Synopses & Reviews
Reluctantly back home in L.A. after 16 years in Africa, documentary filmmaker Mouse FitzHenry longs for the harsh, teeming jungle life her lens took in so lovingly. Wrenched Stateside by a family emergency, with her longtime boyfriend/collaborator in tow, Mouse is instantly beleaguered by a past shed leapt continents to escape. In this rollicking novel, Karbo explores familiar subjects the phony glitz of Hollywood, the fairy tale lure of love and marriage with precision, compassion, and humor. Mouses paramour, Tony, a Brit who calls her poppet,” adores L.A. and all that it can do for him and his screenplay. Mouse, meanwhile, caving in to maternal pressure, agrees to marry Tony and then proceeds, with the help of an old flame, to film around her unwitting fiancé a documentary on the entire process of their betrothal called Wedding March. A flawless, page-turning story emerges as Mouse and Tony manage often with hilarious subterfuge to keep their projects secret from one another. With its laugh-aloud moments and a cast of brilliantly drawn characters, this is a tale to treasure.
Review
"A flawless, page-turning story...this is a tale to treasure." Publishers Weekly
Review
"A wonderfully comic novel about savvy Hollywood outsiders trying to get in...not only is the plot ingenious, but the writing remains deft all the way through." The New York Times
Review
"It is a testament to Karbo's skill at high comedy that the ending of this book a funeral rather than a wedding leaves you smiling." The New Yorker
Review
"This astringent, humorous novel tackles two subjects ripe for satire: the Hollywood movie industry and marriage both notoriously fickle institutions requiring blind hope to sustain life." Los Angeles Times
Review
"This kind of novel is a devil to pull off...and Ms. Karbo has done her job brilliantly." The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Karen Karbo is the author of 14 award-winning novels, memoirs, and works of nonfiction, including the best-selling
Kick Ass Women series:
Julia Child Rules, How Georgia Became O'Keeffe, The Gospel According to Coco Chanel, and
How to Hepburn. Her 2004 memoir,
The Stuff of Life, about the last year she spent with her father before his death, was a
New York Times Notable Book, a
People Magazine Critics Choice, a Books for a Better Life Award finalist, and a winner of the Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction. Her short stories, essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in
Elle, Vogue, Esquire, Outside, The New York Times, Salon, and other magazines. She lives in Portland, OR.
Jane Smiley's novel A Thousand Acres won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992, and her novel The All True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton won the 1999 Spur Award for Best Novel of the West. She lives in Carmel, CA.
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by Karen Karbo