Sunnyside

By Donna Cantor

According to Joanna Barron's mother the criteria for success should include: earn a credential, marry a man with potential, improve yourself, and surround yourself with culture.Unfortunately, the life that twenty-seven-year-old Joanna has carved out for herself doesn't begin to fulfill her mother's checklist. And that might not be so bad, considering her mother's definitions of men with potential (bland Howie the pharmacist) and culture (a complete collection of Barry Manilow recordings) certainly aren't the most sophisticated. But something is sorely lacking form Joanna's life in Sunnyside, Queens.Enter Tommy McClellan, neighborhood bad-boy turned cop, the kind of man her mother warned Joanna to steer away form. An ever-smiling smooth operator, Tommy adds a little sass to her days and a lot of spice to her nights. But as their relationship intensifies, Tommy's unwillingness to change doesn't quite click with Joanna's dreams of something more.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 038079571X
• ISBN13: 9780380795710
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

A true gem!

I absolutely loved this book -- every word! These are real people with real lives. You'll know them and love them and hate like crazy to tell them goodbye at the end of the book. I'm a Texan who's never been to New York, but I'm already missing the neighborhood! (Penny Marshall, I hope you're reading this book; it would make a fantastic movie!) ;)I'll definitely be watching for more from Donna Cantor...she's made my list with this one!

It made me feel at ease with my ordinary life

For those of us who live in Queens or Brooklyn, shop at the corner candy store and still see old school buddies around the neighborhood, this book feels like home. Ordinary life and people, really are marvelous, Donna captures this and when you have read the last page, you start to miss every character.

this is one of the most realistic books ever written.

The characters come alive with every printed word.You feel that you are part of their lives and you just never want it to end!

An absolutely riveting story of an "average" woman's life.

I picked this book off the shelf at random, not expecting much. What I found was the entralling story of a young woman from a working class neighborhood. While the events that happen in Joanna's life, the main character, are mostly mundane (with a few exceptions), the way in which they are reported is far from boring. Cantor's writing draws the reader into the lives of her characters. Her depictions of people and their interactions with one another ring true and familiar. They are also universal. The story begins with the death of a neighbor and the reintroduction of Joanna with the deceased's grandson, Tommy McClellan. What follows is not the storybook romance of movies and fairytales but the fumbling and rockiness of a real-life relationship. Tommy is tough, unconventional, and unfamilar with relationships that last longer than a weekend. Their problems, and the feeling that permeates through the written word, are the focus of the story. Once I began this book, I found it near impossible to tear myself away. I read it largely in one sitting, and felt a sense of loss once the novel was finished. Even now, three weeks later, the book is with me. This book is neither cheesy nor unrealistic, and is a definite "must-read" for anyone who loves love but hates conventional romance.

I couldn't put it down.

Excellent effort from a first-time writer. Held my interest from start to finish. The characters were well-developed and different from anything I've read before. A must-read for avid readers.