The Way It Happens in Novels

By Kathleen O'Connor

Book Overview

Romance novel junkie Cheryl Freedman feels like she is playing the part of a romance heroine when the man of her dreams enters her life, but she soon discovers that real love does not follow the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345359704
• ISBN13: 9780345359704
• Release Date: March 1989
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A feel good novel that won't make you urp. Wonderful.

A wonderful read -- this is one of those odd sorts of novels I fall for. It's naive/sophisticated, insightful/obtuse, beautiful/ugly, real/unreal, silly/profound and more/not. However contradictory, the writing is very good indeed and the story will fetch right up just as quick as can be! Here's hoping this novel doesn't stay out of print for too long, that would be a shame and a sin against readers. This is a comforting novel with a glitch and hitch.

Light & fluffy, with a small but heavy center.

Cheryl Freedman is a meek secretary, full of romantic ideas from trashy novels and empty of self-confidence and drive. Richard Olsen is a pro football player left friendless, curmudgeonly, and hospitalized after a severe stroke. Their marriage is one of desparation -- yet it just may succeed.This book has more depth to it than its cover would suggest; it's like eating a Greek, phyllo-wrapped pastry which is light and fluffy on the outside but with a weighty core of nuts on the inside. O'Connor takes a melanchly situation and views it with a humorous eye, but doesn't deny that her characters have large obstacles to overcome. The mix of fluff and weightiness works just like baclava: good, but sometimes tad too sweet.The most interesting character is Richard, who begins the book as a cold, unrelenting curmudgeon who fights hospital staff every step of the way. He agrees to marry Cheryl because he figures she's his only shot. But underneath there is the core of a good man and a fighter, and these qualities create an interesting and believable dynamic amongst the married couple.Cheryl's mother, Rose, and her stepfather, Al, act in counterpoint to Cheryl's marriage. When Cheryl's marriage goes south, Rose and Al go north, literally, on vacation. Later on, we see the problems of the daughter repeated in the mother. All four major characters all well-rounded and undergo large, mostly believable changes in this short, 200 page book.This is a great book when you're in the mood for something light and easy to read, but with a dash of reality underneath.