Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Singles-Meredith Goldstein

The Singles


Meredith Goldstein

Plume, Apr 24 2012, $15.00

ISBN: 9780452298057



In Annapolis, bride to be Beth Eleanor “Bee” Evans works on placing the singles at a tables who are attending her wedding to Matt Fee. She considers where to seat Vicki, Hannah, Rob, Joe and Nancy.



New York based casting director Hannah is upset as she hoped her first lover Rob would help her through the weekend of seeing her second lover Tom for the first time since he dumped her. Instead she turns to Vicki as Rob is staying in Austin with his epileptic dog Liz. Bee’s divorced with child Uncle Joe knows his sister-in-law Donna does not want him at the wedding; when he sees Rochester based grocery store interior decorator Vicki, he thinks she is the woman he had sex with in Reno; while she carries a guitar case containing her social affective disorder lamp. Widow Nancy sends her son Camden Yards security chief Phil to attend the marriage. The dynamics of the Singles will shake the wedding weekend.



The escapades of the Singles at the wedding reception are fun to follow with an engaging rotating viewpoint. However, the prime ensemble cast is underdeveloped so some of their aberrant behavior like taking a pill from a stranger or jumping the bones of someone you just met is hard to gauge in full context of who they are and prevents readers from caring for the characters. Still the evolution of the Singles over that weekend is an enjoyable character driven tale as each of the quintet begins to move on with their lives.



Harriet Klausner

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