The Last Time I Was Me-Cathy Lamb

The Last Time I Was Me
Cathy Lamb
Kensington, May 2008, $15.00
ISBN: 9780758214638

Mourning the death of her mother, Jeanne Stewart is outraged to find out her boyfriend “Slick Dick” has been cheating on her. Irate Jeanne obtains revenge on her live in lover when she mixes peanut oil that he is allergic to with his condoms. His reaction is to sue her. With her personal life in tatters, her professional life melts also when she suffers a nervous breakdown.

Jeanne closes her mom’s Chicago home and taking a violin and a gold dolphin necklace her dad gave her just before he died, she leaves and heads to her brother’s home in Portland, Oregon stopping to have pancakes at the Opera Man’s café in Weltana. She begins her recuperation by signing onto an anger management class as required by the court. Running naked as the class requires, she stumbles but a kind man helps her. At her brother’s urging, Jeanne works on the PR campaign of a gubernatorial candidate; the man who rescued her when she fell running. The Slickster she left behind in the Midwest is considering a lawsuit.

THE LAST TIME I WAS ME is a charming character study of a grieving woman using a betrayal to find herself. The story line overall is fun to follow, but at times Jeanne turns chick lit chic responses that feel out of place for her. Still fans will cheer Jeanne on as she seeks to find her misplaced groove.

Harriet Klausner