Fates, Flowers

A Comedy of New York

Sara Smith is one of the most monstrous characters you can hope to meet. She lives in Greenwich Village on life insurance, courtesy of her late husband, but she has fallen into a dreary routine: work in a card shop by day, where she is the rudest sales clerk imaginable, and weary evenings passed in the same cellar bar night after night with the same old people.

But when she meets and seduces a gorgeous boy called Steve, she has no idea what she is getting herself into. Neither has he. Neither will you.

©2006 Matthew Waterhouse (P)2013 David Darlington

Quirky love story

Would you listen to Fates, Flowers again? Why?

I would listen to this again because it is funny and compelling. In fact, I have listened to it several times already.

What other book might you compare Fates, Flowers to and why?

I don't know that I can compare it to anything else I've read. Woman sees young stud from her window -- like a weed sprouting from a crack in the sidewalk. What might they have in common?

Which scene was your favorite?

I particularly enjoyed the opening scenes of this novel. Will they or won't they get together? It's arresting from the get-go.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

An unlikely, wacky love story!

Any additional comments?

Everything is not quite as it seems. Some things in life are funny, but much of it can be quite horrible. This was a fun but thought provoking novel. A writer usually reads his own work well, so that was no surprise. When that writer is a brilliant intellectual and also a fine actor who knows all the characters intimately and performs them flawlessly, then the listener is the beneficiary of a masterful performance. This story has haunted me for weeks -- in a good way.