Cutting the Sweetness
Another one that goes back to the stack... I like the premise of the book. According the little library card stuck in front, it's about a middle-aged woman who's caught in a boring marriage. A pregnant 17-year old barges in and gingers up stuff. A situation ripe with pregnant possibilities, and my imagination was fired.
- Author: Peta Tayler
- Publisher: Headline
- Published: 1996
- Pages: 282
- ISBN:: 0-7472-1705-X
Perhaps last week (the second week of January 2003, for the record) was a better week for writing than for reading. This isn't the only book I returned to store. I didn't finish The Code of the Woosters, either, but that one is still on the to-read, or more accurately, the to-read-again stack. I only discontinued reading the Master's immortal prose because I acquired Carry On, Jeeves, whereas I quit reading this book because I plain didn't like it.
The first few pages are a bit turgid, but not devoid of imagination. The setup of the situation is adequately done: woman has married a dry, boring accountant. Accountant is fired from his job, and masks that by going to the library and hiding there. Woman has a small job on the side and enjoys that.
Everything is ready for the appearance of the promised pregant 17-year old, who, if I'd written this book, revitalizes the marriage in no uncertain way.
Except that that doesn't happen. A lot of intrigue and stuff going on, ending with a divorce. Blech. Not imaginative at all. All books where the wife is shackled to a boring accountant-type end with divorce, and her settling down with a happy new relationship, leaving the man behind in the doldrums. It might be realistic, but it's not interesting anymore.
So I've put this book away, and taken up something else.