Ah,
to be on the Book Sense Picks List now that spring is here
... Independent booksellers from around
the nation have once again spoken, and I'm very pleased to tell you that
the following title published by Penguin USA has been chosen to appear
on the printed June Book Sense Picks List: COVER THE BUTTER,
Carrie Kabak.
In COVER THE BUTTER, which Dutton will publish on June 20, 2005,
Carrie Kabak delivers the smart, funny and poignant coming-of-age story
of Kate Cadogan, a middle-aged housewife who finds herself wondering how
she got stuck in an endless rut and loveless marriage. Kate doesn't
quite know the answer until one Sunday morning when she discovers the
callous destruction visited upon her home-her teenage son threw a party
the night before and Rodney, her husband of almost 20 years, is too busy
watching sports on the television to care.
A few glasses of wine later, Kate finds herself falling down a hole and
landing in 1965, in the moment she got her first bra. What follows is an
exhilarating series of adventures with two spirited and devoted friends,
an Irish mother who dishes out equal amounts of love and loathing in an
effort to control her daughter, a weak-minded and smothering father, a
couple of wayward men, an unsatisfying job, a few unwanted pounds and an
unflattering outfit or two. Through it all Kate learns to pull away the
blindfolds and emotional clamps that have repressed her true passions
for years and finally embrace a life without rules. A captivating
exploration of love, friendship and family, COVER THE BUTTER is a
novel that proves it's never too late to move to Provence and start all
over.
REVIEWS
Carrie Kabak's Cover the Butter is an extraordinary novel. It
is poignant, sensitive, funny and original ,and it fairly sings with
life. I felt myself dissolve into it!
Jeanne Ray, author of Julie and Romeo, Step-Ball-Change,
and Eat Cake
Wonderful! A tour de force, written with depth and insight, Cover
the Butter is funny, poignant and page-turningly original.
Katie Fforde, author of Thyme Out
Cover the Butter is a delicious journey. The dialogue is crisp, the
narrative flows. Kabak's wisdom, compassion and wit make this a book you
don't want to put down. A gem!
Bonnie Shimko, author of Letters in the Attic
[Written]…with a depth and warmth reminiscent of Maeve Binchy. Kate
Cadogan's journey back in time to find herself is a funny yet
wonderfully poignant evocation of life in seventies and eighties
Britain.
Trisha Ashley, author of Singled Out and Every Woman for
Herself
…. superbly written and filled with humor,
crisp dialogue, and clear-eyed descriptions that will leave the reader
gasping with pleasure. Kabak doesn't merely tell you about Provence; she
takes your hand and leads you so close you can smell the lavender and
feel the sun on your skin. Her unique voice and poignant prose will
linger in your mind long after you've turned the last page. I can't
remember the last time I enjoyed a book as much as this one, and I look
forward eagerly to Ms. Kabak's next novel.
M. Dana
Buoyant and deeply moving, Cover the Butter proves that starting over
has nothing to do with age and everything to do with spirit.
KIRKUS REVIEW
A middle-aged woman sheds toxic parents and boorish husband for
Provencal sun. British author Kabak's debut opens on a Sunday in 1995,
when Kate Fanshaw, née Cadogan, returns to her suburban home-lovingly
restored and renovated over 18 years-to find it trashed after her
teenage son's house party. She gets no sympathy from her jock husband
Rodney, who merely plunks himself in front of the telly with his dinner.
Later, she passes out and dreams of a spiral stairway leading to a door
marked, well-NEVERMORE. Nevermore will she sleep with Rodney, who has
lately adopted bizarre sexual practices featuring epaulets. Thus the
frame story gives way to the novel proper, a journey through '60s, '70s
and 80s England, detailing Kate's coming of age and middle years. From
early on, her mother, difficult narcissistic Biddy, and her father,
loving but too wussy to stand up to Biddy, disparage Kate's interest in
Domestic Science and overzealously guard her virtue. Shoehorned into an
education major by her parents, she becomes an elementary schoolteacher
and is betrayed by her fiancé Jack. Her friends Moira and Ingrid and her
Welsh paternal grandparents are her only constants. On the rebound from
Jack, she marries prosperous Rodney but is marginalized by his eccentric
family. Rodney devotes himself mostly to sports and his Masonic Lodge,
and doesn't object when his smarmy pal Todd hits on Kate. Kate devotes
herself to son Charlie and cooking, her weight yo-yoing. Periodically,
her parents lure her home, where she falls back into her childlike
posture, alternately nurtured and slapped. Back to 1995. Kate wonders
why she stood it for so long, and so do we. When her mother opposes
Kate's move to France and sides with Rodney in the divorce, Kate
divorces her parents as well. Kabak's gift for describing wonderful food
and décor, and her way of encapsulating decades in a few swift strokes,
take this tale beyond the standard middle-age revenge formula.
