Black humor lightens what otherwise could be a depressing novel

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	• 37 Maria Beaumont Blackstone Audio Inc., 2008 average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Just So-So

I found this book to be an average "pink book" without much character development. I found the main character to be boring and not very believable. It was an easy read, however.

Black humor lightens what otherwise could be a depressing novel

As British stay-at-home mom Fran Clark approaches her 37th birthday, she's not only assessing her life so far (and finding it quite lacking), she's panicking over the party her husband is throwing to celebrate her special day. Fran just can't seem to find the right outfit, one that will mask what the mirror reveals when she looks into it: a sad-looking mouth, bags under her eyes, a slack neck and truly appalling hair. Even as she angsts over not finding a party dress, she is also not showing up for an important job interview. This interview might jump-start her career as a voiceover artist that she dropped when she became a mother. It was also set up by her husband Richard, who is sure to be disgruntled that she didn't manage to attend.

When Fran picks up her two children at school, she meets a bright spot in her dreary life: one of her two best friends, Sureya, who, along with Fran's other good pal, Summer, serves as a major sounding board and support. Unfortunately, Fran also finds another source of insecurity in her life in the form of uber-parent Cassie, who assigns Fran the task of making hats for the children's play. Fran instantly has a sinking feeling, since she doesn't know how to sew, but she is cowed into agreeing to help. As in so many areas of Fran's life, she feels she can't win in this situation; she can't say no, yet somehow she will fail.

As Fran retrieves daughter Molly from her classroom, Molly talks her mother into imitating Mrs. Gottfried, the intimidating school administrator. Now here is one thing Fran can do, and it is guaranteed to make Molly laugh. But Molly doesn't respond the way Fran expects --- because Mrs. Gottfried is standing right behind Fran, and she is not amused by Fran's imitation of her. In fact, she wants to speak with Fran about one of Fran's children. Dread fills Fran, who claims to be too busy to talk with Mrs. Gottfried. The upcoming inevitable discussion looms over Fran's life, adding yet another dark, foreboding cloud while Richard chastises her for missing the job interview.

When Fran meets her friend Summer for lunch the next day, Summer urges her to get a nanny to help with Fran's children. Summer blames most of Fran's problems on Richard's unsupportive attitude. She seems to believe that Fran would acquire a fantastic job, get in shape and gain complete control over her life if she just had a little bit of help. Fran must rush home, meanwhile, because Richard is out of town at a meeting. When she takes her children to the park, she begins talking with another of the school mothers, Natasha, who proves to be funny and fun, not at all like the other moms who constantly seem to be looking down their noses at Fran. When Fran discovers something shocking about Richard, Fran leans on her friends, including her new pal Natasha --- but not nearly as much as she depends on drinking to numb her pain.

Fran's black humor lightens what otherwise could be a depressing take on her ongoing woes and problems as a wife and mother. Readers may find themselves wearying of her lack of constructive action as Fran's life careens from bad to worse. They may also wish for a little more follow-through and realistic resolutions to her many predicaments. Still, this book, with its frequent funny asides, is an entertaining read and concludes on a hopeful note.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

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Loved this book!

I thought this book was a riot. The writing was good, full of funny quips and I liked the main character. As the other reviewer noted about her just kinda wallowing in her pity and doing nothing about it...well, I could so relate with this characteristic. I have depression and it gets VERY hard sometimes as a mother. I've been known to dabble in a few too many glasses of wine myself a couple nights here and there, hehe. And her not showing up to her voice readings was something I could totally relate to. I thought it was a riot. Sometimes I get so anxious about things and have many a times blown off a job interview because of just pure fright. By no means am I so tormented that I can't function. I don't want people to think I'm psycho! I swear I'm normal. But I think a lot of mothers can relate to Fran. All I'm saying is that this book was very realistic to me. And honest. I will definitely check out her other work.

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Extremely Entertaining

When I first heard about this book, I assumed the number "37" might refer to someone's favorite number at the gambling tables in Las Vegas. But upon viewing the cover of this book, my lame guess was instantly replaced by the clear message. It shows a very pink birthday cake with two brightly lit candles in the shape of a "3" and a "7." The candle wax drips steadily down the numbers, messing up how pretty they once looked--the perfect metaphor for the story within its pages depicting the messed up life of our increasingly depressed protagonist, Fran Clark, who barely makes it through her thirty-seventh year.

So we're talking about a female character's midlife crisis. Not the newest of literary material. I promised to reward myself after reading a chapter or two with a generous portion of ice cream. Well, the ice cream never happened until close to midnight when my eyes became barely open slits, and the last page had been turned. As I sat bleary-eyed, appeasing my insistent sweet tooth, I pondered what had so captivated me about this story of the dashed hopes of our unhappy heroine.

We learn early that Fran's life as a wife and mother in upper-class suburbia is spiraling downward very quickly. Her dream is unexpectedly turning into something of a nightmare... Her husband receives a promotion and suddenly spends more time in the office and on airplanes than at home; her children and housework seem to exhaust and bore her in equal measure; the women in her children's school are, by and large, competitive, self-important and clique-ish. She feels left out and inadequate. She misses the days when she was doing voiceovers for commercials but is no longer sure she has what it takes to go back to it. In short, as her self-confidence slides south, she sinks more and more into the faux comfort of cigarettes and chardonnay.

While all of this is nothing new, the book manages to be extremely entertaining. For one thing, Beaumont's writing is clipped and to the point. She writes in the style of Nora Ephron, giving Fran the same wry wit and sharp observations as she goes about her errand-filled days. Fran is an endearing heroine (if often indulging in an overdose of self-pity), and I never lost my interest in her long journey back to sanity. The truth is I Iike her. I feel for her, identify with her and would be happy to have her as my friend, sobs and all. Genuine and without guile, Fran has two good friends who care about her, even when she is too distracted to notice. Her husband is also a good sort, though he too goes through an unfortunate phase of equally questionable behavior. The couple have a lot to learn.

The intricate process of growing self-awareness--the very crux of this story--is touchingly conveyed by the talented author. She understands the elusive quality that can separate two people in spite of their love for one another. How does she explain this sad trajectory? What happened to the communication, once so lively and open and now so inhibited and defensive? We watch Fran change from the strong, vivacious woman her husband married to a person who has shut down, dresses like a slob, feels hopeless, and is certain her husband has found someone else. Her fears grow roots deep inside her until she wants only to escape from herself, easily done with a glass of chardonnay. One day, she forgets to pick up her children from school. On another, she misses an interview for a job. Fran is not indifferent; she is indeed horrified.

I turned the pages, hoping this basically intelligent young woman would "get a grip" and pull herself out of the mess she is making of her life. Beaumont does not write her way into easy, facile answers because there are none. If there were, her book, and the lives of all of us, would be without the ups and downs, without the unexpected hurdles that are our teachers, and when all is said and done, that make our lives both colorful and rich.

by Duffie Bart
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

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Great read!

Picked this up yesterday and have already finished it, not being able to put it down! A great piece of British fiction, great characters and a story line that pulls you in. Highly recommend it!

On the eve of her thirty-seventh birthday, former voice-over artist Fran Clark finds herself in a role she could never have envisioned: that of a surprisingly desperate housewife, who--despite, or because of, her ad-exec husband and two children--finds herself suffocating in her own life. She's far too cynical to take suburban life too seriously, and as she says, "If it weren't for the Happy Meal, several thousand women would have murdered their children." Yet, she can't seem to stop herself from entering a panicky spiral downward, depressed and drinking too much, until she hits rock bottom. It will take both her children and her two best friends counting on her more than they'd ever aniticipated for her to find the inner strength to rebuild her life.

Fran's completely flawed yet completely lovable personality, filled with wit and charm, narrates this intimate, self-deprecating tale. Ultimately, it is a funny and poignant novel about one woman's brutally candid trip to the brink and back.

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