This One is a Keeper
Finders Keepers This is the nineteenth Kallmaker romance, so there are many readers familiar with her work. A brief recap: Karin Kallmaker is a solid writer, very skilled in craft, and unafraid to inject humor wherever possible, brilliant in tweaking the boundaries of the standard elements of the genre, and committed to insuring her readers are entertained. The Lambda award for Maybe Next Time was deserved. Finders Keepers employs all the author¿s talents. It¿s funny. It turns what should be a cliché'd romantic setting and plot on its ear. It deals with issues. For those who expect it, and just have to have it, there are some sizzling, unexpectedly sensual sex scenes. Unexpected is a word that will recur throughout the reading of this novel. There has been far too much of the two beautiful people who just can¿t seem to get together. Far too much of the petite, blond fem and the tall, dark butch too much of one can¿t deal with emotions and the other can. In Finders Keepers, everyone has emotions, and everyone has to deal with them. In this novel, everyone gets to bat. The concept is funny: Marissa, a woman who runs a dating service but can¿t get a date herself, goes on a vacation cruise, meets a mysterious stranger, has a fling. There is a standard romantic setting on shipboard and in Tahiti. Then comes the expected return to everyday life, and reality pushes the brief encounter into a corner where doubts and fantasies reside. But you always get more than bargained for with Kallmaker, and here it comes. First, this novel begins with the ending, then backtracks. Next, you get Marissa¿s mental notes to her mother, herself, and just about everybody. These missives are hilarious and revealing and poignant. Then, point of view enters time-sharing, as the two return to their lives on separate coasts and begin to deal with those things that suddenly have to be done before each can reclaim, reform, recreate a life that had seemed impossible. Linda, the mysterious, beautiful, remote woman, has serious and heart-breaking problems with her mother. One can¿t help resorting to split-screen imaging, as Marissa tackles her lifelong problem with self image, while Linda tentatively, painfully, then more assertively, takes control of her life. If there is a true villain in this piece, it is us. We are all in this novel, and at times I was astonished to acknowledge that I have too much in common with these characters. Women who have too often simply accepted the idea that body shape and size determine who we are, let those factors affect how we live, how we perceive ourselves, how we feel about ourselves. And we let those things determine how everyone else reacts to us. When one reads a romance novel, most often, she is looking for escape, light entertainment, not a funny, moving and very revealing look into her own daily struggles. Kallmaker plunges right into this touchy subject, and so will I. There are no fat people in romance novels. Period. In fact, I was hesitant to reveal that this novel deals with the subject of weight and self image, because of the fear that it may turn some readers away from reading it. That hesitance demonstrates just how pervasive the issue is, how dangerous. Fat is a turnoff in escapism. What does that say about us? Even though most of us are not slim and beautiful, we demand that our books and movies show us perfect teeth and perfect hair and especially, perfect bodies. Well, folks, the truth is out. Here is a romance novel that is all about beauty and our skewed ideas about it. This is a book that will make you laugh, make you think, sometimes make you flinch and wince, but along the way, you will be as entertained as any Kallmaker novel you¿ve read before, and you¿ll be moved, and like the main characters themselves, if you allow it, you may even be changed a little. Don¿t deny yourself the opportunity. I don¿t know why I feel as though I should
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