Switcheroo: A Novel - Softcover

Goldsmith, Olivia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061097659 ISBN 13: 9780061097652

Publisher: HarperTorch, 1999

Synopsis

At forty, Sylvie Schiffer has everything: a gorgeous house, two perfect children, a successful husband with a lucrative business. Everything but what she wants most: passion and romance. With the twins off to college, Sylvie thinks her marriage is about to bloom, until she discovers that her husband, Bob, is already seeding the garden--with a woman named Marla! When Sylvie confronts Marla, she gets the shock--and inspiration---of her life. Except for ten years and fifteen pounds, she and Marla could be twins. But all is not bliss even for Marla. Though she has the best of love--romantic presents, hot sex, candlelit dinners--she lacks the one thing she wants most: a husband of her own. Going beyond revenge, Sylvie hatches a brilliant, hilarious, and daringly outrageous scheme that just might fulfill both their wildest dreams...or leave them with nothing but two broken hearts.

About this title

About the Author:

Olivia Goldsmith is the bestselling author of The First Wives Club, Flavor of the Month, Fashionably Late, The Bestsller, Marrying Mom,and Switcheroo. She lives in south Florida and is no longer young or a wife.

From Kirkus Reviews:

More monumental high-concept from Goldsmith (Marrying Mom, 1996, etc.), this time in a wonderfully funny fable about a wife and mistress who reverse rolesand a husband who apparently can't tell the difference. Sylvie Schiffer lives in happy domestic comfort with perfect husband Bob in a well-ordered colonial home in the plush Ohio suburb of Shaker Heights. There, Sylvie is surrounded by her perfect family (including her outspoken mother Mildred, who owns a ceramic store called Potz Bayou); she brews perfect cups of aromatic tea; she plays a perfect Steinway piano with an ebony lacquer finish; and in winter a fireplace fills her music room with the comforting scent of applewood. But not all is well in Sylvie's middle-class paradise. She's turning 40, her children are in college, and she wouldn't mind some marital passion to take up residence in her empty nest. But Bob, whose greatest passion seems to be his BMW ``Beautiful Baby,'' hasn't made love to her in months; instead, he's found a delicious little number by the name of Marla (does Donald Trump live in vain?), who works as a reflexologist (with a little toe-sucking on the side) and who incidentally looks a lot like a younger version of Sylvie. When Sylvie discovers the resemblance, she hatches a plot to ``switcheroo'' with Marlashe'll find out what it's like to be loved by her husband again, and Marla can experience the joys of having a man of her very own and a kitchen with an island in the middle. In another of Goldsmith's trademark transformations, Sylvie gets a face-life and tones up, while Marla eats banana-cream pies to fill out. It all culminates with a hilarious Thanksgiving when Marla, the non-wife, attempts to roast 28 frozen squabs. Contrived, yes, but hysterically funnyand after reflecting on the invisibility of women, the reader may find it no more contrived than, say, a Shakespearean comedy. (Film rights to New Line Cinema; $200,000 ad/promo; author tour; TV satellite tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperTorch
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0061097659
• ISBN 13: 9780061097652
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 400