Jodi Bret and Todd Gilbert - who have been together for twenty years - live in a posh Chicago condominium and enjoy the good things in life: a lovely home; expensive cars; fine dining; evening walks along the lake; etc.
Jodi is a trained psychotherapist and maintains an office in the condo. She sees a couple of patients a day, and spends the rest of her time working out, reading, walking the couple's dog Freud, seeing friends, shopping, cooking gourmet meals, etc.
Todd is a successful developer who's currently experiencing a money crunch because of a pricey building renovation. Todd likes to ogle women, show off his expensive possessions, and spend time with Jodi - who coddles and indulges him.
The couple's lives are humming along smoothly when Todd mentions that he'll be going on a fishing trip next weekend, with some fellows from the office. Jodi immediately sniffs out the lie, and it's one lie too many.
Jodi knows that Todd is a serial womanizer, and Todd is aware that she knows. However, Todd's behavior has NEVER been acknowledged between them. Thus the evenings when Todd is 'working late' or 'having a drink with the boys' have passed without reproach, though Jodi does small vindictive things for revenge. Todd has never gone away for an entire weekend, though, and this seems to spell trouble.
Indeed it spells trouble.....BIG trouble. Todd has been seeing a sexy college coed named Natasha, who happens to be the daughter of his best friend Dean. Worse yet, Natasha is pregnant and expects Todd to marry her. Natasha and Todd's upcoming weekend getaway, planned by the coed, is to be a romantic interlude and an opportunity to discuss their (really her) plans. Number one on Natasha's list is for Todd to tell Jodi what's going on and move out.
Todd doesn't have the nerve to inform Jodi, but she finds out anyway - from Dean, who's furious about Todd knocking up his daughter. Even afterwards, when Todd knows that Jodi's been told, neither of them brings up the subject. In fact things at home go on much as before.....for a while. (Can you imagine a more fraught state of affairs?)
Todd knows he has to cut the cord at some point, and - once lawyers get involved - Jodi discovers that she's entitled to nothing because she and Todd were never married. Things eventually take a dark turn, which is foreshadowed at the beginning of the book.
The story alternates back and forth between Jodi's perspective and Todd's perspective, and we learn that they both come from dysfunctional families. In Jodi's chapters we read about her parents and two brothers. We also see flashbacks to Jodi's psychotherapy sessions, which took place during graduate school. Jody's psychoanalysis reveals some hard truths, and may be meant to explain her passive-aggressive behavior - but it's a stretch (IMO).
For his part, Todd is unable to hold his own against Natasha, whose assertive personality is the diametric opposite of Jodi's. Natasha is continually pushing Todd in directions he'd rather not go and is planning a huge wedding he can't afford right now. Todd's angst about all this has predictable results.
I listened to the audio version of this book, which was a mistake. The female narrator - who voices Jodi's chapters - speaks exceptionally slowly, probably to depict Jodi's shock at the crisis in her life. This makes the story, which is already slow, feel moribund. The male narrator - who voice's Todd's sections - is a bit better....but the tale still meanders along.
I found the story interesting from the perspective of two damaged people in a seriously neurotic relationship. A couple going on like this for twenty years seems incomprehensible to me. I'm especially bewildered by Jodi, who (it would seem) could do much better than a lying cheat.
I didn't particularly like the book, but readers interested in psychology and flawed relationships might be interested.
In this 15th book in the 'Jack Reacher' series, the steely hero intervenes in a domestic abuse situation, and draws the ire of the 'town mafia.' The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
Jack Reacher, perpetual traveler and tough guy seeking justice, stops off in a small Nebraska community as he's hitchhiking south.
While having coffee in a motel bar where the local doctor happens to be drinking, a call comes in - Eleanor Duncan has a nosebleed. The doc refuses to respond so Reacher - suspecting domestic abuse - insists on driving the doc to Eleanor's house and finds she has indeed been hit in the face. Reacher proceeds to locate Eleanor's husband Seth at a steakhouse and breaks his nose. After this all hell breaks loose.
Seems the Duncans (Seth, his father and two uncles) have a stranglehold on the local farming community and have completely intimated everybody who lives there. The Duncans aren't about to take any flak from Reacher and tell a couple of 'cornhuskers' - former college football players the Duncans hire to be bodyguards and enforcers - to get rid of Reacher. The two cornhuskers don't succeed.
Moreover the Duncans are involved in illegal trafficking through Canada and are in trouble because a shipment they promised is late. Since they're already furious at Reacher the Duncans tell their customers that the shipment is delayed because Reacher is sniffing around. Before long a slew of people are out to maim/kill Reacher including a bunch of cornhuskers and three sets of hitmen - sent by the Arabs, Italians, and Iranians who are awaiting the shipment.
Reacher is very tough, however, and his encounters with these creeps generally ends badly for the would-be assassins. Lee Child does a good job describing scenes of combat and carnage and one has to admire Reacher's capabilities with his fists and any tools or weapons he happens to get his hands on.
While all this is going on Reacher hears about the disappearance of a local young girl twenty-five years ago and decides to find out what happened to her - not so easy while so many people are out to kill him.
Most of the story is about Reacher playing cat and mouse with the people chasing him and there's a lot of violence and unpleasant behavior. However Reacher is very clever and figures everything out in the end.
There are some surprises and twists in this exciting thriller. Recommended for fans of the series.
Rating: 3 stars
Rob Lowe
Rob Lowe, born in 1964, writes about his personal life and career in this memoir. It's not only an engaging story, it's a good primer for aspiring young actors. The takeaway: be bold, work hard, and avoid scandals.
Lowe has been a devoted husband and father for nearly three decades, but Rob's 'bad boy' antics as a young man almost derailed his career. At the age of 24 Rob made a sex tape with a 16-year-old girl. The videotape went public when Rob's movie 'Bad Influence' was opening and Lowe writes, "The unrelenting media scrutiny and fallout from the videotape debacle overshadowed 'Bad Influence' completely."
Isolation and excessive drinking followed, and - though Rob had worked extensively in Hollywood and had campaigned for many Democratic candidates - no industry or political friends reached out....except for his chum Jodie Foster. Luckily, appearances on Saturday Night Live revived Lowe's career, and a stint in rehab - and support from his future wife Cheryl Berkoff - put him on the right track.
Rob Lowe with his friend Jodie Foster
Rob Lowe with his wife Cheryl Berkoff and their sons Matthew and John Owen
Lowe grew up in North Dayton, Ohio and became interested in acting as a child. Young Rob tried out for everything, and took any parts he could get in community theater and college plays. Lowe looked at each performance as a step on a ladder that would lead him to his future. By then Rob had been traumatized by his parents' divorce, and was doing everything he could to block out the pain.
Young Rob Lowe
Before Lowe started high school his mother moved the family - Rob and his brothers Chad and Micah - to Malibu, California.
Rob Lowe with his mother Barbara and brothers Chad (right) and Micah
Rob soon started hanging out with his neighbors - Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Sean Penn, and Chris Penn. Even as young teens, the boys made their own movies, which was good experience for the future. To advance his career Rob got an agent, and notes, "I made sure I knew my lines, gave my character a point of view, and kept it honest. I still do that to this day."
At 15, Lowe was cast in the television show 'A New Kind of Family', and Rob's striking good looks made him an instant teen heartthrob.
The cast of 'A New Kind of Family'
Young girls flocked to the show and Rob's first fan letter was from a convict who wanted a photo of Rob in his skivvies. Thinking back to those days Rob recalls, "I don't know it yet but I will come to learn that being charged on the African Savannah by a rhino is only fractionally more dangerous than being bull-rushed by a gang of 14 year old girls whipped into a lather by hormones, group think, and an overdose of Tiger Beat magazine."
Lowe had some fun show biz experiences during the run of the show, and even met Cary Grant. He tells a story about going to visit his friend Jennifer, and being surprised when her father Cary Grant answered the door. Grant gave Rob a glass of milk and some shepherd's pie his wife made, then sat down with the teens to watch Rob's television show. Later Grant complimented Lowe, saying he was reminiscent of a young Warren Beatty.
Cary Grant with his wife Barbara and daughter Jennifer
'A New Kind of Family' didn't last long, and Rob auditioned for lots of parts he didn't get. He observes, "There is very little rhyme or reason as to who gets what in Hollywood. There are plenty of dedicated talented actors destined for jobs they hate, chasing in vain a dream that will never come." About himself, Rob says, "I'd had just enough success to keep me chasing the dream but not enough to insure a career."
Living in Malibu helped Rob's career, but it wasn't all fun and games. Rob had to work mundane part-time jobs between gigs, and wasn't in the 'cool clique' at school. In addition, Malibu had 'malignant undercurrents.' Lowe mentions dangerous roads where truck drivers were killed, two kayakers being eaten by a great white shark, and a surfer who disappeared after a beach party. Rob also recalls his classmate Shane, who snorted rat poison thinking it was cocaine; his acquaintance Sam, who crashed his bike and impaled his head on a tree; a boy who went scuba diving, caught his hand in a lobster trap, and ran out of air; and a teenager who died from a self-inflicted shotgun blast. To add to the drama, AIDS first became a scourge in the 1980s.
When Rob was 17, Francis Ford Coppola decided to make 'The Outsiders', from the book by S.E. Hinton - about the clash between the disadvantaged Greasers and the entitled Socs (pronounced soshes). Lowe got the part of Greaser 'Sodapop Curtis', the brother of the main character.
Teenage Rob Lowe
A large section of Lowe's memoir is about 'The Outsiders', including the try-outs, the filming, and the screening. Lowe notes that every young actor in Hollywood auditioned for the movie, and some came dressed head to toe in full Greaser regalia.
Rob had a great time hanging out with 'The Outsiders' cast, which included C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, and Tom Cruise. In the evenings the boys would drink, party, and pick up girls - though Rob's girlfriend Melissa Gilbert waited for him back home.
The cast of the outsiders: Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe, and Tom Cruise
Rob Lowe with Melissa Gilbert
In fact Lowe was a chick magnet throughout his teens and early twenties, and had innumerable one-night stands as well as romances with actress Nastassja Kinski, Princess Stephanie of Monaco, Fawn Hall (of Iran-Contra fame), and others.
Rob Lowe with Nastassja Kinski
Rob Lowe with Princess Stephanie
Rob Lowe with Fawn Hall
Following 'The Outsiders', Lowe was on a roll, and made one movie after another. He notes, "With the reaction to 'The Outsiders', the release of 'Class', and the pedigree of a project like the 'The Hotel New Hampshire' I find myself in the heady, pressure-filled bullseye of the star-making machine. I'm either offered parts or in conversations on most movies, but on the other hand I'm not even considered for certain others because I've already been discovered - and a director doesn't want to use another director's big find." Lowe felt he had to keep pushing because "a career can lose momentum in a minute."
Lowe's next smash hit was 'St. Elmo's Fire', which starred a brigade of young talent. Lowe explains how the movie led a magazine to coin the term 'The Brat Pack.'
'St. Elmo's Fire' was about to open when a journalist came to interview cast member Emilio Estevez, who was an up-and-coming auteur. Estevez invited the St. Elmo's cast and the journalist to the Hard Rock Café for an evening of food, fun, and frivolity. Lowe recalls, "It was a wild time. The place was pretty chaotic, with sexual possibilities everywhere, and lots of food and kamikazes."
The journalist scrapped the article about Estevez and wrote a scathing piece for New York Magazine, focusing on the dinner he'd attended. The writer described "the obnoxious exploits of a pack of interchangeable pampered spoiled vacuous attention seeking actors who were long on ambition and fame, but short on talent or humanity." He called the actors 'The Brat Pack', and the term became an instant classic. The core members of The Brat Pack came to be Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Mare Winningham, and Ally Sheedy.
The Brat Pack: Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Mare Winningham, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Andrew McCarthy
Brat Packer Molly Ringwald
Most performers have ups and downs in their careers, and - in the late 1980s - Lowe experienced months with no decent movie offers. He observes, "When this happens you need to find a way to stay in the conversation and reinvent yourself." Thus Rob agree to participate in a musical number that opened the 1988 Academy Awards - in which he'd sing and dance with Snow White. For various reasons, the routine was a train wreck.....and was soon followed by the sex tape debacle.
Rob Lowe with 'Snow White' at the 1988 Academy Awards
Lowe was a full blown alcoholic by then, and his career might have ended badly. However rehab - and marriage to makeup artist Cheryl Berkoff - helped Rob reinvent himself. Lowe went on to appear in many television shows and movies, and finally landed the role of Deputy White House Communications Director Sam Seaborn on the political drama 'The West Wing.'
Lowe elaborates on that experience and relates many stories about the smash hit, which he left after four years because of a salary dispute and creative differences. Lowe went on to do other work, including steady roles in 'Californication', 'Parks and Recreation', and other programs.....but that's outside the scope of this book.
Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborn on 'The West Wing' with Martin Sheen (left) and Richard Schiff
Rob Lowe in 'Californication'
Rob Lowe in 'Parks and Recreation'
In the memoir Lowe writes about his family troubles - explaining that his mother was chronically ill with (what she thought were) allergies and his father was geographically distant and relatively uninvolved.
Rob Lowe and Chad Lowe with their mother Barbara
Rob Lowe with his father Chuck Lowe
Rob also mentions his political activism and the many famous people he's met, who hail from all ranks of government and show business. Lowe makes it clear that the best things in his life are his wife and two sons, who bring him great happiness and joy.
On the downside, Lowe glosses over the sex tape peccadillo and doesn't even mention the nannygate accusations that made the news. Everyone has a right to privacy, though, so nuff said.
Lowe is a good writer and I enjoyed the book. Recommended to fans of celebrity memoirs.
This is the first book in the 'Bowser and Birdie' series - middle-grade mysteries that are narrated by Bowser the dog.
*****
Eleven-year-old Birdie Gaux and her Grammy are perusing dogs at the animal shelter when Birdie sees Bowser - and it's love at first sight.
Bowser is thrilled to go home with his new family, and is entranced with the smells and sights of the 'Gaux Family Fish-and-Bait Shop', located in a Louisiana bayou town.
Bowser knows he and Birdie will be best friends forever, and is determined to stay right at her side (or on her feet) at all times.
Inside the fish-and-bait shop Birdie and Grammy discover that the store's assistant, named Snoozy, has fallen asleep on the job. Worse yet 'Black Jack' - the stuffed marlin that's been the store mascot since the end of WWII - has been stolen.
Rumors have swirled through town for years about a treasure map hidden by Birdie's great-grandpa - and someone may have decided to look inside Black Jack for the document.
Birdie suspects the stuffed marlin was taken by the Strakers, a bullying family that owns 'Straker's World Famous Fishing Emporium' across the bayou. A cigar butt found near the crime scene appears to be a clue, and - when the sheriff dismisses Birdie's suspicions - she sets out to surveil the Strakers herself.....with binoculars.
Not getting definitive proof from her spying, Birdie gets assistance from her friends Nola and Roy, who've heard talk around town. More clues turn up when a traveler hires Birdie to take him on a tour of the swamp.....and asks a lot of nosy questions.
By the end of the book Birdie and Bowser have solved the mysteries, but they've also been endangered several times.
Bowser is a fun storyteller who's distracted by smells; confused by people's mannerisms; and bewildered by human language (especially idioms). Thus he sometimes mixes things up and misses clues that the astute reader sniffs out.
I found the mystery entertaining and would recommend the book to youngsters. I'd caution, however, that the story contains death, violence, and danger.
Rating: 3.5 stars
