Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Book Review: "The Ladies Temperance Club Farewell Tour" By Jeff Lee.

Book review: The Ladies Temperance Club Farewell Tour.
Author: Jeff Lee.
About The Author:
Born in New York State, Jeff Lee was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and has spent his entire writing career in Los Angeles.

    For more than thirty years he has been a copywriter and creative director for some of the advertising industry’s most recognizable agencies, winning numerous awards for his creativity. None of those ad agencies are still in business, but Jeff appears to have an alibi.

    Trained as a cook in the Army, he still enjoys being creative in the kitchen and admits that few things in life compare with the thrill of discovering you have just given a nasty case of food poisoning to 140 heavily armed men.

    Jeff lives about halfway between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, in a house he shares with his two sons and a cat that’s part golden retriever.
Book review:

This book should come with the attached warning…”Do not attempt to read this novel whilst drinking any form of liquid; it is guaranteed to make you laugh out loud and spurt the contents of your drink over the nearest available clothing/electronic equipment/intended mother-in-law.

I love a book that makes me smile; I love a book that makes me laugh…This book made me embarrass myself on a crowded commuter train…I snort when I laugh that much, what can I tell you?

Meet the three female rogues…Vonda, Fifty something and making every day count for something...  including murdering the low life son-of-a-sleazebag that has made her life  intolerable for twenty years.  The miserly, scamming, dysfunctional, short, nasty piece of work named Jack Thibideau.  He earned his early demise, and then some.

Francine: Ahhh…my personal favorite, innocent, loyal to a fault, funny without attempting to be and just plain lovable. Watching her evolve is a joy to read. She is one of life’s survivors seemingly a quiet soul with no insight in how to stand up for herself.

Meet Kay; Smart mouthed, sassy, and a friend to the end.

These three diverse women take off in an RV that takes up a city block…on a journey to lay the body of Jack Thibideau, stiff {for the first time on his sicko life}, and slowing freezing in the underbelly of the van somewhere where he can defrost and decompose in peace {Not that he deserves it.}

The journey is a delight; author Jeff Lee has drawn each and every character with an artist’s eye for detail, dialogue, and clever characterizations.  His observations of people are acerbic and acutely accurate.

Every character no matter how minor the role they play becomes clearly visible to the reader, you see them, hear them and in many cases smell them as they are intertwined in a cleverly plotted fast-paced delight of a book.

What pleases me even more with Author Lee’s work is that the plot is carefully drawn with seeming ease, comedic writing is hard to maintain, the timing has to be perfect and seemingly effortless...  yet it it is one of the most difficult genres to write well.   

This is a gem.  Written beautifully.

The evolution of the characters is paced well, each of our central figures begin to change; they grow along with the story. I care about these women; I want the ending to see each of them happy.  That is the mark of an Author that shines…someone that stands out from the crowd; Jeff Lee made me care for these folks.  He is a fine writer, and I have no hesitation in giving this a 5 star rating, and happily recommending it to all those who enjoy a damned good laugh and more importantly a good story well told.
 Connect with author Jeff Lee on his site..

http://jeffleewriter.weebly.com/

2 comments:

  1. Soooz, this is by far the 'BEST' review I have read about The Ladies Temperance Club's Farewell Tour, by Jeff Lee..Thanks so much for sharing...you are WONDERFUL!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A great review (like all yours, Soooz!) of a very funny book.

    ReplyDelete

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