The Cure for Modern Life: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Lisa Tucker (Author)
Key Phrases: lisa tucker, cure for modern life, Pain Matters, Doctor Connelly, Palm Beach (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Tucker offers a cure for modern readers seeking an enjoyable literary page-turner that also explores serious social issues such as addiction, ethics and genetics. Tucker's fourth and most ambitious novel (following Once Upon a Day) is her first to have a male protagonist. Sardonic and emotionally aloof, Matthew Connelly directs his energies away from romantic entanglements and toward his work as an executive at pharmaceutical giant Astor-Denning. His bitter ex-girlfriend, Amelia, works as a medical ethics watchdog and is poised to take Matthew and his company down. But the appearance of homeless 10-year-old Danny and his toddler sister shakes up the lives of the combustible pair. In crisp, lively prose, Tucker cleverly executes a series of surprising twists that, coupled with the Big Pharma backdrop and cinematic feel, make the novel as fast-paced as a thriller, but with astute and often humorous observations about the shifting morality of 21st-century America. The relationship dilemmas at the center of this story make it an excellent choice for book clubs, but the novel should also increase Tucker's male readership and solidify her position as a gifted writer with a wide range and a profound sense of compassion for the mysteries of the human heart. (Mar. 25)
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Review
"An enjoyable literary page-turner that also explores serious social issues. In crisp, lively prose, Tucker cleverly executes a series of surprising twists that, coupled with the Big Pharma backdrop and cinematic feel, make the novel as fast-paced as a thriller, but with astute and often humorous observations about the shifting morality of 21st-century America. An excellent choice for book clubs...solidifies her position as a gifted writer with a wide range and a profound sense of compassion for the mysteries of the human heart."-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A touching and very modern relationship story with some compelling social issues...This fast-paced, funny, and smart novel is a sure bet for book clubs."-- Booklist

"An inspiring, twisting story of redemption, forgiveness and morality." -Romantic Times

"An emotionally satisfying page-turner."-- Good Housekeeping

"The Cure for Modern Life is so inviting because it's about people we all know, or at least think we know - Tucker deftly forces us to ponder what we'd do in this exploration of the complexity of human nature and our relationships with one another." -- The Salt Lake Tribune

"Tucker's book works because she knows how to limn characters, tell a story economically, and propel it at just the right allegro-vivace tempo." -- The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Lisa Tucker, once again, brings a fresh view to the intricacies of relationships in "The Cure for Modern Life"...Tucker continues to grow as a writer, and "The Cure for Modern Life" gives readers some ethical questions to ponder. It's an approach that has long been Jodi Picoult territory, but Tucker comes at it from a different direction. The questions aren't the source of the plot, but they drive the relationships among central characters. It's a structure that should make the novel attractive to book groups who've enjoyed Picoult's work." -- The Denver Post

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Atria; 1st Atria Books Hardcover Ed edition (March 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074349279X
• ISBN-13: 978-0743492799
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #375,209 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What if...., July 26, 2008

By	Amanda Richards "Modest to the extreme" (Georgetown, Guyana) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Suspicion torments my heart
Suspicion keeps us apart
Suspicion why torture me?"

(Elvis)


Your scenario:

1. You're a high level executive with a pharmaceutical giant
2. Your ex-girlfriend's into medical ethics on a professional level
3. Your best friend is probably on his way to a Nobel Peace Prize for finding cures for insect borne diseases.
4. #2 and #3 are now a couple
5. The shifting relationship between the three of you is love, love, hate, but not necessarily in that order
6. You try to sing "She's Out of my Life", but unfortunately it's not working
7. You performed a rare and spontaneous act of kindness that proved to be rather expensive
8. It also brought you into contact with a ten-year old street kid and his undernourished 3 year old sister
9. Your life changes forever

Meet Matthew, the self-centered executive who's too busy working on his career and fortune to be bothered with relationships and commitment. Matthew is the protagonist in this highly improbable scenario, where the main themes are manipulation, suspicion and deception.

There are several stories running through this book, and while each situation provides food for thought in isolation, the merging is a little hard to swallow. The main thing is that the three principal adult characters are forced into self-examination of their lives, and have to make tough decisions in order to balance their professional goals with their other burning desires.

Forgetting the messy merging and implausible incidents, this book will have you turning the pages to see what comes next, but it would have benefited from the removal of some extraneous material and a few I-Pod plugs.

Rated 3.5 stars



Amanda Richards, July 26, 2008

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Was Matthew Connelly a bad man?", March 18, 2008

By	K. M. "literary devotee" (California) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

That's the first sentence of THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE: "Was Matthew Connelly a bad man?" It is promptly followed by, "He'd never once asked himself that question." Will he by the book's conclusion?

More universally, the central question of the novel could well be summed up as: Is everyone in modern America a commodity just waiting to be exploited? However, THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE touches on so many orbiting 21st-century issues: drug abuse, both hardcore and recreational; the perennial have/have not dichotomy; children's rights; prenatal testing ethics; the debate about the marketing strategies adopted by behemothic drug companies; the limits of friendships; and the question of whether marriage is merely a utility.

The first chapter opens by accompanying Matthew Connelly who has spent years shepherding a new wonder drug into the marketplace for Astor-Denning. Tomorrow he would board a plane to Japan to correct some misinformation about the product, Galvenar. But tonight, late, he is walking home from a dinner engagement, slightly stoned, when a boy steps into his path on the bridge near his building and yells and cries, " 'Help! Please, Mister! My baby sister! Help!' "

Ten-year-old Danny (actually christened "Cobain" after you know who) has dubbed himself a gallant, if belated, knight of King Arthur's court. His underdeveloped three-year-old sister, Isabelle, is sick and needs Emetrol and Gatorade, so he performs his "sacred duty" and targets and accosts a man whose clothes peg him as affluent.

When rubbery-legged Matthew finally consents to help the ragged kids, their druggie mother materializes and tags along. In his apartment, after he fetches the medicine and Gatorade, Matthew is too weary to shoo the little band out immediately. When he wakes in the morning, the children are asleep on the floor, but their mother has vanished...with his spare $5000 in cash.

Thus begins an leery, tentative association between the medical doctor whose time-consuming job is his life, the street-wise boy who loves his sister, and adorable little Isabelle who takes a rapid shine to Matthew.

Also in the mix are Amelia and Ben, a couple for whom Matthew played matchmaker, even though Ben is his best friend and Amelia the woman he, Matthew, had formerly lived with and loved. In old screwball comedy style (though with a darker twist), a series of incredible plots pile on. Ben, the brilliant research scientist; Amelia, the think-tanker who scorns as evil the drug companies and those who do their bidding; and Matthew who prides himself on managing his protocols scrupulously can not reconcile their respective views of life. Their struggles highlight the dysfunctions in their threesome and sweep needy Danny and Isabelle into their drama.

Yet out of this seeming ethical wasteland and emotional jumble, the characters succeed in gaining the sympathy and perhaps even empathy of the readers (at least this reader). Danny can con with the best of them to try to gain some stability and permanence for his sister and himself, but we can forgive him his calculating ways more easily than we can the adults. We care about these remarkable kids. Tucker's novel also gets us to care about Matthew, and, to a lesser extent perhaps, Amelia and Ben. When it comes to life, they're all on a pretty steep learning curve, and the question becomes whether they will adjust their value systems to see the world realistically and yet compassionately, and whether they will stop seeing everything as vendible and will deal more honestly and with love.

Tucker juggles her many thematic balls with a lithe, cinematic touch. Anyone who enjoys contemporary novels about memorable characters in socially relevant dilemmas is encouraged to dig into THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Cure, March 23, 2008

By	UES - See all my reviews

Parts of the plot defy belief, and one of the characters (Amelia) is so self-righteous and judgmental I often wanted to smack her on the head, but despite these minor flaws, The Cure for Modern Life is a totally captivating book. The characters seem real and alive--flawed people trying to do their best in difficult and unusual circumstances. And while they find that there's no cure for modern life, and obstacles keep sending you off-course from where you planned to go, sometimes, if you get lucky, you might end up where you belong anyway.

Lisa Tucker is a graceful and thoughtful writer, and her novel delves into the search of love and family, what it means to do the right thing in a complex world, and what our responsibilities are toward other human beings on the planet. I highly recommend this book.