Saturday, August 9, 2008

Julie's Review: Sundays at Tiffany's

Photobucket Summary: As a little girl, Jane has no one. Her mother, the powerful head of a Broadway theater company, has no time for her. She does have one friend-a handsome, comforting, funny man named Michael-but only she can see him. Years later, Jane is in her thirties and just as alone as ever. Then she meets Michael again-as handsome, smart and perfect as she remembers him to be. But not even Michael knows the reason they've really been reunited. SUNDAYS AT TIFFANY'S is a love story with an irresistible twist, a novel about the child inside all of us-and the boundary-crossing power of love.~amazon.com

Review: I've been waiting for this kind of James Patterson book again and yes, I had high hopes for Sundays at Tiffany's,but I was a bit disappointed but not as much as I might have been. Enter 8 year old Jane with her imaginary friend Michael and how he's with her all the time to help her through a difficult time in her life. But there are rules and Michael can't explain them to Jane but he knows she'll forget him because that's what kids always do, they forget their imaginary friends. Flash-forward 20+ years and Jane hasn't forgotten Michael and well Michael hasn't forgotten Jane. He's thought about her often in the years they've been apart. He happens to be in NYC between "jobs" when he and Jane have a chance meeting. Which is supposed to make you think, "Is anything really chance?"

Jane hasn't really been happy in the last 20 years, in fact the last time she can remember being happy is when she was 8 years. She has a successful career but is still tied to her mom, the famous Vivienne Margaux. She's never felt good enough to be her mom's daughter and always felt Vivienne felt the same way.

The twist isn't really a twist if you read close enough and at least to me, it was very anti-climatic. It's also not described or explained to my satisfaction, in fact I found that it made no sense at all.

I think the premise is very interesting and it does leave some of the details on certain plot points for you to fill in yourself but it wasn't fully developed to my taste. I'm not sure I "bought" the romance part of the story. There were other aspects that I would have liked to see developed. And while the title of the novel relates to the book I do think it would be better named "Astor Court" or something to that effect.

If you haven't read James Patterson's foray into the romance side of the aisle I would suggest picking up Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas which brought me to tears many times or Sam's Letters to Jennifer which was almost as good at Suzanne's Diary. Both of those novels are far superior to Sunday at Tiffany's.

Final Take: 3/5

2 comments:

Anna said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anna said...

I loved Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, but didn't really like Sam's Letters to Jennifer. But I must say that Sam was a bazillion times better than Sundays at Tiffany's. I've been disappointed with Patterson's writing these days. I thought the book had so much promise, but fell flat. I agree it was anti-climactic.

--Anna (Diary of an Eccentric)