From Publishers Weekly
A middle-aged woman's self-discovery is predictable but not pedestrian in Frank's (
Full of Grace;
Pawleys Island) latest. A divorce has stalled Miriam Swanson's life: her snooty Hermès-swathed Manhattan friends abandoned her after her ex-husband "ran off with his whore"; one of her grown sons keeps her at arm's length, while her other son, a "nice nerd," stays beneath the family radar for months at a time; and the major drawback to her job at a museum is her boss—icy former friend Agnes Willis. In a twist that stretches disbelief, Miriam catches Agnes's husband, Truman, having a noisy rendezvous with Liz, the cute new tenant in Miriam's townhouse. After a brief interlude that sends Miriam to a South Carolina barrier island to visit her former cotillion queen mother—and meet the dreamy local Harrison Ford ("Not that wimpy actor")—Miriam reveals Truman's affair, with consequences that fuel the remainder of the book. Frank's narrative is heavy on healing—physically, mentally—and the importance of family, and though her sometimes delightfully nasty heroine is sympathetic, supporting cast members have one note apiece. This isn't Frank's finest, but it'll sate her fans.
(Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Miriam Elizabeth Swanson's life is one big pity party. Her husband of 20-plus years has traded her in for a newer model, her grown sons avoid her like the plague, and, likewise, her so-called society friends treat her like she's the poster girl for the Ebola virus. If all that weren't bad enough, her once-deluxe Manhattan town house has been carved up into apartments because she needs the rent to make ends meet, and her mother has morphed into a pot-smoking, aging hippie down at the family homestead in the Carolina Low Country. But when a new young tenant is brutally attacked by her lover, who happens to be married to one of Miriam's erstwhile friends, Miriam experiences an epiphany that transforms her from a dour, nay-saying shrew into an upbeat, understanding confidant. Shedding her emotional baggage along with, let's face it, a few pounds, Miriam learns the redemptive power of forgiveness and turns her life into a joyous celebration of family and friends.
Carol HaggasCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.