INTERVIEWING MATISSE (Or The Woman Who Died Standing Up)

Two middle-aged women reveal the emptiness of their lives during the course of a midnight-to-dawn telephone call initiated to discuss the death of a mutual friend

Molly, a garrulous Southerner transplanted to Connecticut, phones Lily in New York to report the bizarre death of their mutual friend, Inez, whose corpse had been found standing in her room, wearing only lingerie and boots. So begins a midnight-to-dawn conversation dominated by Molly, whose rambling, digressive logorrhea may try the patience of readers of this comic first novel. Molly, whose husband is French, reminisces about her absurdist escapades in France; there, she had photocopied clothes, lived with a count in an abandoned razor-blade factory and swum in her underwear in Matisse's swimming pool. As a screed on the sheer meaninglessness and irrationality of our frantic, flattened lives, the women's chatter hits as many false notes as true. Author Tuck, born in France and living in New York, wickedly satirizes worship of fame and celebrity, spirituality seekers eager for a quick fix, dentists, Americans' glorification of French culture and the French people's glorification of themselves.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The reader eavesdrops on an all-night telephone conversation between two women whose friend has just been found dead, "propped up like a broom," in a corner of her apartment. The topic quickly strays from the deceased to restaurants, clothes, husbands, and lovers. Searching for a clipping about Matisse, Molly rummages in her desk and comments on everything she finds. Lily keeps looking at her watch. Tuck's first novel shows a real gift for comic dialog but does not hold the reader's interest long enough to be read in one sitting, as the format demands. Watch for more by Tuck, but this one is not a necessary purchase.
- Maurice Taylor, Brunswick Cty. Lib., Southport, N.C.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.