On Every Last One by Anna Quindlen – East Hampton, NY

When I was at Barnard College in the 1970s, Anna Quindlen was a year ahead of me.  She was famous in her own way even then.  I admired her focus and early recognition that she wanted to be a writer.  I love her work, particularly her New York Times column “Life in the 30’s” and her wonderful novels Object Lessons, Black and Blue, One True Thing and Rise and Shine.  Her voice represents my entire generation of women and her words speak for all of us.

Every Last One does not disappoint.  It is classic Quindlen.  The narration sneaks up on you, moving in on an ocean of placid rhythm, hiding the riptide underneath.   The subject matter of this book is brutal, the murder of the narrator’s husband and two of her three children, reminding me of the author’s own Black and Blue  (about wife beating) and Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones (about pedophilia and murder).  These books deal with horrible things that do happen, although we live in fear of them ever happening to us.

My only criticism of this book is that the main action was completely predictable.  It was obvious to me what was going to happen, who was going to do it and why.  However, the narrator’s sense of guilt and karmic responsibility for a transgression of her own came as a complete surprise, adding depth and complexity to an otherwise gruesome yet expected outcome that was revealed entirely too soon.  A good read and beautifully written in true Quindlen style.

On Wolf Hall and the Man Booker Prize – East Hampton, NY

I don’t place much value on prizes – or best-seller lists – to help me decide what to read.  But I have found that the Man Booker Prize is usually awarded to a book of extraordinary depth and originality, so I follow this prize looking for gems.  Noteworthy among the titles I found among Man Booker winners or short-listed titles were:  Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (1999), Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2002), On Chesil Beach (2007) and Atonement (2001) by Ian McEwan, and White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (2008). These are all must reads…up there with The Essays of Montaigne  and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.  That is why I was so disappointed by Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, the 2009 Man Booker Prize winner.

Wolf Hall is undeniably a tour de force.  It is the story of Thomas Cromwell’s ascent to power and fortune during Henry VIII’s notorious reign.  Unlike other historical or fictional accounts of the era that I have read, this one paints a sympathetic portrait of Cromwell and depicts in vivid and convincingly accurate detail the way of life during those times.  Some of the language is breathtaking and the author’s eye/word coordination is admirable.  My chief criticism of the book, however, is that the author seems more determined to impress the reader with her cleverness and wit, as well as knowledge of historical events, than she is in moving us forward and touching us inward with the extraordinary emotional impact that these events must have had on the characters.  Instead of a riveting story, we are left with a rather pretentious accounting.  Mantel also introduces what seems like hundreds of characters, none of which emerge as truly important to the story except Cromwell of course.  These characters appear as cameos and bit players; just as we start to think we could get involved with them they disappear.  I would have liked to know more about Cromwell’s father and wife, the nun who feigns to see the future, etc.  The characters are just props to set the stage with.

I enjoyed the portrayal of Cromwell himself as a kind of Dick Cheney to Henry VIII’s George Bush – a master manipulator, behind the scenes string puller.  Ironically, both Henry VIII and George Bush have something else in common…they seem proof that the choices leaders make really can change history.

Website Launch!

Here we have the website launch.

Thanks for visiting.

I expect to write here to let you know all about what’s going on in my life.

Sugar Tower

The subject matter surrounding this mystery is timely and fresh without calling attention to itself. The demise of the printed news story, the consequences of a young woman building her career first, the wide dispersion of families, the trophy wife, the downside of privilege and the fragility of invested wealth are among themes woven into this excerpt, any or all of which can be developed to make this a first rate read.

Make Me an Offer

Camilla Madison and Alyson Strong are two women thrown together by fate, both dealing with an early trauma in entirely different ways. Alyson, aggressive and brilliant, uses her ingenuity to take what ever she can get, and Camilla, resilient and receptive, tries to find herself amid the choices and events she encounters along the way.This story is a modem mirror image of the real world, in which the heroines negotiate careers, marriages, lovers, children, friendship, and pain on their own -neither waiting for a man to save them nor to sweep them off their feet.A funny, touching, and ruthless story -set against the backdrop of the glamorous real estate and publishing worlds of New York and Palm Beach – Make Me An Offer will mesmerize and entertain you as the lives of its heroines inevitably intertwine. You will come away convinced that it”s not what life dishes out but how you deal with it that counts.

The Secret Life of Sandrina M

A married businesswoman finds her career and home in jeopardy when she falls inlove with an enigmatic man she meets in Brazil. Her life becomes a whirlwind of lust,betrayal, guilt and conflicting emotions as she struggles to protect her family even asher passion drives her unrelentingly into the arms of the unknown. Sandrina Favonian is a brilliant and beautiful businesswoman whose life resembles a fairy tale. Having created a successful international public relations business and a stable and happy home life in Manhattan with her husband Michael Morgan and their children Chase and Vanessa, Sandrina seems to have nothing lacking in her enviable existence. This picture-perfect life is turned upside down when a chance encounter with a handsome and complex stranger, Warren Waterhouse, throws Sandrina’s pleasant but ordered world into instant chaos. Against a backdrop of exotic locales, arcane magic, and fast-moving business deals, Sandrina and Warren begin a torrid affair. As their feverish trysts become ever bolder and more dangerous, Sandrina finds herself lying to her loving husband and children, neglecting her business duties and spiraling downwards in a vortex of her own making. Sub-plots involving business intrigue, family dynamics, high-society and marital relationships, keep this novel paced like a race-horse to the finish line. Tender Offer is above all a story of self-discovery that every woman can identify with. Sandrina is an alluring character whose intelligence, charm and beauty are surpassed only by her strong moral compass and her unswerving belief in honesty and loyalty. However, her passionate love for Warren, and temporary loss of self, winds up compromising these beliefs, forcing her to reassess her choices and motivations in an otherwise charmed life.

Dine and Discuss: 10/14/2010

DINE and DISCUSS
Thursday, October 14 • 5-7 PM

JULIA’S RESTAURANT and WINE BAR 91 First Ave Atlantic Highlands, NJ

Have dinner and meet author Jessica Dee Rohm to discuss her first novel Make Me An Offer *

A limited number of copies of Make Me an Offer may be checked out at the AH Library

*Make Me An Offer & Tender Offer are available forsale on line at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Dinner Reservations for 5pm may be made directly through Julia’s Restaurant 732-872-1007 or at http://www.juliasrestaurantnj.com

Copyright © Jessica Dee Rohm