Confessions of a Bigamist: A Novel

By Kate Lehrer

Book Overview

What happens when love strikes twice--and the second time it does you are already satisfactorily, even happily, married? Michelle Banyon has a successful career as a lifestyle guru and "efficiency... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400050251
• ISBN13: 9781400050253
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Crown
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Delicious

A refreshing and very entertaining look at a male-dominated subject written in Lehrer's typically graceful and incisive style... She should gain many new fans with this book. It's wonderful.

Female version of "I led three lives..."

Michelle Banyon literally knocks over handsome Wilson Collins as she drives away from a Texas speaking engagement. She's built an organizing empire under the name Daisy Strait and has kept her own identity -- married to Steve Banyon, an international lawyer who travels a lot -- hidden from her adoring public.With her husband out of the country more than he's in, Michelle begins spending time with Wilson, finally agreeing to a quickie wedding. She loves both her husband and Wilson. They both love her. So why not?Confessions of a Bigamist is plausible. Whether it's realistic depends on your beliefs about the human psyche. As an experienced businesswoman, Michelle would have realized the legal implications of a marriage. He could have claims on her wealth and she could be burdened with his debt. And I'm not a lawyer but she may have committed crimes: bigamy, fraud... However, I didn't get hung up on realism. I would read this novel as playing out an interesting "what if" scenario, not as a literary character study that teaches us deeper lessons about life. It's entertaining and it raises some questions. That's enough for a novel that's probably categorized as chick lit, perfect for summer reading.To make Michelle more human, we see her rebuilding ties to her estranged sister and grown-up niece, Dottie, a dancer who finds the New York competition overwhelming. We only see Dottie in some degree of angst so those scenes don't add much. Estranged siblings -- one domestic, one involved in business -- are pretty common in real life and fiction. I kept turning the pages, expecting the author to take us right to the edge of a crisis. When a publisher makes a big offer on a book, and when she's featured on a tabloid cover, there's a big risk of exposure. Yet the author pulls back and the heroine never actually faces a confrontation. As a result, we don't have a lot of suspense. For some reason, the Texas people don't come to New York. I would expect Wilson to show up in Daisy Strait's office, all western and out of place. Or one of Michelle's new Texas friends could run into her shopping at Saks or eating dinner with her lawyer-husband. Actually, this low-key story makes for less suspense but more realism. I suspect lots of people have long-term affairs and it wouldn't me the first time a second family was discovered when one spouse dies or has a crisis. Usually the male is the bigamist and Lehrer spares our sensibilities by setting up childless marriages.Some readers say the heroine wants to have it all. Maybe...but I see this book more as a questioning of the traditional institutions, specifically marriage. When a husband travels extensively, the traditional wife stayed home, socialized with her women friends and waited. However, today's wife brings a social and business background to the marriage. And fidelity should be up to the partners in the relationship. At one point, heroine Michelle points out that her husband, Steve, has more lo

perfect summer escape

Kate Lehrer's "Confessions of a Bigamist" will send women out to the streets in search of a second husband-or at least it will let them indulge their fantasies on a summer afternoon. This is one of the more enjoyable books I've read in a long time.

A Unique Twist

The title drew me to this book. What could be more intriguing than a bigamist's tale, especially that of a woman? Amazingly, the novel lives up to its title and then some. Kate Lehrer weaves the story with such grace and guts that I found myself effortlessly falling into the plot. I couldn't put it down.