Description:
What would you do if, just a week before your wedding, your husband broke his neck and was declared a likely candidate for quadriplegia? When young Josie is faced with just such an eventuality, she sees no choice but to stick by the man she loves. In Mary Pleshette Willis's first novel, Papa's Cord, Josie and Gus's ensuing journey takes them through the trials of post-op sex, the thrill of Gus's recovery, and finally to the ultimate '90s healing process: selling their story to Hollywood. Willis's Hollywood satire, while broad, has the ring of experience: "'They're offering you fifty grand for the film and television rights,' their newly signed agent, Marvin Feingold, said, calling them from the Coast. 'And another fifty if you write it.' 'But we've never written a screenplay before.' 'For fifty thousand, you can learn,' said Marvin." Their subsequent meetings with producers also run to type: "Langston leaned forward, lacing his phallic fingers together. 'What I'm trying to say is breaking your neck in the surf isn't very filmic.'" If Hollywood provides the stuff of '90s farce, fertility problems provide the stuff of '90s drama. When Josie and Gus aren't flying around becoming famous, they're trying to become pregnant, with lots of bitter tears shed along the way. Meanwhile, Willis sets out to interweave Josie and Gus's adventures with the more stringent tale of Josie's relationship with her father, ending up doing justice to neither storyline. In fact, this feels like one of those books where the author dumps in as much life experience as possible and hopes she emerges with a novel. Still, Willis's tone is adamantly light: fans of the romantic comedy of Elinor Lipman may find diversion in these pages. --Claire Dederer
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