Spinning-Michael Baron

Spinning
Michael Baron
The Story Plant, Apr 5 2011, $16.95
www.thestoryplant.com
ISBN: 9781611880052

Twenty-nine years old Manhattan Mason, Brand and Partners executive Dylan Hunter seems to have everything. Women want him; his apartment is the best in New York; his work has made him the top gun and kept his plan to retire at forty viable. A friend of his Billie works at the same firm. She is the female Dylan, but because she is a woman society considers her a ruthless bitch who is ambitious and aggressive while applauding Dylan for the same tactics.

Dylan’s former girlfriend from his Chicago days a century ago, Diane has arrived accompanied by her three years old daughter Spring. She explains he is all she knows in the Big Apple as she plans to start anew. Diane asks if they can stay at his place for now; even he cannot understand why he said yes. Spring turns his life around as she draws on his perfectly painted walls, introduces him to the animals at the zoo and dines on a gourmet macaroni and tofu with cheese. When an accident occurs, Dylan continues to care for Spring by allowing some of the plates he spins in his previous hedonistic life to crash. He enjoys every minute with her; as does Billie, but knows the court will soon intervene.

This is an enjoyable extended family drama as Dylan and Billie learn what life is all about from a precocious (perhaps too precocious) little girl. The cast is solid especially the lead trio, but also those at the office, his best friend Jimbo and case worker Mrs. Eckleberg. Readers will enjoy this poignant tale as Michael Baron provides a deep message that to lead a fulfilling life, one must spin various plates including the care and nurturing of others.

Harriet Klausner