A Very Good Read-Unlike Delinsky's Usual Style

books:


	• Flirting with Pete Barbara Delinsky Scribner Book Company, 2003 average customer review:based on 43 reviews
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highly recommended

To Inherit & Earn A Mansion

FLIRTING WITH PETE deserves multiple awards, for several reasons, not the least being literary techniques deftly executed, well-paced plotting maintaining reader attention at a perfect edge; characters beautifully, appealingly drawn; issues of social impact sensitively dramatized; and entertainment sparks surged throughout.

My main reason for reading novels is the refreshing pleasure of vicarious escape, which is sometimes more gratifying than reality at its best. I rarely force myself to read "Good" books of supposed literary value, which I know, by nature of what intellectuals call literary, will be depressingly soul leaching. I'm rarely in the mood to immerse myself in a book which will off-set my gyroscope and cajole me into a sudden leap off a 50 story building without my cape. This is why my reading of choice has often been Historic Romances or Culinary Cozy Mysteries, though I enjoy certain types of sci fi/fantasy. Once in a while I will cautiously read a mainstream novel, usually by a female author who launched her career in the Romance genre, as Barbara Delinsky did.

Well, okay. I admire certain of the classics. I certainly admire the exquisite wordsmithing. I willingly and voraciously read ATLAS SHRUGGED and FOUNTAINHEAD several times each. There are more glowing examples within the exceptions to my Rule against Good Literature. But that's not the point I'm rolling over at the moment. So I'll slither off it.

In view of a healthy desire to read what truly is good for me (NOT what I'm told is "good" for me), I was pleased to easily get into FLIRTING WITH PETE. Whenever I read anything, in order to apply successful techniques into my own work, I hold a vital question at the front of my mind, "WHAT grabs my attention in this reading so that I'm able to comfortably and completely slip into the book's reality and live totally and refreshingly there, at least for the time during which I'm reading.

In the case of FLIRTING WITH PETE, as is frequently the capture for me, I wanted to wallow in a situation of luxury, like inheriting a SUPER EXPENSIVE, elegant, luxurious, perfect townhouse such as the one Casey was awarded. At the outset of the plot, however, if Casey didn't go there and LIVE, without undue agony and foot dragging, I was going to toss the book out the window.

Yes! I was pleased with the way Delinsky realistically dealt with Casey's naturally flowing pro and con feelings, without allowing any misused traits of stubbornness to deny herself (and the reader) the pleasure of that GIFT for too long. The timing and method of getting Casey into a regular routine at the townhouse was PERFECT. Yippppeeeeeee!!

So, happily and with great, gleeful relish, I was INNNNNNN.

And the author kept me there in perfect pacing throughout the novel, even though I drug my feet through Jenny's painful episodes, especially at first. I found myself skipping to the next Casey segment, reading a bit, to assure myself that there was a reward at the end of the emotionally raw tunnel. Then, I'd return to the Jenny segment and read slowly, emotionally shored, with breaks between bouts of immersion, to renew my emotional strength and heal my psyche. I'm an overly sensitive person, and thus I viscerally experience what I read, especially when reading something very well written (in the reader capture sense).

I might mention the parallels between Jenny's story and Stephen King's CARRIE, similarities of character and plot. Delinsky's rendition on this teen-peer-acceptance issue is realistic, as well as beautifully and sensitively done. As is the case with King's perceptiveness of human nature and angst, Delinsky's psychology background is exposed well here.

Even though I have a master's equivalent in psychology, I hated the term "dysfunctional" upon first hearing it. While I'm TOO functional myself, I feel that those labeled as dysfunctional are done a criminal injustice. When Delinsky noted (regarding Flirting With Pete) that she wanted to write about a dysfunctional character (Jenny), at least once, since her characters had all been functional, I was pleased that she drew Jenny as a true heroine with whom a reader could identify (rather than keeping her at a repulsive, psychological "arms-length"), and brought her from "dysfunctional" to functional. Of course, I saw her as functional all along.

I liked the older term, "Defense Mechanisms," given to the personality dramas creativity exposed in excellent books like, SYBIL, and DIBS, IN SEARCH OF SELF. Some psychologists have noted that Defense Mechanisms are highly creative, admirable ways certain grossly abused psyches have dealt healthily with very painful, difficult situations. Rather than looking down long, critically bumped noses at these "escapes" from realities of torture, these psychologists have shown the various decisive behaviors in the kind, true light of a creative, healthy response, rather than stigmatizing them as dysfunctions, illnesses, neuroses, or psychoses.

I've not only been immersed in psychological studies, but I've also worked with police departments in the Portland, Oregon area. After doing extensive research on the crime, perpetrators, and victims, while hired in the capacity of a community service representative for the Portland Police Department, I gave city-wide talks on rape prevention. I had read incoming, raw police reports on rape for nearly a year. With this experience and more, I can say with confidence and "backup" that Delinsky's characterizations in FWP are realistic, as well as sensitive and triumphantly uplifting.

Furthermore, I believe it's harder to write fiction which builds toward true, clean catharsis, than it is to write trash called glorious (usually accomplished in an alcoholic haze) in which deflation, ennui, or downright despair are the unavoidable reader responses throughout the journey, which invariable ends in the bad taste of a dark mood which lingers in miasmatic stench, beyond the last page of such novels of "Great Literature." Yes, I enjoyed tremendously Delinsky's attitude toward this dark type of highbrow-recommended reading material.

Thankfully, in view of the way publishers are forced to limit the output of most well-received authors, there are a few other Historic Romance (and other genre) writers who have evolved into mainstream novelists without trashing the healthy reading joys inherent in the Romance genre, the fun plotting, spunky characters, refreshing humor, and guaranteed uplifting conclusions.

There's so much more I'd wanted to say about various excellent details of FLIRTING WITH PETE, which struck me as exquisitely done as I was reading, and hoping I would remember a particularly well done statement or segment. I loved the way Delinsky alternated the Jenny segments subplot as pieces of a typed mystery manuscript offered to Casey as a treasure hunt of sorts, tying it in as her father's therapy technique offered in his own published works. What a masterful weaving method incredibly well executed.

I could go through each chapter and excerpt copious examples of beautifully effective prose; I could compliment methods of dancing within issues and handling of situations; I could point out fun, realistic dialogue; fawn over the abundance of sensual, luxuriously descriptive paragraphs. If I did that in the detail in which would be possible, I'd be writing a book about this book!

My hat's (a square cotton neck scarf wrapped around my head) off to all writers who are retaining the best of the healthy entertainment inherent within the genres, while seamlessly blending tasty treats of rich and fancy, creatively refreshing literary footwork.

Linda G. Shelnutt

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Excellent

Another Barbara Delinsky jewel. This book is one of her best. It keeps you interested and cheering for the characters. Her writing is timeless and beautiful. This book shows the very essence of the human spirit, and our need for love and compassion. The characters are so real, you feel yourself getting very involved in their lives.

The main character, Casey, is so real and believable you feel you know her personally by the end of the book. I couldn't wait to get to the end to see what happened, but then I was so upset because it was over.

Give yourself a treat and read this book!!

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Pretty good, but not the best...

I thought this was an ok book. I liked the idea of it, and the two stories in one, but it just didn't grab me and hold my attention. Don't get me wrong, the book is pretty good, I just never felt a real connection with any of the characters or events.

The book is mainly about Casey Ellis, whose father Connie Unger passed away. She always knew who he was but never met him, and resented him for not trying to find her. Well, he leaves her his townhouse on Beacon Hill, and she proceeds to try to find out all about Connie, his life, who he was and ect. She stumbles upon a story about a young girl named Jenny Clyde and her struggles with an abusive father, a town where no one talks to her, and how she goes about overcoming her troubles (this is the second story). But Casey gets only parts of the story at a time. She must figure out how to put all the pieces together and and solve the puzzle that she believes her father left her.

Now, I figured out the big secret about half-way through the book, so once it was revealed, I wasn't very surprised. All the clues the author gives you, I almost wonder if that was the intent. It was about that time I started losing interest. I love Barbara Delinsky, and have read a bunch of her books, but this one just wasn't one of my favorites. I'll definitely continue reading her stuff, but this will not be at the top of my list. All I can say is that I hope you have better luck with it than I did.

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A Summer Delight!

It was very creative to weave two stories together. My husband made a comment this morning. "You finished the book? Man, you hardly put it down. Addicting huh?"
Delinsky has the talent to take you into the sights and feelings of her locations and characters.

A Very Good Read-Unlike Delinsky's Usual Style

I enjoyed this book very well, and thought it was well written. Casey always yearned for a father that would pay attention to her, unlike her own. Even after she followed in her father's footsteps in the field of pschology, he still remained distant. So when Connie Unger dies suddenly, and leaves Casey his big townhouse worth a few million, she doesn't figure it out. Why would he, when he seemed to not want her around?

Casey decides then, after her Dad's funeral, that she would move in. In her search through the house, she finds a transcript her dad left entitled, "Flirting With Pete." Is this story real or fictional as told by the late Connie Unger. The book takes us back and forth into the story of Jenny, and her very abusive father. Jenny finds solace in her relationship with Pete, and he is her protector. She doesn't meet Pete however, until her Dad is getting ready to get out of prison on parole. He had committed murder, and the town will have nothing to do with him of course, when he gets out. And Jenny, feeling scared with her Dad's arrival, finds escape with Pete.

Did she die?, Casey wondered as she read her Dad's transcript, or is Jenny alive somewhere? You'll need to read and find out.

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reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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