Secondhand Smoke

Rating:
Summary: Bells, Whistles, Flags and Banners for Secondhand Smoke
Review: I've bought ten copies of Secondhand Smoke. I've sent it to friends who tell me they don't read, to English professors, deep-sea divers, architects, people who take pits out of olives, and relatives. This book is universally adored. If Patty Friedmann had a good PR team, her fuzzy-haired profile would be on dollar bills and the U.S. Mint would relocate to New Orleans where it belongs. This isn't merely a great story, but one that covers all the bases, mini and magnificent. Don't read any further--click the thingamajig and read an excerpt from page one. I'd give a toe, not the great toe, maybe the little one, no, a tooth, that's it, a molar, to write like Friedmann.

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Summary: Friedmann Nails It -- Again
Review: I've read most of Patty Friedmann's work, and until now my favorite was ELEANOR RUSHING -- but after reading SECONDHAND SMOKE, I have a new title at the top of my list. I'm consistently entertained by how Friedmann channels the *true* voices of edgy, *modern* Southern women. In SECONDHAND SMOKE, she's outdone herself with the character of Jerusha Bailey. Jerusha NEVER censors herself, the outrageous things she says, or the authentic things she does -- so much so that Friedmann actually makes you stop short of disliking Jerusha. This is the genius of SECONDHAND SMOKE, and in my opinion a Friedmann trademark......

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Summary: A great study of a very strange family!
Review: Three such different people in the same family! But are they really so different? Why are they the way they are? How can two adult children still be so tightly tied to their mother's apron strings - especially a mother whose apron strings are so strange and so different from the norm? The characters in this book are fascinating. We are presented with a family like no other. They are comic, they are tragic, and to some extent, they are us, only more so.