Feeding Christine
A Novel
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
In this deliciously charming novel, Barbara Chepaitis-a new and truly one-of-a-kind voice in women's fiction-skillfully explores the powerful camaraderie shared by four exceptional women. Reminiscent of Like Water for Chocolate and How to Make an American Quilt, this unique tale filled with unforgettable characters has a style all its own. It is a delightful ode to the special unbreakable bond that exists between women-and the crazy things true friends will do to show they care. . . .
Feeding Christine
Teresa DiRosa believes that life, like fine food, is made special by mixing together the best ingredients: time, patience, and a lot of love. Owner of a thriving catering business, Bread and Roses, she has turned the feeding of stomachs and souls into her life's work. Now, with her niece Christine, best friend and bookkeeper Delia, and baker Amberlin, Teresa is gearing up for Bread and Roses' most important event of the year: the annual Christmas open house.
But as Teresa juggles recipes and party decorations, her personal life is spinning out of control. Her divorce is barely final when a handsome acquaintance hints that he'd like to be more than just friends. Her college-age son has broken her heart by choosing to spend Christmas with his father. And her niece Christine, beautiful and artistic, is engaged to marry a prominent psychologist-but seems to be losing her own grip on sanity as her wedding draws closer.
The preparty cooking marathon promises to be filled with the usual chaos and conversation, and Teresa hopes it will be a good time to talk things over with her niece. But she's not prepared when a suicidal Christine arrives at her house-and Teresa is the only one who can save her. The radical steps she takes to stop her niece from killing herself will shock everyone-but with Delia's and Amberlin's help, Teresa feeds Christine a healthy dose of courage, wisdom, and pure friendship . . . all while trying to pull off a grand party for a hundred people.
Witty and warmhearted, Feeding Christine is a testament to the many different kinds of friendship it takes to live a full life-and to the different kinds of wisdom each of us has to share.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the midst of Teresa DiRosa's frantic preparations for the annual holiday party thrown by her catering company, Bread and Roses, her niece, Christine, appears, threatening suicide. Exasperated, Teresa bonks Christine over the head with a frying pan ("not the cast iron... just an old Teflon"), drags her down to the cellar, ties her securely and resumes cooking for the party with her co-workers. Except for a brief resolution, this sums up the action in Chepaitis's overly sentimental, humorless novel. The rest is back-story, memories and exposition as Teresa and her colleagues, Delia and Amberlin, peel carrots and discuss how to cope with the madwoman in the basement. But it's not just Christine who's struggling with bleakness and depression: for the first time ever, Teresa's college-age son isn't coming home for the annual party, and she's reminded of her failures as a mother and as a wife. And uniting Teresa to her niece is the haunting despair concerning Nan, Teresa's sister and Christine's mother, an alcoholic who committed suicide seven years ago. Teresa claims to be fiercely protective of Christine's life ("And I won't I won't I won't let her die"), but with the action confined largely to one room and relying heavily on one character's memories, no one in the melodrama ever gets out and lives with any urgency. Teresa's romance with a shy widower and Christine's unhappy relationship with her psychiatrist fianc seem like rote devices to flesh out these characters by giving them outside lives, but the author misses a chance to reveal their inner lives by choosing to focus on the recurrent themes of food and cooking. Throughout, the four main characters serve up an inconsistent m lange of irrelevant memories while the plot flows as sluggishly as molasses.
