can she move on?

George & Lizzie by Nancy Pearl
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: As a public librarian, Nancy Pearl is, of course, my hero (yes, I have the Nancy Pearl action figure).  Nobody does reader's advisory like Nancy Pearl does reader's advisory!  So when I heard she wrote a book, I naturally wanted to read it right away.  At the same, I was a little apprehensive, because knowing what goes into a good book doesn't necessarily mean that you can write a good book.  I needn't have worried.

Although the book is called George & Lizzie, this is really Lizzie's story.  One is tempted to say that she was raised by wolves, but of course that's not true.  She was really raised by behavioral psychologists, who treated her every action as an idea for further research.  Predictably, she acts out by doing some, shall we say, less-than-socially-acceptable things.  These things have repercussions, of course, in her later relationships, but we can't help loving Lizzie, even while she does everything possible to sabotage her own life and happiness.

Then comes George.  We learn enough about George's childhood and family to make him a believable character, but since the book still focuses more on Lizzie, the real question is whether she can get over herself long enough to actually make a positive long-lasting relationship with George.  There were a few plot points that I couldn't quite suss out (including the somewhat important point of why Lizzie agreed to marry George in the first place when she was still obsessed (yes, obsessed) with someone else), but those confusions were easily overcome in the excellent writing that continued to pull me forward.

And pulled forward I was, right up until the very natural and well-done ending.  Pearl never takes the easy road with her characters, and the whole book moves along without ever giving the reader the feeling that the whole thing is just one big contrivance.  Brava to Mrs. Pearl for making the leap from reader to author.  I look forward to reading more.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.