Side Effects: A New Orleans Love Story (Hardcover)

by Patty Friedmann (Author) "LENNON sees Errol Nash, out in the waiting area, reach over and squeeze the bulbs on all the sphygmomanometers, and the cuffs are jumping in..." (more)
Key Phrases: stargazer lilies, king cake, dying order, New Orleans, New York, Central Park (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Friedman's charming story (after Secondhand Smoke) of the unlikely affection among three diverse co-workers at a New Orleans pharmacy also now reads as a tribute to a unique American city that will never be the same. N.O. Drugstore employees Luciana Jambon, Lennon Israel and Vendetta Greene enjoy a friendship that binds and buoys them as they deal with pandemonium at work and overbearing families at home. Beautiful, plump pharmacy manager Luciana (aka Ciana) doesn't get the same respect from her family—her older brother and sister-in-law—that she does from her colleagues. Lennon, who is just shy of his pharmacy doctorate, is smitten with Ciana despite her age (his senior), race (white) and weight (200 pounds). Vendetta Greene, a pharmacy assistant, single mom and Ciana's best friend, is constantly barraged at home by her two freeloading sisters. When a tragedy leaves Ciana reeling, Lennon and Vendetta are there for her. Lennon's love for Ciana deepens as he supports her in her time of need and works to unravel the mystery of her mother's death. Awkwardly written but with Southern flare, Friedmann's tale depicts three idiosyncratic characters who discover that together they can face and overcome adversity. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Friedmann continues to write about the curious mix of beauty and squalor that has distinguished the city. Her latest novel takes readers to the N.O. Drugstore at the corner of South Claiborne and South Carrollton, where in-your-face black Pigeontown residents and condescending white Tulane students collide. Here, pharmacist Ciana Jambon dispenses prescriptions for a wide-ranging population as the quiet drama of her life unfolds against the daily spectacle of her environment. Her two cohorts, Vendetta Greene and Lennon Israel, are also her closest friends and see her through bitter exchanges with her older brother and his grasping wife and her grief when her mother dies suddenly. To complicate matters, the death has an air of mystery around it: Cianas sister-in-law had taken Mother Jambon to New York for a weekend visit and is less than forthcoming about all that occurred there. The story is by turns humorous and heartbreaking, and the author is adept at capturing that quirky combination of love and resentment that characterizes so many families. Friedmanns themes of sibling rivalry and unlikely friendships will linger with readers.–Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (November 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593760965
• ISBN-13: 978-1593760960
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,592,755 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Side Effects, A New Orleans Love Story, May 2, 2006

By	Deborah Reed (Ochlockonee Bay, Florida) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If Secondhand Smoke proved Patty Friedmann reigning Queen of Black Humor, her new novel, Side Effects, A New Orleans Love Story, presents her as the South's Queen of Compassion. I just met three vibrant new characters whose divisive racial, class and educational backgrounds should have them at each other's throats. Instead, these drugstore pharmacy employees, Ciana, Vendetta, and Lennon, bond together to solve a family murder. Each voice is an original; each character speaks in dialogue grounded in New Orleans. Their talk is street poetry, as unique to this city of soul as Mardi Grai or Jazz Fest. Like reading good poetry, I found myself backing up to savor the spoken syllables a second time. This is splendid reading, a driving narrative, not five stars so much as a small galaxy.

Deborah Reed

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From a Pharmacist, July 13, 2007

By	Dawn Hooley (Merritt Island, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Side Effects: A New Orleans Love Story (Paperback)

My favorite beach read this summer!!!! I fell in love with the characters and the pharmacy stories interwoven into the story were so funny I'm sure they were based on real life patients. Not sure if Patty ever worked in a pharmacy, but she got all of the nuances of the work enviorment, the family atmosphere and the co-dependency of the pharmacy staff with each other (and their patients).

The evolution of integrating all ethnicities into a work enviorment in today's day and time were also very true to life and interesting in this story as the main character (a white pharmacist) has her eye on her pharmacy student (a black man). The pharmacist is also best friends with her black technician and doesn't think twice about pitching in to become part of her family drama in repayment of all of the wisdom her employee/friend has given her with her own family drama usually initated by her upper crust sister-in-law upon the mysterious death of her mother.

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just okay, August 30, 2006

By	Lori P (Chandler, AZ) - See all my reviews

Shortly after reading " Secondhand Smoke " by the same author, I tried this one out. I did not like it as much. There was not enough of a story for me. It just kind of kept repeating things. I would have preferred a better ending than it had. I did enjoy the New Orleans references tremendously. I am a native of New Orleans, but I always wonder about what others would think about a book like this!