The Cure for Modern Life: A Novel

I've never written an Amazon review before... but this book was so AWFUL I felt had to warn others before they bought it or wasted time reading it. I read a lot, and certain themes tend to reappear in books, certain classic personas emerge in the disguise of new characters, certain familiar plot lines are found interwoven in many stories but with interesting new twists & turns. Usually there is some originality in how these things are accomplished.

Cure for Modern Life is so CHILDISHLY TRITE in every aspect, I marveled that I finished it... but, frankly, I kept hoping it would get better, pressing on page after page hoping something would save this book. But I was disappointed. The only quality it has is consistency... it is bad from start to finish. I am curious at how this book even got published.

I should have read the San Fransisco Chronicle review with a more perceptive eye, "Tucker's new fable is self-consciously the stuff of fairy tales." It is uncomfortably self-conscious... there is no clear voice; it is frightfully shallow. I have read far better fairy tales.

Sorry to be so harsh, but this book is terrible. Perhaps Tucker's next will be better.

With each book Lisa Tucker gets better and better. She's that rare author who writes beautiful, original stories with deep and meaningful characters.

This book has her trademarks - people who crave family and carve it out of thin air if that's what they have to do - people who break your heart on one page and make you laugh on the next.

Humor, pathos, pain, love, social issues and above all hope... fiction at it's finest!

I lept into this book, anxious to see where it would lead, but ultimately I feel disappointed. The plot is a too complicated and frankly, unbelieveable. I also thought there were a few loose ends that were not resolved. The themes are terribly over-stated. Amelia's constant shifting affection between Ben and Matthew grew tedious. I guess we were supposed to just figure it was the hormones. What an insult!

I think the author set up a premise for her plot that was much too complicated and far-fetched to pull off.

"Suspicion torments my heart
Suspicion keeps us apart
Suspicion why torture me?"

(Elvis)


Your scenario:

1. You're a high level executive with a pharmaceutical giant
2. Your ex-girlfriend's into medical ethics on a professional level
3. Your best friend is probably on his way to a Nobel Peace Prize for finding cures for insect borne diseases.
4. #2 and #3 are now a couple
5. The shifting relationship between the three of you is love, love, hate, but not necessarily in that order
6. You try to sing "She's Out of my Life", but unfortunately it's not working
7. You performed a rare and spontaneous act of kindness that proved to be rather expensive
8. It also brought you into contact with a ten-year old street kid and his undernourished 3 year old sister
9. Your life changes forever

Meet Matthew, the self-centered executive who's too busy working on his career and fortune to be bothered with relationships and commitment. Matthew is the protagonist in this highly improbable scenario, where the main themes are manipulation, suspicion and deception.

There are several stories running through this book, and while each situation provides food for thought in isolation, the merging is a little hard to swallow. The main thing is that the three principal adult characters are forced into self-examination of their lives, and have to make tough decisions in order to balance their professional goals with their other burning desires.

Forgetting the messy merging and implausible incidents, this book will have you turning the pages to see what comes next, but it would have benefited from the removal of some extraneous material and a few I-Pod plugs.

Rated 3.5 stars



Amanda Richards, July 26, 2008

I could not believe this was the same author honestly. This book was so far fetched, predictable and sappy. I am glad I got from the library and did not invest any money in it. I hardly believe anyone has the power to get free rehab for a complete stranger at a pricey posh place. Letting two homeless kids live in your apartment and then end up with custody of them after all that? And then getting your ex girlfriend back with the generous gift of your best friends baby she is carrying? Ridiculous, really. Yes, fiction should take us away from real life, but this was just silly in my opinion.