The Cousins

The author of the blockbuster novel, The Best of Everything, presents a family saga of loyalty and betrayal, passion and dark secrets, featuring a beautiful, adventurous divorce+a7e. 50,000 first printing. National ad/promo. Doubleday & Lit Guild.

Once upon a time, Jaffe comfortably occupied a fictional territory pretty much all by herself: such bestselling fare as Class Reunion and The Last Chance sated readers' appetites for sexy domestic melodramas. But others moved onto this turf, many with franker and more graphic tales to tell. So now Jaffe may strike some as a trifle tamer, her small talk a little smaller. Her story of a wealthy department-store clan once held together by their summer manse but now scattered across the country seems almost familiar: nods of recognition may greet the Millers' criss-crossing encounters (at funerals, bar mitzvahs and the like), their grievances and their assorted peccadilloes. Twice-divorced cousin Olivia and her longtime companion Roger, veterinarians who share an N.Y.C. home, a practice and a comfy if unexciting life, anchor the proceedings; Roger strays and returns, Olivia does the same. But fictional familiarity can breed contentment, and though these cousins' distance from one another at times distances readers, too, the good news is that Jaffe has not lost her wit, her keen eye for human frailties and her ear for the small but telling remark. Though not bursting with excitement, Olivia and her relatives are an altogether agreeable lot. 60,000 first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In her previous novels, Class Reunion (LJ 5/15/79) and After the Reunion (LJ 8/85), Jaffe addresses troubled relationships and women who seek happier lives. The novel centers on Olivia Miller Okrent and her lover, Roger. The cousins of the title appear sporadically, gathering briefly for funerals and bar mitzvahs and then dashing off on exotic vacations. Olivia and Roger share a veterinary practice and a lovely townhouse. Their idyllic life is ruptured by Roger's succumbing to a sexual fantasy. Olivia, in turn, embarks on an affair of her own, all the while reflecting on her family ties and tensions. All is forgiven and forgotten by the last chapter. Fans may be disappointed that this novel never quite takes off, and the story is light fare even if it were summer reading. Purchase only where the author has a following.
Jan Blodgett, Davidson Coll., N.C.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Olivia Okrent finds solace in her regular reunions with her cousins, although the meetings can also be irritating. Olivia, a wealthy New York City veterinarian, shares a practice and a house with Roger Hawkwood but refuses to marry him, much to her mother's chagrin and the bewilderment of some of her cousins. Others are more understanding, having themselves chosen unconventional lifestyles, such as a career as a Hollywood stunt person or the life of a single parent because of a wife's abandonment. While Olivia visits cousins to celebrate weddings, births, and bar mitzvahs, Roger finds diversion in the city with his fantasy-come-true. Olivia, after discovering Roger's perfidy, has an affair of her own. Jaffe, author of Class Reunion (1986), enhances her soap-opera plot with diverse characterizations that make it all rather entertaining. Denise Perry Donavin