Efforts to enjoy a pleasant social life or even just to get along with people can erupt into surprising problems at any moment. That's the reality stressed in British author Jane Fallon's pending novel, Foursome (early 2010, Penguin Books, 368 pages), about middle-age friendships under strain.
Making friends and keeping them brings peril, even for a mature woman like Rebecca Morrison, who has a faithful husband named Daniel, two well-behaved children and a secure job at a London talent agency. Since university days, Rebecca and Daniel always socialized with best friends Alex and Isabel. Then events beyond Rebecca's control begin to create chaos with “two couples, four best friends and a million little lies”.
Suddenly Alex leaves Isabel and declares a long-repressed love for Rebecca. The sentiments jolt her, but she promptly repels these surprising advances. Her decision not to tell Daniel begins a widening web of deception.
Vindictively, loose-cannon Alex then woos Rebecca's most irksome colleague, Lorna. He undermines Rebecca's career and then endangers her marriage. What splendid behavior from a former close friend!
This novel stays relevant because readers will understand how easily the protagonist's plight could befall anyone, including themselves, which creates a suspenseful compulsion to turn pages. Rebecca's narration fascinates like gossip does at the office water-cooler.
Foursome has dramatic moments, a few surprising twists and humorous touches. But it's not nearly as funny as might be expected when knowing that the author lives with comedian Ricky Gervais, star of The Office television show. Like the main characters in Foursome, Fallon and Gervais met at university.
A veteran of TV work too, Fallon has produced popular shows: This Life, Teachers and 20 Things to Do Before You’re 30. She wrote two earlier novels: Getting Rid of Matthew (2007) and Got You Back (2008).
Readers will recognize much about themselves, friends and colleagues. For that reason, they'll enjoy Foursome.
Approval rating: 66 per cent.
For more information: www.penguin.com
(November 2, 2009)
ARCHIVES
|
Jane Fallon tests middle-age
friendships under strain.
|
