"Charming chick-lit"
Alison and Tom prepare to host a dinner party with some
friends when she realizes that she is out of Dijon mustard
needed to make a sauce for the chicken she is cooking.
Tom goes to the grocery store to buy some, but instead of
returning with non-spicy mustard, he calls an hour later
to inform Alison that he is not coming back because he
loves someone else. Tom demands that Alison not write a
word of how he broke up their relationship in her weekly
column she writes for the Philadelphia Times, a
floundering Village Voice wannabe. Tom, who met his college sweetheart for lunch
periodically, went back to the beautiful Kate Pearce, with
whom he has been sleeping for several months. A
broke Alison, with the encouragement of her pregnant
friend Bonnie seeks THE BIG LOVE. She meets males
including her boss on sex quests, but though she partakes
with some she keeps asking what about Henry, her peer at
the paper? He does not seek her scalp for his jock strap,
but instead provides support to the bewildered Alison. THE BIG LOVE is an amusing and intelligent observation of
how a thirty-two years old female reacts to her live-in
lover dumping her. Alison who narrates much of the chick
lit tale is a lively protagonist wondering whether she
wants Tom to return to her (could King and Alison's
girlfriends be right that "They Always Come Back"?) or
find her BIG LOVE as Tom obviously is not. With a strong
support cast, Sarah Dunn provides a witty account of
recovering and exploring life following a "Big Love"
dumping. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted June 13, 2004
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An Anthology to Surprise and Delight
Writing short stories is not easy. The reason it isn't easy is because they are short. The writer is still charged with producing living characters who have personalities: good, bad, or milksop. Add to that a dynamic narrative that gives you, the reader, an opportunity to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste what the folks who inhabit those little stories do, and the authors have a demanding job on their hands. Short stories are a great deal more than sitting on an old apple crate and hammering away at the QWERTY. What’s that you say? Well, of course it’s a word. Look it up. Anyway, we decided to provide something antiquotidian for your? Huh? Will you please stop interrupting? Antiquotidian’something out of the ordinary; a work that is not commonplace. Is that better? Anyway, where were we? Oh, yeah, we decided to assemble an anthology that departs from the same old, same old. It has a theme, but it is not designed around a specific holiday, a particular genre, or any of the other time-battered ideas. This one has as its shaky foundation something that is even more difficult for authors to pull off with grace. It is for that reason that the lineup of writers in this anthology were chosen. They not only write good stories, but they are able to do what many can?t. They are going to lead you through the rose garden and up that little hill ? see it there? ? and when you?ve reached the crest of that knoll, they are going to gleefully toss you off the cliff. Yeah, you heard it right. They?re going to give you a little jolt that you were not expecting, and, at the same instant, give you reason to pause. To think. What? Why, sure you can. Some of these stories will cause you to think for a long time, and some of them will have you kicking your mental butt because you didn?t see it coming. Don't you just love it? Oh, sorry about that. We should have told you that in the beginning, huh? The name of this anthology is: TWISTED TAILS. And don?t come up with any smart remarks, we?ve heard them all.
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