The Story Of Today’s American Family – In All Its Glorious Dysfunction
We have become a nation hooked on other people’s suffering: humiliation, misfortune, forbidden desire, and inchoate longings. Reality television is a distorted reflection of our profane existence. Curious about what’s really behind the mirror, about who we really are? American Suite (Jorge Pinto Books, Inc.) by Diana E. Sheets illuminates the connection between reality and fiction. Its well-written, compelling style captures the zaniness of America today.
American Suite resonates because it’s the story of today’s American family. This novel is presented through the diary entries of a mother and her two daughters. What begins as a chick-lit novel (Bridget Jones’s Diary) is subverted and transformed into a crime-driven, celebrity-fueled absurdist comedy of manners (Bonfire of the Vanities). American Suite presents our culture war — politically correct liberal sensibilities colliding with conservative worldviews. There’s religion. There are guns. There’s crime. There’s blood. There’s memoir. There’s celebrity. America’s social mores are riotously pilloried.
Written in the style of Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe though wrapped in “chick-lit” tinsel, American Suite is the story of a mother and her two daughters told through compelling diary entries written over a two year period. They are intelligent and sophisticated women from an affluent Protestant family whose ideas and views often clash. There is Arisa, a single woman in her thirties, who leaves Manhattan for a new life as a writer in the Flatlands (the Midwest). After she discovers the new man in her life failed to tell her he’s still married and after a trip back to New York for a family Christmas holiday, which proves equally disastrous, Arisa flees further west. She falls in love (again!) with a Hollywood director. After discovering he’s filmed their debauched S&M relationship as raw footage for his new movie, “Legs Wide Open,” she returns to the Flatlands with her ex-lover’s Doberman in tow and begins writing her memoir of that dreadful relationship. Naturally, she falls in love (again!!!) with an African-American ex-con. She sells her memoir and lands a movie deal. Then the Doberman attacks a Peeping Tom and chomps off his manhood. Arisa achieves celebrity status. The reporters, the cameras, what a spectacle!
Sophie, Arisa’s sister, has her own set of challenges. Her husband loses his job; she’s attracted to her youngest son’s tutor, and her boys begin embracing conflicting religions. The family turns to sailing in an attempt to find common ground; however, the boat is damaged during a race. Then there’s Rosalyn, the widowed, seventy-something mother who lives in New York. Rosalyn is a Christian but turns to Judaism (and Yiddish obscenities) when she falls in love with Saul only to be devastated when the love of her life later dies of cancer. Three women, all in therapy, all in conflict though deeply connected, all struggling to make their way in this multicultural morass we call America today, and all engaged in writing their memoirs.
This adventure comedy celebrates the strength and resilience of these three strong women. It gives readers a first-hand glimpse of today’s real American family – dysfunctional but thriving, nonetheless! American Suite has received rave reviews and has all the makings of a box-office smash hit. Please visit http://www.literarygulag.com for more information on Dr. Diana Sheets.
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TIP SHEET:
Bookviews by Alan Caruba, (November, 2010): “It is what used to be called a comedy of manners and it is a subtle send-up of what is now called ‘chick lit.’ Wickedly funny, it is a real treat as the author takes a look at life today.”
Midwest Book Review, “The Fiction Shelf,” December, 2010: “Being completely white is almost un-American at this point. American Suite tells the story of a white family dropped into the multi-cultural pool and how the family copes with their world suddenly shifting so drastically. With plenty of humor and a unique take on family, romance, the self, and much more, American Suite is a fine piece of ‘chick lit’ and will prove to be hard to put down, no matter who you are.”
Kathleen Kubik, author, Neither Sand Nor Sea: “Diana Sheets has written an incredibly innovative novel. She cleverly tells the story of three women, a mother and her two daughters, through compelling diary entries from each of them. . . . They are intelligent, sophisticated women, each juggling their own lives and personal relationships, as well as the often antagonistic familial one among the three of them. Ms. Sheets has skillfully kept each character in character, not always an easy task, and their stories are told in such a way that each voice is clearly defined. To simply say, ‘It’s a real page turner,’ somehow doesn’t seem to do American Suite justice, but that is exactly what this book is. I couldn’t wait to discover what wonderful writing awaited me on the next page.”
Jerry Sander, author of Unlimited Calling (Certain Restrictions Apply): “Diana Sheets is unafraid of taking on the sacred cows of ‘chick lit’ in a sweeping family saga that offers up sexy men, violent and treacherous romance, dull marriage, soulful union and resourceful women. . . . Religious and spiritual confusions vie for attention with family loyalties and geographic rootedness as a New Yorker moves to the Midwest in search of a good-enough life.”
