Playing Botticelli

Rating:
Summary: Light, fun and too short!
Review: "Playing Botticelli" was a great read. Dylan is a well-adjusted teenager who lives in Florida with her art-inspired mother, Godiva. Dylan finds a picture of her "missing" father and decides to find him. Godiva, none-the-wiser to Dylan's absence, finally realizes where her daughter went. After a long hard trip, Dylan returns to her mother. This book was wonderful. I wish it was longer and I hope for a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: A stellar debut!
Review:

Judy Blitch, a/k/a Godiva Blue, is a free-wheeling spirit directly from the 60's. She rebelled against her upbringing, she marched on Washington and had a baby out of wedlock long before it was acceptable in social circles. She and her daughter, Dylan (after Bob, of course) are now living in Esmerelda, Florida, where Godiva works as the elementary school's custodian and makes beautiful boxes that are sold by a local art dealer. Dylan is a bit embarrassed by her eccentric mother, but adjusts to life in a small town.

Godiva's life takes a bizarre turn when she is the first person at an accident involving two local boys and their bicycles. Godiva comforts the boys, rides to the hospital with them and develops an affinity with the one who is seriously hurt. She is also attracted to the father of the second boy -- he's married, but she can't resist the seductive pull of his crooked smile.

Dylan's life makes an abrupt turn of its own when she discovers a photograph -- taken from the WANTED posters at the local post office -- of the man she believes to be her father. Being the resourceful child that she is, she implements an elaborate plan to find him and get some questions answered.

Liza Nelson has written a stellar debut novel about responsibility, family and finding our place in the universe. Her language is crisp, concise and rang true when compared with my own experiences from the '60's and with the puzzles of motherhood. Nelson is an author to watch.

Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: i strongly recommend this book.
Review: Godiva Blue is one of the most successful "unlikeable narrators" in contemporary fiction. She's strong, funny and full of herself, and she knows it and we know it. Her daughter Dylan is the perfect evocation of a teenage girl. I feel like I know these people. Thank you, Ms. Nelson, for writing such a wise book. I enjoyed it as if it were a birthday gift.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Wordcraft
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book for Nelson's use of language alone. Her writing style is rich with imagery and rythmn and her 'voice' comes across as frank and genuine. Nelson's wordcraft isn't the only worthwhile aspect of this novel, however. The characters are colorful and exotic while retaining a sense of realism. Plot here really takes a backseat to its heroines, yet even the twists and turns of the story are interesting and dynamic.

As a mother, daughter, teacher and would-be artist, I identified with so many of the situations and people that I was often at odds with myself during conflicts in the story. This book is rife with spiritual introspection and relational expoloration and a worthwhile read for anyone who questions how they became who they are.

Rating:
Summary: Single motherhood
Review: The main character, Godiva Blue, is an artist, a janitor, and a single mother. She is a woman with mechanical skills. Her daughter's name is Dylan. We are in the Reagan years. It is possible to speak of terrorism in a bright disconnected manner. Godiva says that coping is an acceptance of less than you want.

The heroine sees her daughter's father on a wanted poster in the post office. It seems he is wanted in connection with a bombing. Botticelli is game, a variation of twenty questions. Details of the game are explained at the end of the book. The heroine recalls a time in 1970 when she was working on a mural with the students at the free school in Ann Arbor. The man, Hank, was too political for her. He was not a student.

Dylan is the daughter of a person living an alternative lifestyle. She participates in a Baptist youth group. She wonders what it would be like to be the daughter of the minister and his wife. She thinks her mother has no interest in doing what normal people do. No child has a mother like Godiva Blue. She is a forty year old red head with braids and hightops. Her friend tells Dylan that her mother is an iconoclast.

Dylan finds the conspiracy to bomb wanted poster with her father's face on it. Dylan notes that her mother is very energetic and needs only five hours of sleep per night. Godiva Blue's rel name is Judy Blitch. Godiva makes boxes. She has warned Dylan not to get boxed in to other people's expectations. Dylan is upset that her father's face has been purposely hidden from her. Dylan tries to read about the Weather Underground.

Godiva, her daughter explains, listens to National Public Radio every night for a half hour. This is as close to mass media as she gets. Dylan happens to hear a report about one of the members of the Weather Underground. This triggers a search for her father. Dylan says it is hard to imagine her mother living in a commune, a stage in her earlier life, since isolation is her big thing these days, althought she calls it independence.

Dylan travels from Florida to Delaware to Ohio and to New Mexico. She is given a stray child, Crescent, during her extensive travel by bus. Godiva should have known that something was amiss with the Christmas plans for visiting a grandmother, but she was caught up in her own adventures. She finds out Dylan is missing and is panicky. Contact is finally made. Dylan has verified the existence of her father even though she has met no man who claims to be Hank.

Rating:
Summary: Single motherhood
Review: The main character, Godiva Blue, is an artist, a janitor, and a single mother. She is a woman with mechanical skills. Her daughter's name is Dylan. We are in the Reagan years. It is possible to speak of terrorism in a bright disconnected manner. Godiva says that coping is an acceptance of less than you want.

The heroine sees her daughter's father on a wanted poster in the post office. It seems he is wanted in connection with a bombing. Botticelli is game, a variation of twenty questions. Details of the game are explained at the end of the book. The heroine recalls a time in 1970 when she was working on a mural with the students at the free school in Ann Arbor. The man, Hank, was too political for her. He was not a student.

Dylan is the daughter of a person living an alternative lifestyle. She participates in a Baptist youth group. She wonders what it would be like to be the daughter of the minister and his wife. She thinks her mother has no interest in doing what normal people do. No child has a mother like Godiva Blue. She is a forty year old red head with braids and hightops. Her friend tells Dylan that her mother is an iconoclast.

Dylan finds the conspiracy to bomb wanted poster with her father's face on it. Dylan notes that her mother is very energetic and needs only five hours of sleep per night. Godiva Blue's rel name is Judy Blitch. Godiva makes boxes. She has warned Dylan not to get boxed in to other people's expectations. Dylan is upset that her father's face has been purposely hidden from her. Dylan tries to read about the Weather Underground.

Godiva, her daughter explains, listens to National Public Radio every night for a half hour. This is as close to mass media as she gets. Dylan happens to hear a report about one of the members of the Weather Underground. This triggers a search for her father. Dylan says it is hard to imagine her mother living in a commune, a stage in her earlier life, since isolation is her big thing these days, althought she calls it independence.

Dylan travels from Florida to Delaware to Ohio and to New Mexico. She is given a stray child, Crescent, during her extensive travel by bus. Godiva should have known that something was amiss with the Christmas plans for visiting a grandmother, but she was caught up in her own adventures. She finds out Dylan is missing and is panicky. Contact is finally made. Dylan has verified the existence of her father even though she has met no man who claims to be Hank.

Rating:
Summary: unconventional mom learns she's not so different after all
Review: Wonderful story about artist/school custodian/aging hippie mom Godiva Blue, her fifteen-year old daughter Dylan, and Dylan's act of mom-defying teenage rebellion, her quest to discover the identity of and meet her father. The mother/daughter relationship themes are well-developed in the text; as much as Godiva wants to be unique and raise her child to be questioning & independent, she learns that she is no different than every other mom out there -- she wants her daughter to accept her values; she wants her daughter to be safe and loved & cared for (rather than striking off on risky adventures.) The book was definitely a page turner, but it left me hanging in the end. I wanted more -- I felt that the issues with Dylan's father were unresolved, and I was disappointed that the book ended when it did. Nonetheless, a very good novel.