Rona Jaffe - An American Love Story

73. An American Love Story by Rona Jaffe (1990)
Length: 423 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 28 August 2012
Finished: 31 August 2012
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 April 2009
Why do I have it? I had read and enjoyed Mazes and Monsters several years ago by the same author.

Clay Bowen is a successful Hollywood television producer with several cleverly disguised rehashes of established hits to his credit. He is also a self-centered, womanizing schemer who has been married to former prima ballerina, Laura Hays, for almost twenty years - although they have been separated for most of that time. Laura had retired from the dance world to have her daughter - the elusive and secretive Nina - then turned to drugs and developed an eating disorder. Clay, having been totally alienated by his wife's clinginess and drug addiction, begins a relationship with best-selling author, Susan Josephs, writer of a book on spousal abuse.

Throughout their 17 years together, Clay constantly demeans Susan - stealing the rights to her New York magazine cover stories, and eventually ousting her from his Beverly Hills bungalow in favor of Bambi Green, a young, hopeful television ingenue searching for her big break.

This book is the story of how the lives of these four women - Laura, Nina, Susan and Bambi - with all their dreams of love and success, are totally intertwined with a charismatic womanizer whom they all mistakenly believe they need in their lives. I really loved this book because it showed just how Clay's separate relationships with all his women worked, or were dysfunctional to them all. I give this book an A+! and look forward to reading another book by Rona Jaffe very soon.

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight