The Foreigner
by Meg Castaldo
ÿ
One of the greatest joys of summer is the mindless read, a book so simple and undaunting that it requires no cerebral activity whatsoever. The Foreigner settles neatly into this mold.
Alex Orlando, a 28 year old Californian finds herself spending the winter months in New York City. Through a series of increasingly obvious conicidences she finds herself sexually involved with two foreign men, a small time dope network and some nasty Algerian fundmentalists.
The novel begins and ends well with a middle that is lacking in both style and content. The major downfall is an increasing lack of empathy for the main character. As the story continues, Alex's charm begins to fade as she becomes increasingly more codependent on the numerous men in life.
Quick, simple and easily forgettable.
-Jo Piazza
Dear Alice
by Steven Ryniak
This piece of crap, a fictitious or realistic (I can't tell... its that bad) collection of rejected advice column letters, should be torn apart and used as tissue paper.
Instead of using interesting, unique, or simply funny situations, Ryniak decided to build the ultimate compilation of bad Saturday Night Live skits.
For instance, in one letter, a distressed writer explains how his wife caught him having sex with the couch, and now she can't accept his relationship with the furniture.
Also not funny: repeated beastiality jokes, fields full of drugs jokes, "I'm so cracked out and I can't write the end of this letter" jokes, and any other dumb situation that a 14 year old could conjure up.
Sometimes mindless, funny books are nice to read...but the author should have some comic ability.
-John Matley
ÿ Six Figures
by Fred G. Leebrow
This remarkable novel depicts the mid-ife demise of Warner Lutz, eternal pessimist, so well that readers leave the novel with no desire to either get married, enter the work force, or become a productive citizen of any sort.
Leebrow's style easily lends itself to the intensity of the unfolding psycho drama involving the attack on Frank's wife.
His writing is efficient in detail yet lengthy in its prose, taking the reader directly into both Frank's world and the world of the outsiders who mistrust and dislike him.
-Jo Piazza
