Broken For You (Stephanie Kallos)

I got this book from a book club selection, the Today Show Book Club to be exact. This book club has an interesting notion--to have well-known authors chose selections of lesser known authors that they like. In fact, this was selected by Sur Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees. This selection, however, was simply okay. I think I could use this novel as the perfect example of a book--a good plot-driven book--vs. a book of literary fiction. It had a good story--an old woman, tortured by the guilt of her fortune's roots, finally overcomes her self-hatred to reach out to a colorful cast of characters late in her life, discovering how breaking an object (or a habit, an idea, etc) can be cathartic, how sometimes a broken thing is worth more than a whole one. I like that thought, that driving theme. I didn't like the flat characters. You knew which other flat character they were going to end up falling madly in love and living happily ever after with. You knew that so and so was really going to wind up being so and so's long lost family member. You knew that she would eventually figure out that the man she thought she loved and would never stop loving wasn't really worth it in the first place. And, you sighed when the subjects of Yoga, vegetarian diet, and brain tumors came up. I must say the best thing, in my opinion, was the discussion of bowling. Now there is unsussed territory. Hmmm. I'll have to remember that one. Anyway, a quick and light read about throwing precious, antique ceramics against the wall and relishing the noise, the mess, the destruction. And not so bad that you will throw the book itself across the room in imitation.