Millard Fillmore, Mon Amour: a Novel.Millard Fillmore, Mon Amour: A Novel John Blumenthal St. Martin's Griffin ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m : 0312323689 $12.95 320 Pages A Booksense76 pick for September 2004. Plato G. Fussell is rich, handsome, and a complete mess, ensnarled in a web of compulsions that have him doing everything from starching his argyle socks to speaking backwards. He keeps his galoshes close, his Xanax closer. But Plato is a nut you can love (and frighteningly, identify with). The question is, can he break through his neuroses and take a chance on the ultimate human experience--a connection with another human being? Or will he forever be consigned to an obsessively ordered bachelorhood, convinced that romantic love is but a practical joke played on us by our wily hormones? Plato's last hopes of normality were dashed by a failed marriage eight years ago. The sale of his Internet company left him with an impressive fortune and considerable free time: "twenty-four hours a day." So he dotes on his odd parents and his dachshund dachshund (dăks`h  nd, –ənd, dăsh`–), breed of small, short-legged hound developed in Germany over hundreds of years. It stands from 5 to 9 in. Isabella. He embarks on a lifelong quest to discover the true "Millard Fillmore," penning a ten volume biography of history's most forgettable for·get·ta·ble adj. Fit or apt to be forgotten: a movie with very forgettable characters. Adj. 1. forgettable - easily forgotten unforgettable - impossible to forget President. He also attends twice-weekly sessions with his psychiatrist, Dr. Alphonso K. Wang. But when he's hit in the head with a Frisbee at Dr. Wang's patient picnic, Plato starts to believe in kismet kismet alludes to the part of life assigned one by his destiny. [Moslem Trad.: EB (1963), 13: 418; Pop. Culture: Misc.] See : Fate . The culprit is a beautiful woman named Emily Thorndyke, who can match him neurosis neurosis, in psychiatry, a broad category of psychological disturbance, encompassing various mild forms of mental disorder. Until fairly recently, the term neurosis was broadly employed in contrast with psychosis, which denoted much more severe, debilitating mental for neurosis, and whose own slobbering slobbering see drooling. mutt is providentially named Ferdinand. Plato falls almost instantly for Emily (of course, they both need affidavits from each other's doctor ensuring a clean bill of health a certificate from the proper authority that a ship is free from infection. See also: Clean , first). Taking this one brick from the wall of his emotional fortress has hilariously disastrous consequences, as every defense that kept Plato functioning as a "somewhat quirky, pseudo-insane" person comes tumbling down around his ears. Millard Fillmore, Mon Amour is romantic comedy of the highest order, a book so funny you will think you're completely laughed out halfway through--inured, by that time, to the witty dialog, the devilishly clever story turns, the puns (never intended), and then? You're in convulsions Convulsions Also termed seizures; a sudden violent contraction of a group of muscles. Mentioned in: Heat Disorders all over again. It does not let up. It is relentless. For those who have mourned the demise of Woody Allen, this is the good news: John Blumenthal is in the house. A storyteller of wit, warmth and charm--he has picked up the Allen mantle and is out there waving it around like a crazy man. Millard Fillmore, Mon Amour. Read it and be very glad you did. Also recommended: What's Wrong with Dorfman? By John Blumenthal Jennifer Colt, Reviewer www.jennifercolt.com |
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