Synopsis
A single mother living next to a garbage dump in Vermont copes with the stresses of dating, working, and mothering with her own unique recipes, such as Sweet Vacation Pie and Consumer Cry Croissants. A first novel. Tour.
Reviews
What emerges from this engaging first novel is less a cohesive story than the wry, multilayered perspective of 37-year-old Gabby Fulbriten, a single mother of three who works as a grocery checkout clerk and lives in the "wild country" near the local dump in a small Vermont town. In an honest, intelligent and often hilarious first-person voice, Gabby narrates the odd vignettes and opinions that fill her life. She discusses quilting with her neighbor Hester; she flirts with Rolando, the garbage man; she helps Mr. Boots find his straying cows; she battles with her adolescent daughter, Shelley; she diets unhappily, while obsessing about food. Inventively woven throughout are fanciful recipes, hybrids of real ingredients and some surreal additions-Brandied Relationship Ring Flambe calls for "spicy interludes, nutty remarks, juice tidbits"-that complement Gabby's many emotional turns. Also present are unnerving personal ads that point to the heroine's cynicism about, yet overwhelming desire for, a relationship: e.g., "Macho hunk with brown hair and big biceps (green eyes) wants YOU! I get out of prison in June." Countless riffs on her trials and tribulations in "husband hunting" encompass too much of the novel; convinced of her own desperation, Gabby eventually considers becoming wife number two to the just-married Iggy Stains, a Mormon man she doesn't much like. But Stone's whittled prose successfully contains her character's dizzying digressions and often finds a lyrical edge in seemingly mundane details. 35,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A quirky yet lovable first novel tracks the feelings and not many actions of Gabby Fulbriten, an out-of-money divorcee with three children in Leadbelly, Vermont. Part cynic, part romantic, half optimistic, half forlorn, Gabby relates her tales of yearnings for a third husband, her fat-thin complex, and her perpetual struggle with a prepubescent daughter, all in a manner that many readers will identify with. Approximately 30 recipes punctuate Gabby's narrative, and lots of ellipses impede the flow, but the wit and the humanity of Stone's main character ensure that the reader will survive all structural cataracts. Barbara Jacobs
Stone's first novel is about life in the climbing lane. Gabby Fulbriten, a single mother of three, lives near the dump in Leadbelly, Vermont. She is hungry-for life, for love, for fulfillment. To appease this hunger she conjures recipes using human beings, emotions, and states of being as ingredients. This and Shakespeare get her through her days of quilting, soul-searching, and work at the Hurry Up Market. Gabby is searching for meaning-a way to explain poverty, war, illness, loneliness, and death. She wants a man but fears the consequences of having one. She feels stuck but can't overcome the inertia that keeps her in place or the demands that drive her day. Stone's novel is frightening and funny, depressing and delightful. Recommended for popular collections.
Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island, Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Providence
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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