Libby Schmais
The Perfect Elizabeth
St. Martin's Press
2000
I would be lying if I didn't say this is one of the toughest book reviews I have ever written.
I have long considered reading of fiction to be an "escape". While this escapist philosophy may evoke for most people the literal meaning of escapism, the escape from reality and literature designed to help one do so, the term has come to mean to me escape into another world which allowed me to broaden my perspective in the real world. Better understanding of different cultures, times, and lands is within the grasp of the avid and selective fiction reader and I have often made an effort to select books that provided me with knowledge as well as diversion.
I'm a patient person, and one with an ordinary life filled with waiting for one thing or another to happen: waiting to get to the front of the line at Costco, or to be called into the doctor's office, or for a friend to arrive for lunch, or whatever. I'm rarely found without a book handy. While in Basic Training (U.S. Army), I was actually disciplined for carrying a book (by Solzhenitsyn) in my field jacket pocket! I've been known to read much lighter fare, however, like cozy mysteries, as well as John Grisham, various political thrillers, and other less "serious" books.
I do not necessarily consider diversion to be a bad thing. Some diversions are just more entertaining and informative than others.
I accepted this book for review based on my feelings that it would deliver an in-depth character study. When I picked it up, I found it to be somewhat diverting and easy to read--at first. About 1/3 of the way through the book, however, I started asking myself questions about the characters. Although the first page announced that the main character was just turning 32, I had forgotten about this and started to wonder how old she and her sister (5 years older) were. This really bothered me because I found some of the actions and thoughts of the characters to be inconsistent with any particular age. They could have been anywhere between early twenties and late thirties, depending upon the scenario. As I kept reading, I had this on my mind. When the ages were again mentioned later, perhaps 2/3 of the way through the book, I felt as if I had been cheated. I had decided that these two must be in their late twenties to early thirties and, as it turned out, I was wrong.
Childhood events recalled by Eliza were interesting tidbits, and personalized her somewhat. Still, her entire life seemed glossed over in these particulars. One became better acquainted with her as a child than as an adult.
When she quits her job as a legal secretary because someone asks her to vacuum, Eliza eats too much at first. When she splits up with her boyfriend, she drinks too much. None of these problems are anything more than a barely detectable blip in the emotional radar, however; when she gains weight, she simply loses it. When she drinks too much, she simply writes a silly story about lemmings and gets an obscene amount of money from some Hollywood outfit that might produce a cartoon using her characters.
Eliza is concerned that her sister, Bette, is all alone, hiding in her academic pursuits. The character of Eliza's boyfriend is not well developed, and one gets the feeling that he's more of an accessory than a friend or mate. One wonders why Eliza is so anxious for her sister seek a partner.
Then Bette meets and marries a highly successful Hollywood pool designer, gives up her career, and has a baby. For awhile, Eliza feels somewhat alienated at the loss of companionship from her sister. There is no mention, however, of the sister feeling any jealousy over the fact that Eliza's boyfriend takes up some of her time before she has her own relationship. The sister-sister theme here seems kind of one-sided.
In trying to figure out what made the characters do the things they did, I had to mine my imagination. I guess that when Eliza broke up with the boyfriend and ran off to stay with her sister, it could have had as much to do with general angst about her jobless, careerless, boring life as it did with being upset over the loss of love, which was only barely evident anyway.
But, I suppose I'm being too harsh. I did actually manage to read the whole book. What is that all about? It is about escapism. It is about the fact that a number of words arranged in a certain order can lull you into a state of unawareness of your surroundings for a time.
This book certainly does that, at first. It mesmerizes. Sometimes, when one's concentration is at a low ebb, this is just the sort of antidote needed when a stiff dose of television is not available. The biggest problem here, though, is that the mesmerization is not complete. Inconsistencies go tap-tap-tapping in the back of the mind and break the spell.
Conclusion
If I had not taken this book on as a project for review, I probably would never have told anyone that I read it, or even thought too much more about it. It just does not suit my tastes. I thought it was a thinly disguised romance without the romance. The fact that the name is derived from the main character's feeling that her name, Eliza, along with her sister's, Bette, almost formed the name Elizabeth and that the two of them together made a perfect whole was an interesting concept, and one which was hinted at within the text. I could not help feeling, though, that the two of them added up to not quite one whole person, a kind of "Sybil" in reverse. Other reviews have called it a comedy of manners. I found it altogether too polite for me.
But, there are those who aren't very demanding of books, who like their reading to be very nice and PC, who find contemplation of more worldly questions unsettling, and who like fairy tale endings. This book will without a doubt appeal to these types of readers. If you are one of them, I encourage you to pick up this book.
Based on my belief that tastes do differ, and that my word is not the only one on the subject, I give this book a rating of "3" out of "10".
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