Diana Wagman

This novel charmed me completely. I felt the author took tender care of me as a reader, that she had something to say about the human condition, and that she said it with a gentle beauty that made reading the novel a pleasure. I'm very impressed that Wagman could write such a hopeful book while never becoming sentimental.

I've made the book sound like afternoon tea rather than a novel that includes, as this one does, scenes of suicide, rape, child abuse, drug abuse, social injustice, and mental illness. There is more than one scene so graphic and startling that its only excuse might be "it really happened that way," which is possible, since the author is drawing on her own experience for some plot elements.

Even so, the traumatic scenes don't define this novel. The entire book, in both the introspective scenes and the violent, is framed by a wise presence of mind that gives each scene meaning. We see these events through the eyes of a protagonist in mid-life, a woman who is in the process of taking stock of her life after receiving news that her tumor is malignant. She is a failure by some standard measures of success, like marriage and career. But you feel throughout the novel that she is journeying toward wisdom and forgiveness.

It's very easy to write a cynical book. It's very difficult to do what Wagman has done here, to write a wise book.
… (mehr)

This is one freaky book! The whole storyline is both topical and insane! It is both terrifying and funny, and that's hard to do. A divorced, "stuck in the mud" mom is kidnapped. She does not know why she has been chosen, she is neither wealthy, nor famous although her ex-husband and mother are both. She has to use her wits to survive, and it's even more complicated because her kidnapper is unstable and his moods and motives keep changing, so she has to stay on her toes to keep up- and keep herself alive. While this is happening the novel shifts back to her story with her ex, her mother and her daughter. There are chapters where we hear from others in her life, what they are doing while she is fighting for her life - they are unaware of what has happened...
In the midst of all of this we have a 7 foot iguana, scenes from the illegal reptile smuggling trade, and some background on our kidnapper and his past - and somehow this all works!!
The reason for the kidnapping is not hard to figure out - and yet it is both ridiculous and highly plausible - and therein lies the terror!… (mehr)

Winnie Parker is a divorced mother of a teen girl who is flirting with danger. One morning after dropping her car off for repairs, Winnie is kidnapped by a disturbed young man with an unclear agenda. Winnie tries to understand how the man came to select her as she tries to escape his sweltering apartment, which has been dedicated to his aggressive oversized iguana. Winnie's daughter and ex-husband are slow to realize she is missing and their storylines alternate with Winnie's and the kidnapper's. This is one of the strangest books I've read in a long time. Each of the characters was likable but also detestable. All were strangely flawed. I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to recommend it but it isn't a story that could be easily forgotten.… (mehr)