Having enjoyed May we
be forgiven, I put another title by Homes on reserve. In many ways, it is a very similar book, and
similarly enjoyable. Richard Novak is
rich, but his life seems completely without any real focus or meaning. A sudden attack of mysterious and
overwhelming pain gets him out of the house for the first time in a month when
he goes off to the ER. Returning home,
he tells the taxi to let him off at a donut shop he has noticed and meets the
first of a series of colorful characters who will change his life. Meanwhile, his hill-side home in LA has also
had a physical crisis – a sinkhole has developed that threatens to swallow it
up. Mixing the stories of an immigrant
(Anhil the donut shop owner), a famous movie star, an iconic writer from the
sixties, a crying housewife in the produce department, and a fraudulent doctor
with those of his ex-wife, the 17 year old son he barely knows, his aging
parents in Florida, and a rich miscellanea of others minor characters makes the
book a fun read. Much depends on unrealistic
coincidences, like her later novel. Witty
and a bit sad. 372 pp.
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