The Cure for Modern Life

by Lisa Tucker

Book Overview

From Lisa Tucker, the critically acclaimed author of Once Upon a Day and The Song Reader, comes an extraordinary novel about the way we live now: the choices we make and the decisions we let life make... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 074349279X
• ISBN13: 9780743492799
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

TUCKER IS THE CURE FOR MODERN LITERATURE

With each book Lisa Tucker gets better and better. She's that rare author who writes beautiful, original stories with deep and meaningful characters. This book has her trademarks - people who crave family and carve it out of thin air if that's what they have to do - people who break your heart on one page and make you laugh on the next. Humor, pathos, pain, love, social issues and above all hope... fiction at it's finest!

Does Lisa Tucker have a cure for the modern life?

Lisa Tucker's latest novel, THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE, forces us to consider what it means to be a good person in today's social, political and spiritual climate. Matthew, an executive of a pharmaceutical company, comes face to face with hard questions of morality when he meets, Danny, on a bridge one night. Should he ignore the ten-year-old's cry for help? Should he turn away from the small homeless and motherless (his mother is a drug addict) boy and his three-year-old sister on the cold Philadelphia night? Matthew agrees to let Danny and his sister, as well as Danny's mother stay with him in his Philadelphia loft. Amelia, Matthew's ex and a medical ethicist, comes back into his life. What happens next is a "battle" between Matthew, Amelia, and Danny's wants and desires. The question remains is there a winner at the expense of the other two? Or is there a way to live with the compromise? You'll have to read and find out. Tucker does a brilliant job of drawing real characters in her novel. She treats her characters with dignity and compassion...even when they don't always deserve it. Tucker's sense of humor and the twists and turns in the novel will have you up all night figuring out who ends up the winner. More importantly, you'll keep asking yourself, long after you're done with the novel, what would you have done? Haven't read Lisa Tucker before? Then check out ONCE UPON A DAY, another favorite of literary critics and readers alike.

Impressively ambitious in scope and startlingly intimate in its explorations

Ten-year-old Danny's mother has a drug problem. He only vaguely remembers when she was able to hold down a job and really take care of him and his three-year-old sister Isabelle, when they had a real home. Now, the family lives in a Philadelphia crack house (a dubious step up from the abandoned car they occupied previously), and Danny's mom is always either high or sick from withdrawal symptoms when she is unable to score a hit. As for Danny, he spends his days begging for money to buy Isabelle's necessities and worrying about his mother's addiction and his sister's developmental delays. Forty-year-old Matthew Connelly also has a drug problem, although his is both more subtle and more insidious than Danny's mom's. Matthew is an executive at a major Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical company. He has worked his way to the top, starting at the company in his 20s after leaving medical school, basing much of his professional achievements on the success of one particular pain-killing drug --- a medication he has overseen since its R & D phase, one that is now the most commonly prescribed medication for chronic pain. With his high-powered job, chic urban loft, high-end electronics and a series of beautiful but shallow girlfriends, Matthew seems like the last person in the world to want a family. But when his path crosses those of Danny and Isabelle, he takes them in on a whim. He may regret his decision the next morning, but not before the two children have enmeshed themselves in his life and in the lives of his closest friends. These include Ben, Matthew's unlikely best friend and an award-winning medical researcher who has devoted his life to solving diseases that strike the world's poor, and Ben's girlfriend, Amelia. Amelia used to be Matthew's girlfriend, even (if he had to grudgingly admit it) the love of his life. But Amelia, a bioethicist who became disillusioned by Matthew's professional activities, has now devoted her life to exposing the injustices and immoral practices of big pharmaceutical companies (including Matthew's) and to Ben, a morally upstanding man who couldn't be less like Matthew. Lisa Tucker's fourth novel is both impressively ambitious in scope and startlingly intimate in its explorations. She delves into big social issues, including the corruption of the health care field, the questionable practices of large corporations, and the relationship between the press and business. But she also explores, in a particularly insightful approach, the questions of why we love the people we do, even when that love seems to make no sense. In doing so, she writes from the point of view not only of Amelia but also of Matthew and Danny. For the most part, she credibly and convincingly offers insights into the emotional lives of an anti-emotional man and a boy who is as innocent as he is world-weary. THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE, with its numerous plot twists and steady pacing, is simultaneously a compelling page-turner and a provocative examinat

terrific character driven morality tale

In Philadelphia they were young and in love with plans. Now they have become enemy combatants. Amelia Johannsen has devoted her life to helping the poor; while business executive Matthew Connelly has devoted his life to making money. On a freezing night, Matthew walks to his loft across a bridge only to be accosted by a desperate ten year old child. Danny "the knight" as he calls himself that night pleads with Matthew to help his three years old sister Isabelle as both are homeless. Matthew wants to rid himself of the pest, but Danny refuses because he knows what will happen to his sibling. One thing leads to another with Danny involving Matthew who involves Amelia who involves their old college friend Ben. This is a terrific character driven morality tale in which Lisa Tucker makes the case that it takes people caring about the welfare of others to make an ethical society. Danny is a fascinating character as he uses several names depending on who he hits upon and classifies his marks; for instance he assumes on first impression that Matthew is a selfish Republican SOB. Amelia is the bleeding heart liberal while Matthew is the cold hearted conservative and Ben is the pragmatic middle that the two extreme sides assume lacks passion. THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE is truly to care and help other people. Harriet Klausner

A Wonderful Cure

Parts of the plot defy belief, and one of the characters (Amelia) is so self-righteous and judgmental I often wanted to smack her on the head, but despite these minor flaws, The Cure for Modern Life is a totally captivating book. The characters seem real and alive--flawed people trying to do their best in difficult and unusual circumstances. And while they find that there's no cure for modern life, and obstacles keep sending you off-course from where you planned to go, sometimes, if you get lucky, you might end up where you belong anyway. Lisa Tucker is a graceful and thoughtful writer, and her novel delves into the search of love and family, what it means to do the right thing in a complex world, and what our responsibilities are toward other human beings on the planet. I highly recommend this book.