Dorothy Parker Drank Here: A Novel by Ellen Meister

Dorothy Parker Drank Here: A Novel.  Ellen Meister. Penguin Group (USA). February 2015. 336 pp.  ISBN#: 9780399166877.

One finds a very special book in the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan in 2007.  The signatures of famous writers and artists are listed and those who sign it get to stick around their earthly life, in Spirit that is, as long as they wish until they yield to the “white light” awaiting their final entry and promising peace and love with those who have gone before them.  It’s hard to resist that light for most of those entered on that list, but Dorothy Parker has no problem with that.  She’s fiercely focused to stick around forever.  When the book is closed, no one can see her; when the book is open, she can be seen and even felt by the observer. Her signature in the book guarantees her permanent residence at the famous hotel and free drinks in the bargain.  Now, she’s on a mission!

Norah Wolfe is an assistant producer for a declining, actually failing, TV show, thinks if she can get an interview with Ted Shriver, a 1970s famous author who is now a recluse, the TV show will be saved.  Ted Shriver, however, is dying of a brain tumor and still punishing himself for his behavior that led his ex-wife to insert plagiarized paragraphs into Shriver’s last published novel, which all but destroyed his literary fame.  He knows Audrey Shriver did the dastardly deed out of pure, unadulterated hate because of his adultery but he refuses to make that information public.

This then is the plot line – to get Ted to expose Audrey in public, on air in Norah’s show.  He’s not buying.  It also turns out he could save himself with some risky brain surgery but he’s not buying that either. 

While the plot is simple, what really makes this novel funny and special are the multiple scenes with fanciful, ironic, and spirited dialogue between Dorothy, Ted, Norah, and later Audrey and her friend.  Dorothy’s sense of humor is droll but comic.  She’s a better investigator than Norah and Dorothy has a keen perception of what to say and do at just the right moment.  The outcome, however, is far from what is expected.  Intriguing indeed!

Dorothy Parker Drank Here: A Novel is a grand read created by a clever, talented writer, Ellen Meister, whose novel is, again, a reader’s delight!  Great read!

Farewell, Dorothy Parker by Ellen Meister

Farewell, Dorothy Parker. Ellen Meister. G. P. Putnam’s Sons: Penguin Group (USA). February 2013. 320 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9780399159077.

Violet Epps is a scathing movie critic who is called some not-so-nice names on internet blogs by those who follow her reviews. In person, however, she is a meek person who stifled her opinions after a childhood scene with her sister that resulted in the family shunning her with silence for being so embarrassingly outspoken. Now, however, Violet needs to get some guts in order to dump her needy, self-centered boyfriend and to speak up at work where her job is threatened by a newbie trying to impress the bosses by editing Violet’s reviews in a way that reads grammatically perfect but stilts Violet’s style big-time!

After meeting her boyfriend at the famous Algonquin Restaurant, where she fails to follow-up on her intention to call off their relationship, she accidentally slips into her bag a book signed by famous writers in the 1920s.  Arriving home, however, she is shocked to discover that when the book is open, the ghost of notable writer Dorothy Parker is alive and well and is determined to change Violet from the “shrinking” side of that flower to an audacious, feisty woman who will speak her mind as required, with no holds.

What follows is a fun, spunky, tension-ridden, but endearing tale of Violet’s conversion and Dorothy’s delight in carrying forward her outrageous reputation for shocking all but getting exactly what she wants.  Violet will get rid of the drip, get her colleague in the right place, and meet someone who will change her world, as Dorothy urges her to learn to flirt and become a “hot” contemporary gal.  Yes, Dorothy is hysterically funny in her audacious comments and urgings which at times scare the heck out of Violet but which then make complete sense.  Dorothy was a healthy dose of reality with no sugar-coated platitudes filling her writing or conversation way back when, a woman before her times but the perfect medicine for curing our heroine of the disease, excessive timidity.  Absolutely delightful and great comic, romantic read!

The Other Life: A Novel by Ellen Meister

The Other Life: A Novel. Ellen Meister. Penguin Group USA. 320 pages. ISBN #: 9780425243374. SEE SPECIAL OFFER AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE!

So many readers have pondered Robert Frost's poem where one wonders what life would have been like on "The Road Not Taken." But what if one had the opportunity to do just that, to see what life would yield if one had made a different decision about one's lover or spouse, one's job or anything else one considers of ultimate importance?

Quinn Braverman lives two lives. As a child, she learned that there were portals she could enter that would take her to another world. Her mother knows about these entrances into another world existing at the same time as the present one but full of different places and "other" people. Quinn isn't a very secure person and at one time ditched her needy ex-boyfriend, Eugene, to marry Lewis, the man who is caring, observant, and totally in tune with pleasing Quinn rather than himself! Sounds like a dream, right?

But Quinn's life is suddenly turned upside down when she discovers her pregnancy is in danger and the baby she is carrying has a huge medical problem. So is suburban life with this new devastating problem one to continue or should she see what it would be like if she had actually stayed with Eugene in his musical, citified life?Where would she be and more important, who would she be in that other world?

It's a terrifying journey yet one Quinn cannot stop pursuing. There's a mystery connected with her deceased, artistic mother to which Quinn seeks an answer, hoping to achieve peace with her presently questionable life. She seems to sense that the answers will not only determine what her marriage will be like in the future but also help her make the very important decision about this as yet unborn child.

The Other Life is riveting reading and finely written. It deserves a wide audience for its tense, complex, and yes, painful but beautiful world! Finely done, Ms. Meister!!!

Ellen Meister, author of THE OTHER LIFE is doing something really fun for Book Clubs! She just launched a program to thank book club members by name in the acknowledgments section of her next book. She has a Book Club Guestbook on her site now and anyone in a book group that read or plans to read THE OTHER LIFE is free to sign up. All they need to do is visit her site at http://www.websitetoolbox.com/guestbook/ellenmeister and fill out the form. That's it!