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Executive Times |
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2008 Book Reviews |
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Attachment
by Isabel Fonseca |
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Rating: |
*** |
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(Recommended) |
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Click
on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Infidelity Isabel
Fonseca’s debut novel, Attachment,
peels away at the life of protagonist Jean Hubbard as the author displays
some of the rot underneath the idyllic appearance of Jean’s life. The novel
leaps from St. Jacques, an island in the Indian Ocean to which Jean and her husband
of twenty-three years, Mark, have decamped, to London where daughter,
Victoria, has fallen in love with Vikram, and where Jean undertakes some
worrying medical tests, to New York, where Jean’s father is hospitalized, and
then back to St. Jacques. Along the way, infidelity appears alongside other
forms of sickness. Here’s an excerpt, pp. 23-4: The cyber cafe was unusually
crowded. Jean got the corner computer, beside a black teenager whose forehead
glistened like a polished plum. He was typing one-sentence replies to one-sentence
questions: instant messaging. She knew what this was---one new skill she
didn't feel called on to acquire. She checked her work e-mail first, and then
the joint account set up by and mainly for Victoria. The boy beside her
didn't look up as she finally typed in the new account name, naughtyboyl, and
the password, munyeroo. And there was 69, a lonely pair of inverted
spermatozoa, each chasing the other's tail. The slender slot was discreetly
blanked. Steeling herself to click and open, she looked again at the letter
in the white envelope. Munyeroo. Jean immediately thought of the Australian
at the gym, the blond woman with the spectacular natural frontage. But there
was Italian here as well that ciao Bello. An Australian of Italian descent, that's it, Jean
thought. She remembered Mark joking, many years ago, that the primary appeal
of Australian girls in London was their departure the following morning for
New South Wales,, forever. But the letter had originated in London. Thing 2
didn't play by the rules. Jean
opened the attachment. It took a long time to download. Luckily the boy next to her left before
the full-screen image appeared. Jesus! Australia
didn't waste time. She wondered how much a chest like that might weigh. At
almost life-size, it was a not-so-good pair, she thought—big nippled and
uniformly bronzed. Jean believed in the essential sexiness of untanned
triangles—the idea, at least, that not just anyone enjoyed this view—not that
her skin ever turned anything but redder, or that she ever wore a bikini. But
these were undeniably young and undeniably large. And what was that black
thing? The edge of a tattoo? A whole generation of young people—including
Victoria with her lizard—in painful pursuit of decoration and emphasis, just
what they didn't need. Their inkings should warn off persons from their
parents' era, Jean thought. In fact, that might be just the sort of boundary
tattoos were there to demarcate-noli me tangere. There
were a couple of other photographs, all with elaborate captions.
"Giovana" promised Mark L.O.V.E.—long
overdue experience, even fucking that up; but then Giovana with
one n couldn't
even spell her own name. Which was probably Joan anyway. Or Jean—who just now
remembered that, when she was about fifteen and yearning for instant glamour,
she'd briefly insisted on being called Gina. Attachment
is a quirky novel, in which the writing at times soars. As Jean faces doubts
about her life and her relationships, the novel can meander. That’s a small
price to pay for enjoying the debut of some exceptional prose. Steve
Hopkins, August 15, 2008 |
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Go to Executive Times Archives |
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The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the Seeptember 2008 issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/Attachment.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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