and appliance salesman with cabaret in his heart. He dreams of opening a night club in his basement. Nothing fancy. Just a BYOB joint to hang out in, sing, dance, tell jokes, and be yourself. The name? Your Oasis at Flame Lake. And it arrives not a moment too soon. For a violent, unexpected crisis will throw both families into chaos--and force them to take stock of their lives.

A wonderful, heartfelt novel of feeling, loving, and forgiving, Your Oasis at Flame Lake proves that Lorna Landvik is a writer who has arrived.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A varied cast of characters takes turns narrating this ultimately upbeat tale of friendship, tears, and laughter from the author of Patty Jane's House of Curl (LJ 8/95). Devera Lindstrom and BiDi Herrera, best friends since high school, are on the cusp of 40. While Devera has an affair with a pretentious college instructor, BiDi uses diet pills to keep her gorgeous body in shape and tries to hide her dissatisfaction with Franny, her athletic teenage daughter. Dick Lindstrom works for his father-in-law and dreams of opening a nightclub in his basement. BiDi's husband, Sergio, adores his hockey-playing stepdaughter but wants to have another child. Dick learns of Devera's affair, Franny is mysteriously beaten up one evening, and BiDi and Sergio's new baby is born prematurely. Yet in the end nearly everyone is happy and fulfilled. Close scrutiny reveals any number of weaknesses, including the overly busy, rather unbelievable plot; the pedestrian writing; and the less-than-three-dimensional characters. But why complain? Read it for what it is: a perfect purchase for popular fiction collections.?Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Landvik was a stand-up comic, and she writes like one: her characters are clever and offbeat, like Garrison Keillor's or Fannie Flagg's. In a small Minnesota town, two friends chafe at being voted "Least Changed" at their twentieth high-school reunion. Timid Devera has an affair with her night-school teacher; BiDi, known for her still-perfect figure, gets pregnant by Sergio, her second husband. Devera's husband, Dick, a car salesman who dreams of performing his joke songs in a cabaret, opens "Your Oasis" in their basement and provides a town gathering place. When opposing hockey players ambush BiDi's daughter, Frannie, the hulking product of her first marriage and the town mascot for making the varsity team as a freshman and a girl, the families and town must make peace with the fragility of loved ones. The most captivating narrator is Devera's precocious daughter Darcy, a hat aficionado and self-appointed defender of justice. She and this book should delight most readers. Kevin Grandfield --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing (February 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 051736137X
• ISBN-13: 978-0517361375
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,121,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lorna Landvik is also the author of the bestselling Your Oasis on Flame Lake and Patty Jane's House of Curl. She has worked as an actor, a comedian, and a speed typist in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She lives with her husband, two daughters, and their dog, Petunia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life in White Falls Minnesota, July 25, 2000

By 

Roz Levine - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Oasis on Flame Lake (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

Your Oasis on Flame Lake is the story of two families, the Lindstroms and the Herreras, living out the American dream in White Falls, Minnesota. Except, the dream is going over a few mid-life bumps in the road, leaving family members dissatisfied, hurt and confused. That is, until a catastrophic event in the Herrera family, brings all their lives back down to earth. This story is narrated by different family members and each brings a different perspective to the turbulent happenings surrounding them. Though never maudlin or overly emotional, Ms Landvik tells a strong, powerful story of love, loss, betrayal and forgiveness. Her writing is funny and witty with great incite and wisdom. Her characters, interesting and true to life, speak from the heart. This is a story that pulls you into the lives of these people and keeps you rooting for them until the climax and very satisfying end of the book. A story about the strong bonds of friendship and a wonderful slice of midwestern life.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Emotional, affecting study of 2 families facing adversity, March 29, 2001

By 

Carol S. (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Your Oasis on Flame Lake (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

I liked Lorna Landvik's first book, "Patty Jane's House of Curl," but "Your Oasis on Flame Lake" is even better. BiDi and Dev have been friends since high school; now they are married, with kids, and still living in their small Minnesota hometown. "Your Oasis" tells of the crises each faces within the short frame of a year or so: infidelity, a violent attack on BiDi's daughter, an addiction to pills, and more (I don't want to spoil the plot). There's a lot packed into the book, but Landvik skillfully shows the emotional impact of these events on both families. Landvik states in the reader's guide (at the back of the book) that she considers this a more thoughtful and less emotion-driven book than "Patty Jane"; but I think "Your Oasis" also benefits from its contemporary setting and the more compressed time period ("Patty Jane" takes place over a much longer period of years). The characters are believable and very real, like people you know. The dialogue is particularly well-done and rings true. Once you get a few pages in, it's a hard book to put down: smart, funny, touching "chick lit" that is a refreshing change from the urban professional scene of the post-Bridget-Jones genre.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Landvik just keeps getting better!, June 18, 1999

By 

Dianna Johnston "Compulsive Reader" (Joplin, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Your Oasis on Flame Lake (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

I really really REALLY liked this book. Lorna Landvik is incredibly funny and talented and this book is her monument. I loved her quirky and endearing characters, especially Dick and Darcy--they cracked me up! YOUR OASIS was a better read for me than PATTY JANE, although the latter was a great book as well. I can't wait for her next release in September. I will be the first in line.