Love Is The Crooked Thing

Love Is the Crooked Thing

Rita Formica, yearning to join her beloved Arnold Bromberg in Zurich, sets out to earn the money for her plane fare by writing a trashy romance novel From Publishers Weekly It's all been a mistake, readers learn at the end of this sequel to Wersba's eccentric and funny romance, Fat: A Love Story. Short, fat Rita Formica, who still loves much-older Arnold Bromberg, finds that her hero has heeded the advice of her own parents and broken up with her, moving to Europe to make it easier on them. Rita wants to join him, so she enters the potentially lucrative world of writing formula romances. Shedding that ill-fated project and meeting up with Arnold in Zurich is the heart of the action in this book. But the heartbreak is that Wersba has decided that these characters, as is the case for many of those in her other stories, aren't ultimately meant for one another after all. And Rita, feisty as she is and knowing how much Arnold really loves her, uncharacteristically gives up and decides it's good material for a book. Taken by itself, this is an upbeat story of a young woman's self-discovery. As a sequelwell, those rooting for true love despite the odds can only hope that yet another sequel is in the works. Ages 12-up. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal Grade 10-12 A sequel to Wersba's Fat: a Love Story (Harper, 1986) , Love Is the Crooked Thing is 17-year-old Rita Formica's story of her search for Arnold Bromberg, age 33, who has gone off to Europe, sending her romantic postcard messages with no return address. Wersba provides plenty of background information so that readers who have not read the earlier novel can catch up. Determined, against her family's wishes, to find Arnold once again and bring him back home, Rita finds an original and humorous method of earning money for the tripby writing a pot-boiler romantic novel. But love and life are more complicated than Rita imagines, both in pot-boilers and in real-life. Written in the deadpan, staccato style of a stand-up comic, Rita's first-person delivery becomes monotonous at times. She is blunt and matter of fact about her weight problem and her sexual experiences with Arnold. Her parents, doctor, and fellow romance writers are caricatures. But Arnold, as Rita discovers, is more complexwith needs, drives, and interests unrelated to her romantic image of them as a couple. The events of the story are absurd, but with a kernel of truth about romantic ideals and expectations. Expect to hear more from Rita Formica. Deborah Locke, Westbrook Library, Me.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.