The Smart One

Have you ever read a contemporary novel and so connected with one of the characters that you could imagine him/her as a friend?  That’s the way I feel about Bev, the main character in Ellen Meister’s The Smart One.  Bev is the middle of three sisters - the Smart One, eldest is Clare – the Pretty One, youngest is Joey – the Wild One.

Meister writes in Bev’s voice; we read all the self-deprecating and self-doubting asides that are in Bev’s head, as well as share her outward joys and struggles.  She is smart, cynical and ironic – just the kind of girlfriend I’d like to have over for a cup of coffee, to wit:

I never really understood the whole sitting-on-the-lap thing.  To me, it was about as sexy as getting weighed, and made me nearly as self-conscious … the more I tried to get comfortable perched on [his] thighs, the more I realized how undignified I felt.  It made me wonder if other women felt as I did.  Would Clare and Joey feel infantilized on a man’s lap?  Or would they throw their arms around his shoulders and snuggle into his neck?  I cursed the roll of the DNA dice that bestowed my sisters the flirting gene and not me.  Granted, I had gifts they lacked.  But what good was a talent for getting the fifty-point bonus in Scrabble when you were trying to score in a different way entirely?

The novel opens as Bev returns to her parents’ Long Island home at a pivotal point in her life – she has divorced her cheating husband, decided to change careers to elementary eduction (after spending more than a decade in a series of entry-level jobs related vaguely to her graphic arts eduction), and is interested in relocating to Las Vegas in order to put as much distance as possible between herself and the shambles her life has become.  Clearly, her self-esteem is low.

Bev’s parents have been visiting their next-door-neighbors, the Waxmans, at the Waxman’s “snowbird” residence, and have extended their trip to Florida due to her father’s broken ankle.  Bev is asked to assist with some maintenance issues at the Waxman’s home, as their son Kenny is unavailable, busy with his job as a comedy writer in Los Angeles.  In Kenny, Ellen Meister has created a character who is the perfect vehicle for the delivery of her best puns and wordplay.

The novel centers around Bev and her sisters, but the extended cast of characters interact with the three women in a way that adds compassion, excitement and romance to the mix.  The discovery of a body stuffed inside an old industrial barrel is the proverbial “tip of the iceberg” in the long list of mysteries and conflicts to be sorted out.

I have to confess that when I saw the bright “girly” cover and read the synopsis I thought, “oh, good, this will be a quick light read … I’ll dash off the review in no time!”.  Well, The Smart One turns out to be a deeper read with real/true personalities dealing with real/true situations.  Yes, there are light moments of over-the-top humor and some situations that seem less than realistic, but these lighter moments temper the tough decisions that Bev has to make as she finds her path to the next steps in her life – career, romance and family relationships.  Despite the cupcakes on the cover, this novel packs more “meat” than “sweet”, confronting such issues as infidelity, love versus lust, aging/ailing parents, the power of addiction, and the strength of the stereotypical roles we play in our own families.

I was pleased to be invited to review this novel as part of the author tour on Blog Stop Book Tours; many thanks to Mary Lewis for introducing me to the work of Ellen Meister, a talented and clever writer!  I’m going to add her debut novel, Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA, to my wish list.  If you’d like to learn more, visit the author’s website or check out other stops on the blog tour:   Mom Is Just A Nickname, Virtual Wordsmith, Musings From The Mitten, The Book Faery Reviews, Maw Books, Fighting With Writing, Book Room Reviews, Presenting Lenore and Anything That Pays… A Freelance Writer’s Blog.

I promised a small surprise for one lucky reader – here it is!  I think that we have a bit of the pretty one, the smart one and the wild one in each of us.  I have a little gift package with a cosmetic bag (with mirror, perfect for corralling lipstick, a comb and hair ties in your handbag), a brain-teaser puzzle (should be a cinch for the smart one in you!), and some rub-on tattoos (that rebel phase isn’t permanent, is it?).  Just leave a comment about The Smart One (your take on sibling “labelling”, perhaps?); enter by midnight on Thursday September 4, I’ll announce the winner next Friday!