Honor Thyself (2008)

This book tells the story of Carole Barber a US actor who is writing a book and goes to Paris to come to terms with part of her life and while there she is a in a tunnel when terroists blew the tunnel up , leaving Carole and lots of other people left for dead.. after 2 weeks Carole's personal assisant called her hotel and then flies over and find Carole almost dead in a hospital... her family comes and she wakes up with no memory and as she is recovering one of her vistiors is the man she was in love with 15 years before and the part of her life she went to Paris to come to terms with ( )

Steel does it again. Her usual fast moving, teary eyed, believable story line. Another book of realistic family problems becoming good in the end. All you might have heard of losing your memory and a good job telling problems that might arise from that. ( )

Actress Carole Barber is a 50 year old movie star attempting to write a novel, but feels that she must return to Paris (where she lived for several years) to truly find out about herself and thus her main character. But while in Paris she is caught in a terrorist attack, lies unconscious and unrecognised in a coma for a few weeks, and eventually recovers her memory with the help of her loved ones and the man she'd had an affair with years earlier. A nice story, but not much more than that. ( )

This is the book that I was reading when I ate lunch with Nancy Pearl, and she turned to me and said "So! What are you reading?". I have to admit, I paused for a second and then told her honestly that I was reading my first Danielle Steel novel. She laughed! But not in a mean way.

I'm not embarrassed that I read this book. Since I've started working at the library, I've been plucking books off the New Books shelf, and when people call to put their name on the waiting list for a popular book, I put my name on, too. It's important to have an idea of what my patrons are reading. And a lot of them really seem to like Danielle Steel.

Honor Thyself is about an actress named Carole. Carole is in her 50s, still in the prime of her career, and planning to write a book. She decides to go to Paris for a bit of inspiration where she finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time: at the site of a terrorist bombing. Unconscious, she is taken to the hospital. Her family and friends gather, and rejoice when she regains consciousness. However, she has lost her memory. Her family and friends help her to piece her life back together.

It was a very good story. At the same time, I felt sorry for Carole and I thought that she was incredibly lucky. Losing one's memory must be terrible...but having family and friends around to bring those experiences back to life? It seemed like a great time. Plus, Carole had the opportunity to look back at what she'd done in a detached sort of way - although she was the one that had a strained relationship with her daughter, she could see it from an outsiders perspective. I envy the opportunity to view ones life from a different perspective - but I don't envy her bump on the head.

This was a very easy book to read. I can understand why she is a popular author - the subject matter is definitely adult, but anybody with average reading ability could get through this book with no trouble. That's a good combination for drawing in a wide audience.

However, her run-on sentences started to drive me batty. That and unnecessary commas. For your consideration:

"She leaves her practice and goes on a journey, trying to find the answers to her own questions, the keys to the doors that she has left locked for most of her life, while she was moving forward. Now she has to go back, before she can go forward again." (pg. 211)

It just doesn't flow. It sounds jerky in my mind.

Oh! And there is a point in which Carole remembers dating a closeted gay man. He didn't want to be out of the closet, and she didn't want the world to know that she was really seeing someone else. Carole says that "He was my beard." Well, I only happen to be aware of this slang term because I've watched a few episodes of Sex and the City, but he is not HER beard, she is HIS beard. She does not need a beard. She is a woman, and a heterosexual one at that. Gay men who wish to appear heterosexual appear in public with women - their beards. Perhaps the bump on the head caused Carole to blunder this metaphor? One can only hope.

Anyway, I hope an editor got fired for that one. Or at least a strongly worded reprimand.

So, to recap: I was pleasantly surprised by Danielle Steel. I enjoyed the story, I felt empathetic towards many of the characters, and I now understand what it is that many people find appealing about Danielle Steel's writing. I might just read another one someday. And I'll find a way to get over her writing style, which is full of fragments, causing headaches and hyperventilation in its readers, who read in lawnchairs, while sipping mimosas, watching the sun set over the sea. Which is blue and sparkly. ( )