The Family Man

Just because it's light and fairy tale-esque doesn't mean you can't enjoy it. C'mon, it's July! I had a good time reading Elinor Lipman's latest (until the end. More on that later. Maybe). I really liked Lipman's book My Latest Grievance and I kind of enjoyed The Inn at Lake Devine. I even thought about seeing the movie version of Then She found Me, but Helen Hunt's delivery is so flat and painful in the previews that I didn't. I also worried Bette Midler would do me in. The last time I enjoyed watching Bette Midler was in the video she did with Mick Jagger to Beast of Burden and I had little-to-no taste back then.

The Family Man was entertaining and Lipman gets a lot of the characters just right. The basic plot: Gay New Yorker Henry reluctantly reconnects through condolences with his ex-wife (remember back that far? When gays felt they had to "pass"?); Wife is a little nuts in an entertaining way (Denise is a hoot in Lipman's hands) and she's about to land in the (relative) poor house because of her scheming stepsons; Henry's grown stepdaughter is in the wings with really outlandish "career" plans; There's also a balding, wealthy, and socially-idiotic horror movie director. (Yep, he turns out to be more important than he deserves). Henry just wants everyone happy and for Denise to leave him alone, and eventually everyone ends up more or less where they should. Well, almost because, um, the ending wasn't quite right.

I love novels in which everyone is rich (enough) and they eat good food and they fall in love appropriately (although not quite in this case). Henry is a wonderful main character. He's charming, owns great property, he's conveniently a retired lawyer (remember the scheming stepsons?) and he wants to take care of everyone. Sigh. Oh yeah, he's gay. His stepdaughter is only okay. She's supposedly 29 but acts more like 22 or so, but then again, I've probably forgotten what 29 is like. I'm also not sure why all books with gay characters insist on having a campy character, but it's sure not Henry in this one. Lipman finds him a boyfriend, though, which is all fine, but he's a bit much at times.

I love Lipman's chapter headings. She pulls phrases from the mouths of her characters and slaps them on the beginnings of each chapter so you have things like: I Hate You Still and Don't Look So Worried and So Soon? There are, of course, the occasional utilitarian ones like The Maisonette and The Human Condition, but Lipman is obviously having fun with her characters.

I wanted to spend more time with them even if daughter Thalia was making strange choices and getting on my nerves at times (okay, most of the time). Lipman gets everyone else just right.

Sample dialogue with preamble: Denise has just been cut out of her third husband's will because of an awkward clause in the pre-nup in which she has to be married for 25 years to inherit anything. Her husband dies within months of that line in the sand. When she goes to Henry (he was the closeted gay husband number 2), He tries to calm her, all the while trying to get away from her (remember, chapter one is titled: I Hate You Still and that's Henry talking in one of his less-than-perfect moments).

Henry says gently, "Denise? Is it possible that underneath these jokes there's a wife mourning the loss of her husband of twenty-five years?"
"Twenty-four! A major difference in this case, believe me.
"Do you want to invite me to sit down somewhere?"
Eyes welling, she presses an index finger against her lips and shakes her head.

"No, you don't want me to sit? Or no, you aren't in mourning?"
She shakes her head again.

"Too much? Too many emotions to sort out?
She nods and fishes a tissue out of her bathrobe pocket. She blows her nose and then asks,"Do you still like mushrooms? Because I have a pizza on the way."

And yes, that last line is delivered in exactly the breezy tone you're imagining.