Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Flaky, amiable Jeremy Cook, the linguist Carkeet introduced in Double Negative , leaves the ivied halls of academe for the closer confines of a suburban home in this wrenching yet often exhilarating examination of a troubled modern marriage. When the Wabash Institute in Indiana folds for lack of funding, Jeremy slips into a job in Saint Louis, Mo., with the Pillow Agency, a zany marriage-counseling service. His assignment is to move in with Beth and Dan Wilson and, by observing their interactions, help them decide if their marriage can be saved. Jeremy insinuates himself into the Wilsons' daily activities. His relationship with the couple and their game 10-year-old Robbie is at once intimate and distant, definitely a seat-of-the-pants proposition, but his training as a linguist serves him, and probably the Wilsons, well. Carkeet's premise is fresh, his characters utterly winning and his comic observations full of affection for those caught up in the complex confusions of love. Laugh-out-loud scenes and swift, convincing dialogue mark this lunatic look at serious issues; the conclusion may be irresolute, but all the more believable for that. Literary Guild alternate. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Unemployed linguist Jeremy Cook heads west to St. Louis for a well-paid job with the philanthropic Pillow Agency as a live-in observer of a troubled marriage. Dan and Beth Wilson, and their ten-year-old son Robbie, are middle-class middle Americans on the edge of destruction. Lack of communication, good intentions gone wrong, and bullheadedness are among the commonplace but damning marital difficulties Jeremy faces. A bachelor and an academic, Jeremy would appear eminently unsuited to the task of helping to save the marriage. In the end, Jeremy and the novel itself prove full of small surprises. The author's second novel featuring Jeremy Cook (the first was Double Negative), this is wickedly funny, deeply compassionate, and highly readable. An excellent choice for most academic and public libraries. Literary Guild alternate.--James B. Hemesath, Adams State Coll. Lib., Alamosa, Col. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Carkeet returns to the linguist hero of his first book, Double Negative (1980), now thrust into the role of marriage counselor employed by a shadowy, completely screwball St. Louis firm called The Pillow Agency. Jeremy Cook is more fluent with Kickapoo verbs than marital intricacies, but his boss Mr. Pillow--a sort of Wizard of Oz who seems to have unlimited funds and no end of mysterious and pointless instructions--thinks that failed communication is the essence of conjugal discord. Thus Jeremy is installed, at the couple's request, in the suburban home of Dan and Beth Wilson--where he is to stay and listen to how they talk to each other, figure out where the wires cross, and determine what signals are being missed. Carkeet (The Greatest Slump of All Time, 1984) can be a very funny and quirky writer. The first two chapters here--of Jeremy arriving to take the job with Pillow--are delicious, reminiscent in confusion and faint malice of good Thomas Berger. But once Jeremy gets into the Wilson domain, things peter out a good deal. The Wilsons are indistinct compared to Jeremy; and what is perhaps the point--that communication is all, and that even a screw-up, if he knows this, can make an effective marriage counselor--comes across too baldly to work as sly comedy. Carkeet's way with self-deprecation provides the bright moments here, but this is a book in which message dilutes absurdity and vice versa, and the impression is therefore less than strong. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
