Desperately.Īlice is like a breath of fresh air. Readers will occasionally question her mothering skills but there’s no doubt she loves her son. She’s pivotal, but at the periphery of everything happening in her life. She’s aloof, prickly and unpredictable. Interestingly she’s probably the character we get to know least in this story. MM Banning (Mimi) reeks of Harper Lee – an enigma, famous for her one and only award-winning book written decades ago.
And it all hinges on the fabulous characters Johnson has created. Oh god… where to start?! I loved everything about this book. When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she's put to work right away-as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer's eccentric nine-year-old, a boy with the wit of Noel Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth-graders.Īs she slowly gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who Frank's father is, how his gorgeous 'piano teacher and itinerant male role model' Xander fits into the Banning family equation-and whether Mimi will ever finish that book. The prickly Mimi reluctantly complies-with a few stipulations: No Ivy-Leaguers or English majors.
Now Mimi must write a new book for the first time in decades, and to ensure the timely delivery of her manuscript, her New York publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. But after falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, she's flat broke. 'Mimi' Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years. So the only word I can think to add (and one which most certainly comes to mind when considering this novel) is ‘delightful’.
But almost immediately I was drawn into the eccentric world of reclusive author Mimi, her son Frank and their interloper, Alice.Īs it happens, the promo material says it all: captivating, infectious and irresistible. I’ve struggled with the superlatives I need to describe this novel… one, I must confess, I went into without great enthusiasm.
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