For a love story sprinkled with magic, try Sundays at Tiffany's, co-written by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet (2008, Little, Brown and Company, 309 pages). Inside, emotions run strongly and passions flow deeply.
Imagine leaning on an imaginary friend to ease the pains of a lonely childhood. Then imagine the friend returning decades later as a lover and companion. That's what happens to Jane Margaux, the daughter of a Broadway producer. Mother Vivienne's only real outings devoted to her daughter are to admire jewelry at Tiffany's on Sundays.
Jane's make-believe pal Michael, a congenial and handsome man, always joins her for the “most sinful ice-cream sundaes, as served at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City”.
“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vivienne signing the check. In a minute she… would be standing over our table, hustling me off. This Sunday at the St. Regis was coming to a close. It had been another wonderful afternoon for me and Michael. ‘Here she comes,’ Michael,” I whispered. ‘Look invisible.’ ”
Michael vanishes on Jane's ninth birthday. Then she should have forgotten him, but didn't.
Twenty-three years later, Michael returns to New York on a break from working with other children. To his surprise, he notices the adult Jane and follows her “like a stalker”.
Still lonely, Jane, a promising playwright, endures bad moments, even dismal days. “I flipped the phone closed and dropped it back into my bag. I wished I was the kind of person reckless enough to throw it into the nearest trash can. Of course, if I did, I'd only have to fish it out again, and of course someone I knew would walk by right at that moment, when I was pawing through the trash, and then this day would be complete. I swallowed hard and felt hot tears behind my eyes. Perfect. Crying on the street. A new low, even for me.”
Michael “wasn't exactly human, he wasn't an angel – he was just a friend. And he was damn good at it.” When the adult Jane notices him too, sparks fly, and that's an understatement.
“I had a faint sense that it was morning, and that I was waking up, and that something about my life had changed dramatically. Then I remembered Michael, and my eyes opened wide. Please, God, let it not have been just a dream, I begged silently.”
But is Michael turning more human? Is he losing his knack as an invisible friend? More importantly, is he right to sense that someone near him will die soon?
“So let me see if I have this right,” said Michael. “The big whoop about being human is that you get to die?”
The story entertains, engages and even stirs. But it has shortcomings too and isn't as weighty as the 309 pages imply. Large print and generous spacing add needless bulk.
For Patterson, best known for crime thrillers, Sundays at Tiffany's continues to widen his repertoire. From Florida, he’s sold more than 140 million books, many starring detective Alex Cross. Two Patterson novels, Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, became hit movies starring Morgan Freeman.
Charbonnet pens many children's books. She lives in North Carolina with a husband, children, a dog and an “unfortunate number of cats”. Doesn't she realize no one has too many cats?
Love conjures the power to make surprising things happen – nowhere more than in this book..
Approval rating: 67 per cent.
For more information: www.HachetteBookGroupUSA.com, www.jamespatterson.com or www.gabriellecharbonnet.com.
(January 23, 2009)
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