Wednesday, August 09, 2006

LITERACY AND LONGING IN LA

Literacy and Longing in LA, Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack, Random House Inc, 2006, 315 pp
Fun! Chick-lit with a literary flavor. Dora (named for Eudora Welty) is separated from her husband and having a rough time in West LA. She binges on reading to escape. Of course, there is lots of red wine involved but the main thing is shutting off all phones, not picking up email or answering the door. Just reading for days on end.

Dora had a bad childhood but she is not poor (in West LA?) She haunts a local bookstore called McKenzie's, which is a thinly disguised Duttons. Naturally she starts dating a bookseller. But there is some depth here as Dora deals with her demons: motherhood (yes or no?), jobs, friends, family and of course men.

Through it all are references to books, literary pilgrimages and even a grand finale of violence to books. Like I said, fun!

No comments:

Post a Comment