I wish I could say I had a ball with Judith Michael’s
first novel DECEPTIONS (1982,
Pocket) but it ended up being just
an OK experience and here’s why. Remember when I first saw the adapted
miniseries on NBC back in the day, when network television actually took the
time to produce glittery nighttime melodramas such as this one? No? Well, I
talked about it here. LACE, SCRUPLES, HOLLYWOOD WIVES, all
were adapted with big fanfares and big success. In the case of DECEPTIONS, however, it turned out being
just a modest hit, but I digress. What I’m trying to say here is that problems
of the rich ruled television in the ‘80s, and I was lucky enough to have seen
my share of them. So it comes as no surprise that after salivating over the
two-parter that was DECEPTIONS I needed
to read the novel ASAP. Yes, I was that kind of a geeky gay. In fact, I still
am. Duh! 
So one morning I took my sweet little ass to Coles bookstore
and searched for the novel. I found it fast enough. It had the tie-in cover
featuring star Stefanie Powers. Suffice to say, I was thrilled. Finally I was
going to be able to get into the nitty-gritty of the two twins switching lives
for a week. I mean, seeing it playing out on TV is more than fine but getting
into the psyche of these characters in a 500 + page narrative is a lot better
in my opinion. But surprise, surprise, it took me more than 10 years to read
the thing. No, let me rephrase that. What I actually mean is that I waited more than 10 years to pick it up
and read it. People who know me on this
blog will probably recognize this pattern of mine, the tendency to give up on a
read in favor of a juicier one, and at the time it was mostly Jackie Collins’
backlist. 
Cut to the end of the ‘90s and what do you know, I
finally read that DECEPTIONS I so
eagerly wanted. I come out of it satisfied but not wowed—and I never pick up a
Judith Michael novel again, until this year when I decided to re-read it before
embarking on its sequel A TANGLED WEB. Though I do think DECEPTIONS is still a fine specimen I am not again that keen over
it, mostly because for the most part the novel turned out being more of a
Harlequin romance-like story than anything else. There are a lot of ‘My love...’s thrown in in between fine
narrative. And I feel that the story drags on a bit, mostly when the focus is
on rich Sabrina becoming Stephanie the housewife. Not enough time is spent on the
other sis, plain Stephanie now a UK jet setter, which is what I really wanted
the book to delve into. And before you know it, kaboom! her life is taken away by the explosion of a yacht. So of
course the focus is back on Sabrina. What a girl to do, right? Especially now that she’s tempted to stick with her new life and hunky
professor hubby, who, by the way, still has no idea she isn’t really who she
says she is despite having boned her more than once. Pretty farfetched, if you ask me. But hey, it's a silly little book anyway. Yet I still wish the novel could have been better handled
overall. I am in no hurry to read the sequel now. Oh I’ll get there, eventually.
I just hope it’ll deliver the goods as it should, as all books should.
Until next post—Martin
 |
| UK PB edition |
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