Mermaids

In my last post I mentioned that I usually don't read a book unless I'm sure I will like it. Well, there are exceptions to that rule, and one of them is that sometimes I read a book to be nice, because someone gave it to me. Mermaids by Patty Dann is one such book, and unfortunately it was really dumb. Anyone remember the movie version from 1990 with Cher, Winona Ryder and a very small Christina Ricci? Okay well some of you were floating in amniotic fluid when that came out (Danielle), but some of us were about to graduate high school (crap, I'm old as dirt). Anyway I think the only reason this book is still in print is that it’s “the book that spawned the cult classic movie starring…” etc. This is actually one of those rare cases where the book is worse than the movie. The writing is clumsy. None of the characters are likable, and they’re more like caricatures than real people—they do and say and think things that are inexplicable. The plot is practically nonexistent and takes a completely implausible turn right before screeching to a halt in an ending that comes out of nowhere (because there’s no story to begin with). So here is a book to avoid. It’s really lame.