Amy Poeppel

LITERARY FICTION
Amy Poeppel
Limelight: A Novel
Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Hardcover, 978-1-5011-7637-1 (also available as an e-book, an audio book, and on Audible), 416 pgs., $26.00
May 1, 2018

Allison Brinkley’s family is discombobulated. They’ve just moved from suburban Dallas to the heart of Manhattan. Husband and father Michael is nervous about his new job. The substitute teaching position Allison had lined up falls through. Seventeen-year-old Charlotte had to change schools for senior show more year, leaving behind her first boyfriend. Fourteen-year-old Megan’s grades are dropping and she’s acting out, dealing with hormones. Speaking of hormones, eight-year-old Jack discovers one of those your-body-is-changing-in-new-and-confusing-ways books, which ended up in one of his moving boxes by mistake, and he’s got questions.

When Allison sideswipes a mirror off the door of a BMW, she meets Carter Reid, a Justin Bieber sort, once a charming, dimpled child crooner turned churlish, out-of-control, pop-singing bad boy. Allison accidentally becomes Carter’s personal assistant after discovering him in the ugly aftermath of a drug-infused bender with his entourage, and it’s her job to ensure Carter is ready for his Broadway debut, an adaptation of the Charles Chaplin 1952 classic film Limelight.

Limelight: A Novel is the second book from Amy Poeppel, following the critically acclaimed Small Admissions: A Novel (Atria/Emily Bestler Books, 2016). Limelight is a fun, charming, and surprisingly touching tale about the meaning of home and human connections in a world moving at an ever-accelerating pace into what often seems an ever-increasing superficiality.

When I was sixteen I moved from Odessa, Texas, to SoCal—that’s Southern California for you uncool people. And I was uncool there; it was like getting sucked through a wormhole and landing in a galaxy far, far away. Limelight opens as Allison stands in the doorway of her new tenth-floor apartment wondering if she needs a doormat in a carpeted hallway and how to trick-or-treat in a high-rise. The refrigerator is wood-paneled, a “barren expanse” upon which magnets won’t stick. Allison’s mother can’t imagine why Allison would trade their house in Texas for a New York apartment; it’s “like going from an Escalade to a Vespa.” It’s the small things that bring home a profound sense of dislocation.

Limelight is like one of those Russian matryoshka dolls, a story within a story within a story. It’s cleverly plotted and fast paced, populated with a variety of interesting characters. A handful are merely two-dimensional types, but many others who are complex and intriguing and fully capable of surprising us. Allison is thoroughly loveable, a bit naïve and trying her best to apply her Texas values of “a square meal, good, motherly advice, and some tough love” to a Kardashian kulture.

The dialogue in Limelight is laugh-aloud funny, ranging from arch to the equivalent of slapstick. “We need you to ensure that for the next eight or nine months,” the Broadway producers explain to Allison, “our very expensive star is a goody-two-shoe, wholesome, mindful, meditating, kelp-eating, oxygen-breathing, nonsmoking, celibate monk.”

Told through Allison’s winsome first-person account, Limelight tells a story of relationships and comfort zones. Allison feels for Carter, seeing past the attitude to an isolated teenager whose worst tendencies are enabled by leeches. She offers kindness and reliability, enabling Carter’s courage to scale new heights because now there’s scaffolding and a softer place to land if he falls.

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life. show less

This was so entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny. The title of "Musical Chairs" was perfect for this Oscar Wilde-like comedy of manners that takes place over a summer mostly in the country (Connecticut) with brief trips to New York. Many of the characters are keeping secrets from each other, some relationships develop and others blow up. As the novel progresses all the disparate pieces come together so that things that seem to have no connection suddenly click into place with hilarious show more results. Classical music, dogs and cats, lederhosen, and a wedding. A fun novel, especially during this COVID-19 summer.

Thanks to Atria/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for a digital advance readers copy. All comments and opinions are my own. show less

Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel
Source: NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Rating: 5 stars

“What kind of life path does one have to be on to end up with a flock of sheep you didn’t ask for?”

Bridget has given her life to her music and her group, the Forsyth Trio. Being the daughter of a world-renowned conductor has always been a bit a pressure, but her skills are excellent and her drive to work and be better has never been questioned. By her side from the very beginning is her best show more friend, Will, a man who is perfectly content with his life and doesn’t anticipate any changes in the near future. Will and Bridget are both perfectly content with the way things have always been and see no reason for things to change.

Oh, how Fate and the Universe like to laugh at such complacency. . . .

As she does every summer, Bridget packs her bags and looks to spend her time off in her Connecticut summer home. The house is ramshackle, at best, and falling apart at worst, but she loves her home and it will be made all the better once her boyfriend arrives. Unfortunately, Bridget’s boyfriend not only fails to show, but he breaks up with her just as her two grown children, both running from their own lives arrive to lick their wounds. WTH?? As if all this unexpected company and heartbreak weren’t enough, Bridget’s elderly father is up to something and it may turn the entire family on their respective heads.

Neither Bridget nor Will were looking for change but it seems to be coming for both. Confirmed bachelor Will comes to town to support Bridget and meets a woman who throws him for a loop. Bridget is completely thrown off by the presence and pain of her twins, her loss of her boyfriend, and her father’s shenanigans. To occupy herself and keep from worrying about all the little fires cropping up around her, Bridget decides to finally start working on sprucing up her summer home. With contractors afoot, sheep mowing the lawn, and people coming and going at all times of the day and night, Bridget isn’t sure she’s ready for so much change. At least she has the security of the Forsyth Trio and their upcoming fall tour dates.

Unfortunately, Bridget doesn’t have the Forsyth Trio and when she discovers this harsh truth, she about loses her mind and her friendship with Will. Rather than completely melting down, Bridget begins to look to the future in a way she never has before. When she unloads her thoughts and feelings on Will, it alters his life as well and in ways he never could have imagined. As she is dealing with her own issues, Bridget does her best to support her twins, their life choices, and her father and his life choices. It’s a wild summer and certainly nothing like Bridget expected but in the end, it is exactly what she needed.

The Bottom Line: Amy Poeppel has a wonderfully weird sense of humor that really speaks to my own weirdness. Musical Chairs really is a wonderful story that focuses on the changes no one ever expects to come to their lives. Nearly every character in this heartwarming and funny read has a huge life-altering summer that none saw coming. I liked the great sense of support that permeates this read from one moment to the next. Though everyone is thrown for a loop, they are still there for one another and willing to help in any way imaginable. This is a story of kindness, calamity, friendship, love, support, and change; it is a story that has loads of feels and I found myself absolutely enamored with every aspect of this book. show less

I didn't expect this book to be as funny as it was, so it was a wonderful surprise to find myself laughing as much as I did. Noteworthy of this book is the surprisingly high number of character perspectives we were shown; by the end, I wouldn't have been startled to be given a chapter written from the perspective of the infant, or even the dog. Personally, I was thrilled to be given a glimpse into how Leo, Laura's husband and unwitting passenger for most of the madcap journey, was handling show more all the chaos around him, and seeing him try to do what he thought would be helpful and right and end up making things even more chaotic was a thing of beauty.

The author did an amazing job of letting none of the characters remain two-dimensional, leading the reader away from the idea of "good guys" and "bad guys" and instead toward an understanding that everyone carries their own traumas, which they may--accidentally or otherwise--aim outwards at others, resulting in a network of hurt and further bad decision-making. It could have been a much darker story, in that regard, but there was just enough silliness included that both the characters and the reader don't have much time to spend dwelling on their sadness before they have to snap out of it and deal with more pressing matters...like a baby.

I liked that even Felicity--who, outside of the baby and the dog, was arguably the least explored character involved in the mess (certainly the least sympathetic)--was shown to be developing, even slightly. Had we not gotten that glimpse, the story might have felt just slightly unresolved, uncertainty about the baby's future family life hovering in the background. Instead, we see a more hopeful glimpse into the future, though with enough room left for us to fill in with our own imaginings. show less