MEA CULPA JEANNE DAY LORD’S ‘A BREED APART’

 

 

With all the unread books gathering dust in my house you would think I would hurry up and pick up anything unvisited and review it here for you guys to enjoy. Not so it seems. Color me persistent but I just had to give A BREED APART by Jeanne Day Lord (Robert Rosenblum) another shot despite my lukewarm review of it sometime last year. Truth be told, I always felt like I had missed something the first time around, and since I found myself re-reading it last week and enjoying it way much more, it was a no brainer that the main topic of this week’s blog entry should be yet again on that title.   

Let me reinstate that if you’re a horse lover you’ll certainly dig A BREED APART. Considering that I am far from being one, the thought of me enjoying this book even more than before seemed very unlikely and yet I did. The author certainly knows her ABCs of thoroughbred racing and breeding as the plot centers around those traits via a likable heroine named Geri-Jo. Born into poverty, with a drunken widowed father, a jealous sister and a weak-minded younger brother who ends up institutionalized when he accidently sets himself on fire, she flees to New York where she eventually inherits enough money to study and become a top Equine vet. But when murder takes center stage and Geri-Jo is falsely accused of being involved she finds herself not only fighting justice to clear her name—as past mistakes suddenly resurface—but also trying her hardest to keep a love that is meant to be despite the odds. 

What changed my mind regarding this effort is the timing, mostly. With no deadline reviews or work overload in the horizon I was freer to do anything I like. But mainly it was finally accepting the novel for what it is and not for what it was supposed to be. ‘Cause at the end of the day Jeanne Day Lord does manage to sketch a catchy plot, thus making A BREED APART a page-turning experience. On top of that, the author often uses the show don’t tell mantra in her narrative, which heightens even more the overall appreciation. But the icing on the cake is the gay character she introduces along the way. He winds up having a positive influence on the heroine, which as you know is a rare attribute in ’80s novels such as this one. Flawed still (a 100 pages or so could have been easily cut without losing any key element), A BREED APART is nonetheless a joy to read and will likely be to anyone who dares venturing into something different. I’m so glad to have had a change of heart about this one. Just goes to show you that second chances are sometimes fruitful. I wonder if any other lukewarm review of mine is in need of some sprucing up. I hear that MISTRAL’S DAUGHTER by Judith Krantz is way better than I remember it to be. Stay tuned.

 

Until next post—Martin

 

PB US Edition

‘A BREED APART’ BY JEANNE DAY LORD

I have seen A BREED APART (Pocket, 1988) very often during my many trips to used bookstores across the land but I always chose to leave the novel behind. Why? Well, it does have a great ‘80s cover art by famed photographer Onofrio Paccione, I’ll admit that, but the subject matter is a little bland for my taste. It’s all about horses; thoroughbred racing, to be precise. I figured if it isn’t written by Jilly Cooper (Google her) the best thing is to keep away, and I did, for many years. Then one late summer during our vacation in Miami I found a copy real cheap. Again I got tempted and, suffice to say, succumbed despite my misgiving. Did I eventually regret the decision of buying it? Keep on reading, people. 

First and foremost, I had no idea at the time that A BREED APART was written by Robert Rosenblum, this multitasker fellow whose use of pseudonyms (Joanna Kingsley, Jessica March...) made him hot for a little while in the ‘80s. To me, Jeanne Day Lord was solely a one hit wonder novelist published a year earlier in the UK. It took this blog and the web to finally figure out who she really was.  

Since my last Rosenblaum novel, FACES by Joanna Kingsley, failed to impress me, I held on a couple of years before venturing into this one. One night after reviewing many forthcoming books for Net Galley I decided to give this guy another shot. Who knows? I might hit the jackpot after all. Besides, I was in desperate need to read some vintage trash, any vintage trash. People often think that calling a book trashy or sleazy is quite demeaning. But to me, it’s always been the highest of compliments. It means that the work in question is hitting all the right buttons. The more glamorous the novel gets, the more fun I end up having. Sure, the narrative needs to always be on point but put me up with the trouble of the rich and I’m a happy guy.  

This Jeanne Day Lord effort, however, failed to get me there, probably because the novel focuses too much on the main character’s long rise as a top vet (300 hundred pages of it) and not enough on her life as a jet-setter. Sure, the author redeems himself in the second-half by getting her right into the swing of things—without ever relinquishing the ABCs of horse breeding and racing—but it all ends up being just a little too late and too much for this reader.  

Oh don’t get me wrong. A BREED APART is far from being a bad book. It is actually well-written and the heroine is quite likable. Her story of a child of poverty who makes a name for herself despite the odds is almost gripping at times but in the long run I found it to be quite boring. I’m sure there are plenty of horse lovers out there who will dig it. It just isn’t for me. It’s the second time that a novel penned by Rosemblaum fails to win me over. I cringe into thinking what the rest of his work looks like. Better stay away, I think. On second thought, TREASURES, again by his nom de plume Johanna Kingsley, looks mighty tasty.

Until next post—Martin

UK edition

'FACES' BY JOHANNA KINGSLEY

Based on the success of her first novel, author Johanna Kingsley is one of the few who should have become a household name. SCENTS did sell over a million copies.  But like many of her peers her subsequent novels didn’t fare as well, forcing her eventually to vanish into thin air.  Not so, it seems.  According to this, she just keeps re-inventing herself, using other pseudonyms such as Jeanne Day Lord, Jessica March or Angelica Moon, just to name a few.  Her real name is Robert Rosenblum and he is a multitasker who has chosen to stay out of the spotlight.  There isn’t much to say about him, except that he owns a Twitter account that has been non-active for more than three years. But whatever’s been going on with him, it is clear to say that it’s time to celebrate this fellow.  But there’s a catch.  As I was all set to praise his work after finishing up his second Kingsley offering, FACES, it suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t dig him as much as I thought I would.  The reason is quite simple: the novel left a bad taste in my mouth.  What a guy to do, then?  Forget him or just go on?  What follows speaks for itself. 

FACES centers around Eugenia Sareyov, a beautiful Russian who flees her homeland to come to America where she’ll eventually be courted by a rich man’s son and an artsy-fartsy hunky type before settling with… well, I don’t want to spoil anything too major for you.  One thing I can say is that she’ll become the biggest plastic surgeon there is. But before getting there she’ll suffer heartbreaks, heartaches, and partake in a couple of well-described sexual situations.  Her greatest challenge, however, will be mending her rocky relationships with her long-lost parents, especially her disfigured dad whom she had shied away from after he nearly got killed in an explosion during the Russian revolution.  Guess who’ll end up with a reconstructed face later on? 

Taken with a grain of fluff, FACES may excite some readers.  It has all the ingredients necessary: a strong-willed female protagonist, opulent wealth and sceneries, sex; but for some strange reasons the novel doesn’t gel with me.  What bothers me most about it is the way it tends to always go for the saccharine-glaze jugular.  As if readers couldn’t hold on to the story otherwise.   In effect, it causes the book to be bland, repetitive, even passionless at times.  And Rosemblaum’s lack of empathy for his Little Miss Perfect makes it an even harder chore to finish. One thing that’s in the author’s favor, though, is his strong use of a rich, crystal clear narrative, which is highly exemplary for any budding writer out there.  If only it was accentuated by a fulfilling plot.  Oh well.  Let’s just hope his other offerings by the Kingsley name fare better, but I doubt that I will visit them, or any work by his other pseudonyms, come to think of it.

Until next post—Martin 

UK pb edition