The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley

My strategy and/or streak (of reading books that pass my desk and look promising) continues to pay dividends.

I have to admit that the striking cover shot of two long and shapely legs is what initially grabbed me. The cover of Gwendoline Riley's The Palm House would lead one to believe the novel is a steamy erotic potboiler. As it turns out, there is little sex in the book and what sex there is decidedly unglamorous.

The Palm House is centered on 40-something Laura Miller, a magazine editor trying to make it in contemporary London. Along the way, we meet various people in her orbit, most notably: Edmund, a 50-something friend and co-worker; Laura's somewhat prickly mother; and Lawrence Wells, an eccentric stage actor with whom Laura has a brief fling, (though it doesn't seem she enjoys any of it). 

In the most compelling section of the novel, we flash back to a teenage Laura living near Liverpool. She develops an infatuation with a laddish stand-up comedian from London named Chris Patrick. Laura's fandom starts innocently enough but eventually heads down a dark path.

Though nothing really big or grand happens in the book (aside from the encounters with Chris Patrick), I found all the characters to be realistically drawn. Riley has a spare writing style that never manipulates the reader's emotions. I enjoyed the book quite a bit, though I have a hard time pinning down exactly why.

If there is an overarching theme to the book, it's Laura's position of someone who has to continually put up with other's hang-ups, insecurities, or eccentricities: from the self-centered skeeviness of the stand-up comic, to the goofball actor/sort of boyfriend, and the self-pitying Edmund. None of these people are terrible (with the possible exception of Chris Patrick the comic), but they're all a pain in the ass in their own way.

So, with that, I give this book a "thumbs up," though it may not appeal to everyone.

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