Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Invisible Eden: A Story of Love and Murder on Cape Cod by Maria Flook ISBN: 0767913744 Publisher: Broadway Books Pub. Date: 24 June, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.23
Rating: 2
Summary: Starr Reporter
Comment: Nearly everybody beats up on this book, with good reason.
The author treats the romantic life of the subject -- fashion writer Christa Worthington, a victim of an unsolved murder on Cape Cod -- as if it were a dirty joke, and I do mean dirty. Every coupling in this unmarried mother's life is decribed in the most graphic and profane terms possible, until I found myself thinking of the clinical nastiness of the Starr Report accounts of the couplings between President Clinton and intern Monica Lewinsky. (Worthington, all too presciently, is said to have remarked that in affairs with married men, "Every woman is the intern" -- powerless and rendered contemptible in the public gaze). Some of Worthington's lovers -- who may include her killer -- were all too happy to give salacious details of their encounters, such as the seedy bar magician who likens Worthington's computer trackball to a body part.
Flook is all too willing to type up whatever these men said about the dead woman, though some of this degrading stuff may be necrophiliac fantasy. It's a surprising performance, given the thoughtfulness and delicacy with which the author handled sensitive family material in her memoir, "My Sister Life." Come to think of it, this book is a bit of a memoir, too, with the much-decried chapters about her flirtation with the district attorney on the Worthington case.
These interludes are probably there to pad out the book, which has the frustrating central defect of being a true-crime book with no resolution to write about, since no arrests have been made. That said, the structure is familiar to readers of Elmore Leonard novels and many works of non-fiction, in which chapters alternate among the parallel stories of different people. This device manufactures a little artificial suspense, in this case, including -- rather weakly -- the questions of whether the DA will win re-election and whether he and the author will get involved romantically, while tracking the victim's career and "downward spiral" and the parts played by other figures in the case.
There's also a good bit of rather undigested local history of the Outer Cape, where the author lives and hints at a messy, transgressive history of her own that ties her to the victim's story. Flook may have been trying for a more ambitious illumination of the basic sexual inequalities between men and women. Worthington, for instance, is presented as having tried, disastrously, to Have It All, as Madonna and Whore in one carelessly used body. Meanwhile, as her sort-of-biographer, the memoirist Flook maintains superior status by repeatedly spurning the DA's rather mechanical advances.
There isn't a single positive male-female relationship among any of the real-life characters in this book. Overall, there's a bitter tone to the narrative that comes out in the jarring, irregular use of profanity and the author's sneers at practically everyone she meets. Why does Flook -- self-announced as a parent -- dismiss fortyish single women who are trying to get pregnant as "wannabe mommies"? And why blast Weight Watchers (which helped Worthington, after her daughter's birth, lose some weight) as "America's favorite institution for fatties"? Gosh. What about all the wised-up, hard-won feminism Flook displays elsewhere in the book? Are women who don't give birth in their 20s, dropping excess weight effortlessly, booted out of the sisterhood? Who died and made her Queen of the Lifestylistas?
Given the time frame -- the crime is barely a cold case -- it's possible that the author was rushed and irritable, trying on a persona that seemed to fit the law enforcement/working class milieu of most of the book. But it doesn't fit Flook, who is really a much better writer than this book shows. When the going gets tough, the tough cookie needs to go shopping == for a style that's more comfortable to her.
Rating: 1
Summary: Looks good, but misleading
Comment: While information about Cape Cod may set a tone and sense of place,unfortunately in this case after awhile it becomes tedious and repetitive. This book is badly in need of editing, regarding both Christa Worthington and the possible suspects.
What could have been told in one page seems to take twenty.
Rating: 3
Summary: It's not the Cape Cod of the Andrews Sisters!
Comment: Forget Chappaquiddick and the Kennedys, this is a tale of money, sex, politics, privilege and murder that will hold your attention no matter where you spend your summer vacation. Maria Flook's "Invisible Eden: A Story of Love and Murder on Cape Cod" grabs the reader out of the gate, leads them up and over the sand dune to the Truro cottage where fashion writer and heiress Christa Worthington was murdered and illuminates for those unfamiliar with Cape Cod's secrets the puzzle surrounding this unsolved crime.
The book is chock full of facts about Cape Cod and its inhabitants that make Gatsby's Newport seem like a department store knock-off. While Newport had its time with Claus von Bulow, Flook talks up Truro as where the action really happens when the summering rich and famous mix it up with the locals. Where else but in Truro would a "fashionista" like Worthington hook up with the off- the- rack shellfish warden and others. Truro is high society's pirates cove.
Flook's book has its limitations- she admits that only Worthingtons talk about Worthingtons. She probably places too much dependence on the District Attorney's "investigation" that went no where. The book suffers from poor editing as many facts are repeated and notables have their name misspelled-(it's former UMass President Bulger not Bolger!). I also had trouble trying to decide who Flook really was and what she was up to. Her penchant of revealing her private thoughts makes for good conversation about her at cocktail parties, but given the book's topic, the revelations and experiences of this thoroughly modern millie throw the reader off course. But I'll admit, Flook's digressions make her someone you want to get to know.
When you take that next vacation, pack a copy of "Invisible Eden". If you're on the Cape, you'll be sure to visit those landmarks and taverns described in the book; if you're somewhere else, you'll be calling your travel agent.
 |
Title: The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years by Edward Klein ISBN: 031231292X Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 08 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Blood Will Tell : A Shocking True Story of Marriage, Murder, and Fatal Family Secrets by Carlton Smith ISBN: 0312977956 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: February, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer ISBN: 0385509510 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 15 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
 |
Title: My Sister Life: The Story of My Sister's Disappearance by Maria Flook ISBN: 0767903153 Publisher: Broadway Books Pub. Date: 05 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
 |
Title: Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death by Ann Rule ISBN: 0743202988 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
