By Janice Kaplan & Lynn Schnurnberger This sounded like the real-life saga of a derm-addicted socialite, who lives from injectable fix to injectable fix, but was I wrong. It’s actually chick lit of the fluffiest sort, in the league of The Nanny Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada.
Two best friends, Jess and Lucy, are both moms in their forties, which makes them part of the Botox Generation apparently, fighting wrinkles and issues about their desirability. Jess is a single mom with a hot French ex-husband who suddenly pops back into her life (insert Olivier Martinez). Lucy is a TV producer carrying on an affair with her TV host (the ludicrously named Hunter Green), while her reliable yet attractive husband frets at home (insert David Duchovny).
It’s a predictable yet occasionally sharp and funny ride through female midlife crises, from bake sales to Botox parties, sex to cellulite. And while Jess flirts with the idea of nipping and tucking, guess what? She remains a virgin, "plastic surgically speaking, of course."
The literary equivalent of a popcorn movie, The Botox Diaries would make good beach or summer reading, when you don’t want to expend too much brain power. For deeper, more profound takes on marriage and motherhood, try The Bride Stripped Bare (see below) or I Don’t Know How She Does It, by Allison Pearson.
THE BRIDE STRIPPED BARE
By Anonymous
In the Afterword, the author explains why she had to write this book anonymously: "It’s the only way I could write it: as a mother, a daughter, and most of all, a wife. I loved the idea of exploring a woman’s secret life… but soon found I was censoring myself. Afraid of the reactions of people close to me… afraid of hurting them."
And there’s much to hurt and shock family members in this riveting tale of an unnamed bride who, deliriously in love, discovers during a belated honeymoon that her husband might be having an affair with her best friend. After her denial and anger comes revenge, in the form of a handsome, half-Spanish actor named Gabriel.
The bride’s transition from good, innocent wife to sexual adventurer leading a double life is a dark one, to say the least, yet in the author’s hands, disquietingly convincing. You’ll have a hard time loosening the grip of this book, even when it’s tickling your gag reflex. Sidestepping all the usual clichés, the author writes with a rare brevity and beauty.
Ironically, it’s been revealed to international hoopla that Anonymous is really Nikki Gemmell, an Australian author who’s been called a female Jack Kerouac for her novels about itinerant women who live as strangers in strange lands. The bride in Stripped Bare is no different, except her uncharted territory is an emotional one. Not for the faint-hearted, this book should be read now before Hollywood (which has already optioned it for hundreds of thousands of dollars) turns it into a watered-down movie.
THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB
By Louise Erdrich
Contrary to the title, this book isn’t really about master butchery or about singing: it’s The Great American Novel as written by one woman. Erdrich, who comes from hardy German stock, writes about what she knows best: the lives of immigrant families following their American dream.
Fidelis Waldvogel, a young German who survives World War I, returns to his village and marries Eva, the pregnant widow of his best friend, killed in action. Armed with a suitcase full of sausages and a master butcher’s precious knife set, Fidelis sails for America, and settles in Argus, North Dakota, where he builds a business, a home for his family, and a singing club that attracts the best voices in town. Then a strong, independent-minded woman named Delphine Watzka enters the picture, and the novel really takes off. Delphine meets Eva and they become lifelong bosom friends. She meets Fidelis, and the earth shakes. What happens between these characters makes up the rich tapestry of this book, which is engaging and ultimately a very rewarding read. Erdrich is deft with plot, and keeps the narrative humming while enriching it with vivid detail, much like a modern-day John Steinbeck. O, the Oprah magazine, calls The Master Butchers Singing Club "a substantial, beautifully composed, confident work of art." I have to agree.
THE FULL CUPBOARD OF LIFE
By Alexander McCall Smith
This is the fifth book in Alexander McCall Smith’s cult hit series, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. What sets these books apart from other mysteries is the fact that they take place in Botswana, with a wise, earth-mothery heroine, Mma Precious Ramotswe, doing the detecting.
In this installment, she’s engaged to Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, a skilled yet very humble mechanic, who can’t quite seem to set a wedding date. Taking her mind off this fact is a new case–simple yet requiring great diplomacy: a wealthy lady who owns a chain of hair-braiding salons wants to marry but can’t decide among four suitors. The mission? Investigate each one to see if they’re really after her, or her money.
I came in very late to this series. This is the first book I read, which I wouldn’t really recommend. Endearing though the characters are, I think you need the first two books, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and Tears of the Giraffe, to really put them in context. McCall Smith writes in a very British style, with wry humor and familiarity about daily life in Botswana, and must be lauded for creating interesting, well-rounded women characters of "traditional shape" and thinking. This series makes you want to sink into an overstuffed chair and begin from the beginning. It makes you think you can pretty much solve any problem from the vantage point of a porch chair, communing with nature and ruminating over a steaming mug of dark, sweet bush tea.
All books are available at A Different Bookstore branches in Glorietta 3, Makati, and Eastwood, Libis, and Ink & Stone in the Podium, Ortigas Center.