DON'T MAKE A SCENE

Author: Valerie Block ISBN: 0345461851 8/2007 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: BALLANTINE

As Diane Kurasik nears the rapids of her fortieth birthday, it seems her world is taking on the bittersweet tones of a life-change comedy from the 1970s, something starring Glenda Jackson or Jill Clayburgh. The director of a Greenwich Village revival house cinema and a single woman who has watched everyone else move on, Diane is reminded daily of her status and her limitations. Clearly there is some lesson she was supped to lave learned by now, but what it is continues to elude her. Vladimir Hurtado Padrón has troubles of his own. Although he fled Cuba a decade earlier, he still can’t convince his estranged wife in Havana to grant him a divorce. When Diane meets and falls for Vladimir, he is up front about the stalemate in his personal life, letting her make her own decisions. Diane considers the minor role he has to offer and wonders: Would Ingrid Bergman put up with this? An eviction notice jolts Diane out of her home and her routine—aren’t all New York stories ultimately about real estate? Diane shuttles between the couches of friends and family, dodging advice and criticism in equal measure and touring countless fatally flawed Manhattan apartments. Meanwhile, Vladimir refuses to succumb to nostalgia as he deals with the exile’s dilemma: What happens when you can’t go home? Then an unexpected visitor from Vladimir’s past arrives on the scene and becomes captivated by Diane just as her ardor for Vladimir is cooling. Diane considers returning his affections, and wonders if she’s lost her mind.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

New Yorkers are going to love this book. Anyone who wants to be a New Yorker will love this book. People who have never been to New York will love this book. It's that good. DON'T MAKE A SCENE is an intelligent, sometimes irreverent, humorous look at life in the big City through the eyes of a single woman careening toward middle age beneath the marquee of a classic movie cinema. With references to old movies in nearly every scene, Valerie Block tells this tale of an existence that uncannily parallels whatever happens to be playing on the big screen.

Diane Kurasik is a heroine whose life is wildly unpredictable, especially when she learns she's going to have to move. Pulling the assorted flotsam and jetsam of the past twelve years out of the corners of her apartment and placing most of it in storage, she begins a journey that, punctuated by stays on uncomfortable sofas, leads her closer to finding her own satisfying ending, even without end credits or subtitles.

The dialogue in this book is witty and so perfectly on-target that I laughed aloud in spots. I could hear the New York accent behind the words, feel the energy of the city and practically smell the bodega flowers. Javier and Vladimir are especially amusing, their assimilation into American life after coming from Cuba much like watching cats learning to swim. Sooner or later it happens, but while it's going on it is difficult, if not impossible, to look away. Javier's quest to learn the "real English" is unforgettable, as is the rest of this book. An unusual love story, but one that I very much enjoyed reading.

Kay James