I got an email from HarperCollins last week about Trevor Cole's Practical Jean (due out Oct 11) and I was dying to get my sticky little hands on it after reading the title info:
Jean Vale Horemarsh, the protagonist of award-winning Canadian writer Trevor Cole’s PRACTICAL JEAN is a small-town woman with the usual challenges of middle age. She’s content, mostly, with the life she’s built: a semi-successful career as a ceramics artist, a close collection of women friends (if you ignore the terrible falling out she had with Cheryl all those years ago), a comfortable marriage with a kind if unextraordinary man. There’s just one thing that makes Jean different from other women her age: She’s on a Dr. Kevorkian streak. Well, a version of it anyway.
After Jean saw her mother through the final devastating months of cancer, she realized her fondest wish was to protect her dearest friends from the indignities of aging and illness. That’s when her practical side kicked in. She decided she would arrange for each one of them to have one last amazing moment, whether a sexual tryst or a good fight (for a lover of conflict), and then…WHACK! It’s dirty job, Jean figures, but someone’s got to do it.
Jean’s mordant humor and skewed sense of compassion gives her fuddy-duddy character an edge and endears her to readers, as well as makes for a highly entertaining read. Part social satire, part dark comedy, PRACTICAL JEANis a hilarious mash-up of Arsenic and Old Lace and the Stepford Wives that will appeal to book club readers and lovers of offbeat fiction alike. It has already made a huge splash in Canada, garnering critical acclaim, two national award nominations, and hitting the Maclean’s bestseller list...
Seriously!? Arsenic and Old Lace and The Stepford Wives! That comparison alone is enough to interest me. I'm a big fan of dark comedy as well, so this is one that I'm definitely looking forward to.
Can I just say, I'm also a little in love with this cover treatment here! At least I was, until I saw the cover on the author's page. I still love the PS version, but I really like the twisted lady with all the knives, too. (I am absolutely in awe of designers when I come across a great cover treatment.) I never judge by cover alone, but who doesn't like a good cover?
I'll keep it short and sweet today. I'm pre-posting this, so it's late Friday night on my end and I have a book to get to :) Plus I'm super tired, so I know I'm really random and babble-y at the moment.
Happy reading!
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