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Lily Brett has just completed a successful tour to promote
her new novel. Read what the Philadelphia Inquirer said about the book
in its article "A Feast of Culinary Novels".
more.. |
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| You Gotta Have Balls (2006)
Book
Club Notes for You Gotta Have Balls
Review: Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist
In this very funny sequel to Too Many Men (2001), Ruth Rothwax,
the owner of a successful letter-writing business in Manhattan, can't
seem to relax. She worries about everything: her dependence on her husband,
a painter who is away for six months; her perception that women, rather
than being supportive of one another, are really catty and competitive;
her diet of spinach and turnips; and, most especially, her 87-year-old
father, Edek, who is driving her crazy by attempting to help out at the
office. When Edek comes up with a cockamamie scheme to open a meatball
restaurant with zaftig Polish émigré Zofia, Ruth suddenly
loses her feminist sensibility, criticizing Zofia's clothing (she "looked
as though she was representing Kazakhstan at the Winter Olympics")
and her relationship with Ruth's father. However, Holocaust survivor
Edek, intent on enthusiastically embracing life, and the amazingly accomplished
Zofia pull off the impossible--they get Ruth to loosen up. In this warm
and zesty novel, Brett perfectly balances serious themes with witty malapropisms
and endearing characters. |
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Review: Publishers Weekly
“In this frank, entertaining novel, a father and daughter haunted
by loss learn to reclaim meaning and passion in their lives. Australian author
Brett brings back the cast of Too Many Men, including her heroine, Ruth
Rothwax, a 54-year-old Jewish Australian running a successful corporate letter-writing
business in New York. Ruth's husband, Garth, is currently away painting for six
months, leaving her time to develop a women's support group, kick off a line
of innovative greeting cards and hatch schemes to keep her irrepressible octogenarian
father, Edek, out of trouble. But Edek has fantastical plans to open an exotic
meatball emporium with the help of busty Polish émigré Zofia and
her best friend, Walentyna. A Holocaust survivor, Edek is determined to enjoy
the last chapter of his life, even if it means taking outrageous risks. For Ruth,
years of downplaying her emotions (any difficulty pales compared to the Holocaust's
horrors) has led to bottled-up anxiety, but handling Edek's exuberant brand of
chaos now forces her to loosen up. Brett allows her very likable characters to
wander down winding, comedic alleys, while the novel remains anchored by the
serious subtext: the psychological impact of the Holocaust a generation later.
The result is lighthearted but substantive novel.” |
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