Greetings from the Golden State : a novel /

The Kelbow family has a hard time facing reality. Maybe it's the continual glare from the California sun that blinds the family from their emotions and problems. Fanny and Don seem to have a very happy marriage, until Don decides to leave his wife and two sons, Andrew and Little Mike, for his secretary. As Don occasionally comes back into the picture, Fanny and the boys find a way to move on. There is no suspenseful plot here, or much of a plot at all, but Brenner's characters are complex and intriguing as they grow older and not much wiser in sunny LA; and when Brenner uses tongue-in-cheek humor, the novel becomes very entertaining. Troubles arise and become unresolved, but Andrew and Little Mike learn the secrets of gourmet cooking and the family gathers over the boys' delicious food. This is a story of family life for those who want only a pinch or two of family drama, not a handful. --Michelle Kaske

Brenner's smart, quirky narrative follows the exploits of the likable Kelbow family of West Hollywood, Calif., from the election of JFK through the Bush administration. The insouciant, goofy Kelbows weather earthquakes, divorce, religion, recession and disillusionment with the kind of blithe sunniness befitting the state that birthed the Beach Boys, hippies and the political career of Ronald Reagan. Young Fanny Kelbow bears her first son, Andrew, in 1960. She and husband, Don, an entertainment lawyer, build a life in the rosy dawn of Camelot that reflects the social and political growing pains of the times, including brand-name loyalty, protest marches and pot. The happy family also swaps its duplex apartment for a house in Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley and adds second son Little Mike and maid Margarita Pilar Takanawa to the household mix. By the time Kennedy has been shot and Nixon elected to the presidency, Don has quit his law firm and his marriage, Fanny has taken a job and a lover, and Andrew and Little Mike are left to struggle toward adulthood in the confused, hedonistic decades that follow. First-novelist Brenner puts her food-writing experience to good use (American Appetite: The Coming of Age of a National Cuisine) by making Andrew and Little Mikey amateur gourmet chefs. She chronicles the Kelbows' life in a loping, anecdotal style that can be both laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely touching. The myriad period details are spot-on, triggering vivid memories for baby boomers. All in all this is a winning debut, full of snappy insights into the Kelbows and the rapidly transforming world that surrounds them. The standout, Technicolor jacket photo of a California suburb signals exactly what Brenner is about. Author tour. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Brenner, best known for her work on gastronomy (American Appetite) and oenology (Fear of Wine), has written a hilarious first novel set in the greater Los Angeles area from the 1960s through the 1980s. The heroes are an out-of-control family named the Kelbows, with special attention paid to the eldest son, Andrew. The author, who has a perfect feel for her locale, selects precisely the right L.A. neighborhoods and hangouts for her characters to play out their chaotic lives. Politics, drugs, sex, religion, multiculturalism, and, of course, divorce and earthquakesDnothing is left out. The story's greatest achievement, however, lies in its warmly capturing the era's major events and social trends, not through stereotypical journalistic clichs but through the fate of this quintessentially dysfunctional Southern California family. And what ultimately happens to Andrew? It's worth the purchase to find out. Recommended for all public libraries.DWendy Miller, Lexington P.L., KY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Comic first novel about a Los Angeles family growing up over the course of 25 years: an amiable, rapid-fire, but regrettably flimsy look at the changing times. Here they are, then, the Kelbows. Transplanted to southern California, Fanny gives birth to Andrew the same year Kennedy is elected, and Don begins to build a thriving law practice catering to the entertainment industry. Life is rosy amid the sunshine, upscale tract housing, and orange groves, and soon Andrew has a brother named Little Mike. With their growing family and prosperity, Don and Fanny acquire a once-a-week housekeeper named Pilar, who pops in and out of the narrative, mostly to comment on Little Mike, whom she pretends is her own (she and her husband being in her estimation too ugly to consider having children). Brenner’s anecdotal approach to fiction, in which each chapter comprises a single quick scene only a few pages long, eventually follows the Kelbows as they break the confines of their happy stereotypes for less happy ones. Don leaves his wife and children for his secretary, Little Mike becomes temporarily mute, and Fanny goes back to work, where she has an affair with her boss. In the ensuing years Fanny and Don both remarry in attempts to recapture their California fantasy, but their two golden boys, raised amid privilege and increasingly brown skies, falter. Brilliant as Andrew is, he can’t seem to get his career off the ground, mainly because he’s not quite sure what his career is. And Little Mike, charming and easy-going, has transformed his teenage predilection for drugs and drinking into committed alcoholism. Spanning over 25 years, the novel creates a mini-time-capsule for the Kelbows and their Golden State ilk, offering a story that’s likable but never memorable. Brenner’s fine sense of black comedy isn’t enough to bolster the impact of her insubstantial characters. Author tour