STORK CLUB

When three separate couples seek the advice of a psychologist to help them with the dilemmas of having babies in ways unique to the nineties, they form a parenting group they whimsically nickname "The Stork Club." 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo.

The bestselling author of Beaches and I'll Be There is right on the money with this clever, timely exploration of the emotional turmoil engendered by the brave new world of contemporary baby-making. "I was thinking today as I was driving here about what each of us has gone through to . . . seduce the stork to visit our lives," says Rick, a pudgy, womanizing Hollywood producer pushing 50 who navigates the choppy seas of open adoption to become a single father. The support group he addresses includes Judith, who had two girls by artificial insemination; Mitch and Lainie, who forked over the keys to their hearts to a surrogate mother; and wisecracking TV writers Ruthie and Shelly, two wonderfully drawn diehard friends, one straight and one gay, who teamed up to have a child. Their therapist, Barbara, wrestles with her own parenting issues: her pitch-perfect adult daughter flounces in and out of her comforting orbit, while her husband wishes for one more baby just as their children are finally leaving the nest. The mix is hilarious, maudlin, warmhearted and surprisingly genuine in its emotions, until Dart overwhelms the narrative balance she has established by introducing soap-opera contrivances in the final chapters. Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

With humor and poignancy, Dart probes the challenge of child rearing in the 1990s by depicting a group of nontraditional parents. At age 50, Rick, a single movie producer and avowed Casanova combatting a midlife crisis, decides to adopt a baby. Ruthie and Shelley, a successful comedy-writing team, resolve to create a child even though he is gay and she is straight. Lainie and Mitch, owners of a chic California clothing boutique, contract with a surrogate mother to produce their child. These parents form the Stork Club led by Barbara, the child psychologist who guides the group as they struggle to make their atypical family circumstances work. The author of Beaches and three other novels, Dart proves she knows how to gild the literary lily by creating a singularly good popular novel. Highly recommended for fiction collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/92.
- Mary Ellen Elsbernd, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.