But I Love You Anyway - Softcover

Sara Lewis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349107173 ISBN 13: 9780349107172

Publisher: Abacus Fiction, 1996

Synopsis

Two sisters confront love, marriage, and a failing business in this “charming and deceptively breezy second novel” (Publishers Weekly) that “deftly explores big issues like loyalty, trust, sorrow, and disappointment in sure, bright, effervescent prose” (New York Times Book Review).

About this title

About the Author:

Sara Lewis has been publishing fiction and non-fiction for over 20 years. Her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Redbook, Seventeen, Good Housekeeping, Mademoiselle and the Mississippi Review. Her essays and nonfiction have appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's, FamilyFun, Child and on National Public Radio. Sara lives in San Diego with her husband and two children.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A deft, engaging novel in the form of a series of vignettes, depicting the trials and joys of extended family life, from the author of Heart Conditions (1994), etc. The narrator, 40-year-old Mimi, a once-divorced, once-widowed mother of two lively, quirky kids--Melanie, 12, and Daniel, 10- -lives on a shoestring in suburban San Diego and is beset by troubles. First, her dippy sister, Eve, marries a suspiciously carefree guy named John, whom she met in a smarmy self-help workshop--an unemployed but oddly cash-rich ex-restaurant manager believed by Mimi to be a thief and a con-man, just as Mimi's and Eve's charming, long-vanished father was. Mimi hates him on sight. Also, the photocopy-and-parcel store that she and Eve run together is being seriously threatened by the opening of a fancy new chain store in a mall just down the freeway. And, finally, Mimi finds herself struggling not to fall in love with Henry, a too-young, too-short, ``nice'' but unemployed guy she meets on a blind date; Mimi's decided never to replace Bill, her second husband who died of cancer. At first, Henry's allure is that his marketing background and ideas promise to help save the store; but Mimi falls for his persistent devotion, even as her own unconventional ideas- -building a drive-through window for the convenience of harried customers with kids; installing a cafe serving Eve's husband's fabulous coffee and cookies--begin to turn a profit. Meantime, money starts disappearing from the till. Who's the thief--John, a part-time employee, or Henry? Though the vignettes are at first somewhat slow-moving and awkward, the story soon enough gains direction and suspense--and ends with convincing lessons satisfyingly learned by all major players. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Abacus Fiction
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0349107173
• ISBN 13: 9780349107172
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264