When Love Was Clean Underwear

By Susan Barr-Toman

Fiction. Lucy Pescitelli is a virgin pushing thirty, working part-time at a funeral home and still living with her mother Marge, a woman so domineering that she forces Lucy to help her commit suicide... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898232430
• ISBN13: 9780898232431
• Release Date: November 2009
• Publisher: New Rivers Press
• Length: 165 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

When losing a mother means losing the connections that define the daughter

For Lucy Pescitelli, life is about specific, manageable tasks--tasks that can be followed step-by-step and that have been written in her mother's longhand--index cards filled with recipes, household cleaning instructions, and even how to smother her mom with a pillow. But what happens after Lucy does assist her mother, Marge, in committing suicide? Can she emerge from a life of maternal suffocation to enjoy a life filled with lighthearted hope? Leaving the comfort of her mother's row house in provincial South Philadelphia--a place surrounded by an extended family of Italian-American neighbors and friends--is a frightening prospect for Lucy, a virgin pushing 30, who spends her days working part-time at a funeral home. The "good" daughter, Lucy is dutiful in carrying out her mother's murder, but she holds on to the index cards that bear the killing instructions like she holds on to her Catholic guilt. The reader wonders whether and when Lucy will trip up and reveal her awful secret, especially after her sister Anne--the rebellious daughter--shows up for the funeral. The tension increases when Anne moves in with Lucy after Lucy is forced out of her mother's home--Marge donates the row house to the Catholic Church as a sort of penance or bargain, a will that has been written down longhand on index cards. The reader soon learns, however, how Marge's Last Will and Testament forces Lucy to change and to adapt in a world that sees her as something more than Marge's obedient daughter. Lucy also begins to realize that her own past is also her mother's, a past written down on index cards, and so she begins dating and also rearranging her mother's furniture to make a new home. During her transformation, Lucy literally and figuratively sheds her virgin skin: She waxes herself to be smooth, like a new baby, and she becomes her own woman. The questions are: Will she settle for and marry the first man she sleeps with? Or will she recognize that the man she was meant to be with has been with her all along? Also, what is the dark secret that Marge hid from her daughters all of her life? And why does Lucy's disaffected sister Anne feel disowned like Marge did in her own family? On some level, When Love Was Clean Underwear might be considered grotesque literature with characters that induce both empathy and disgust in the reader. Despite Lucy's cringe-worthy lack of personal history and experience, the reader becomes piqued by Lucy's positive side and continues to read to see whether she can conquer her essential virginity. The book is Garrison Keillor-esque at times with a setting that is its own universe, albeit the inner city. Overall, Barr-Toman uses her novel to show how our souls are linked across lives--from life to death--in a "desperate need for each other, not romantically or sexually, but on a basic human level," as Lucy ponders near the end of the book. It is a coming-of-age story where, for the grown child, losing a mother means losing the connecti

Looking for the Truth

What could be worse than your mother's death? The fact that you helped her die using the notes she wrote for you describing exactly how you should hold the pillow. Lucy, who has never moved away from her parent's house, struggles to redefine herself and her view of life after her mother's funeral and lack of rigid rules which were defined by note cards "printed clearly, ingrained in blue ink" detailing everything from recipes to ritualistic cleaning methods. Each day had its specific tasks. Her efforts to find her own rhythm after buying her own house a suburb away are hindered by her memories and the influences of her family and new friends. After meeting a friend, Colleen, who represents the bitter side of love and the need for forgiveness, and her first love, Tony, who allows her to break out of her shell and realize what love truly is, Lucy becomes confident and comes to understand who she is and how much she has hidden behind other people. She finds out that love isn't the fairy-tale experience and then discovers what it means to be completely comfortable in your own skin. Susan Barr-Toman gives a truthful look at how life really is as she moves deep into the conscience of the ambition-less, utterly ordinary Lucy. Her love life is nothing exceptional but the commonness of her life demands thought on the reader's part. Lucy goes through the same questions that are on every reader's minds at one time or another. The characters are ones found on the streets of every city making the story even easier for the reader to connect with. While reading the novel, the reader can relate one or more characters, or at least knows someone like that character, and comes to know the real truth behind each character's behaviors. The revelations that Lucy makes are stated so clearly that the reader can't miss the reasoning for each character and what they represent. While the novel follows a strict chronological time line, the story is strangely standard. The author's style is what makes this novel stand out. Barr-Toman's writing is strong as many sentences use strong verbs and detailing. The ordinary events of life are detailed for the reader and allow the reader to put themselves in the situation, "a delivery truck barreled down the street, sending vibrations through the building. Lucy could hear pieces of plaster pinging off the glass case." Her writing embodies the average person and makes them become something more than just ordinary. "When Love Was Clean Underwear" will grab your attention and hold it until the end.

Character Perfection

In "When Love Was Clean Underwear," author Susan Barr-Toman created a touching story about the choices people make and the link that family members have to our hearts. She writes with grace and likeability, making the novel hard to put down. The novel is about 30-year-old virgin, Lucy Pescitelli, who has been taking care of her mother, Marge, for the past several years. When Marge dies, Lucy is kicked out of her home that she grew-up in and has no other choice but to find a new place. Lucy's sister, Anne and long time friend, Jack, don't help the situation by pressuring her to make decision she isn't ready for. To make matters a little more interesting, Lucy acquires a friend that pushes her to find a guy and when Lucy ends up in a relationship with the first guy she's ever dated, things get a little confusing. By clinging on to what she knows, Lucy tries to find herself a new life by making decisions for herself and opening up her eyes to new possibilities. The novel will poke at your heart, make you laugh-out-loud and leave you wanting more. Barr-Toman's characters relate to some part of readers no matter what age. Each adds a different kind of spunk to the book and is nothing short of the real deal. As far as I'm concerned, other authors need to take a lesson or two from her character writing. They're point on perfection. Lucy is kind and sweet but she hides true emotions that could change her life for the better. Her mother is a character in her own. Although Marge dies toward the beginning of the novel, we see her personality through the things that Lucy does. Anne on the other hand is the total opposite of Lucy. At times it's hard to think they are even related. She forces Lucy to want things she doesn't and seems a little over protective of her older sister. Lucy's energetic friend, Colleen, is closer to Lucy than her own sister. Colleen adds attitude and bitchiness that will make you smile while giving Lucy a push of confidence. As for the two guys in her life, they're equally different making you choose sides and cheer for one to win. The book is satisfying until the end. Although it's great idea for the author to let us think for ourselves, you might feel a little cheated that there isn't more information. What happens after the door opens? It's left to your imagination. But what is the point in telling a 165 page story without a proper ending? With little to complain about, Barr-Toman does write a great novel, for the young and old. It will give the young a look into the future and at relationships between family members and the old will appreciate its tale while remember their 30s. "When Love Was Clean Underwear" is a novel filled with heart and soul. Unless you're looking to read a mystery or science fiction novel it will keep your attention and the pages turning.

coming of age at 30

I love all the small touches. The index cards. Lucy wondering how her sister washes the high windows. The grouchy elderly sister neighbors. Lucy's inner life emerges only when thinking about her mother. I like that Lucy's a late bloomer at 30, rather against her will. Losing her mother is like a midlife crisis at age 30.

Outstanding debut novel!

I highly recommend this touching first novel by the talented Susan Barr-Toman. Set in a traditional South Philadelphia neighborhood, the story deals, in gripping and at times unsettling fashion, with a young woman's belated efforts to come into her own despite the overbearing figures in her life. In a particularly original touch, Barr-Toman begins the book with what is easily its most disturbing episode (I won't spoil it here, but suffice it to say the scene is not one you will quickly forget) but by the end a more hopeful course for the protagonist has begun to be charted.