Following Polly

Alice loses her casting agency job and with nothing better to do, begins following her much more successful Harvard classmate Polly around Manhattan. When Polly ends up dead, Alice becomes a suspect and ends up hiding out with her school crush, Charlie. This sounds bizarre, but unfolds realistically and with great humor. Liked it a lot.

Following Polly has many funny passages, including an especially humorous Manhattan party crashing scene that is up to the level of Woody Allen's New Yorker pieces. I thought Following Polly was merely going to be a breezy chick-lit diversion. However, it is a fine novel with an intriguing murder mystery and hilarious comic turns. It is chick lit with an unexpected emphasis on the "lit." What elevates Following Polly is its treatment of the down side of life in Manhattan, when it feels lonely and loveless and cashless to boot. Manhattan is almost a character here (also like Woody) as Polly tries to clear herself of a murder charge while evading the police and finding herself. She is dogged by the highly inconvenient fact that she was show more sort of stalking the murder victim, a former college classmate who is prettier and much more successful than Polly, and was never very nice to her, at the time the victim is found dead. This also turns out to be a love story, and of course love solves all. Read this book! show less

Karen Bergreen's first novel, Following Polly, is a fun, fun, fun read! The affable main character, Alice Teakle, is like an American Bridgette Jone's - stealthily stumbling from following to stalking to running and beyond - with the best friends a girl could have and her own unique look at life. A quirky chick lit novel with a mystery twist thrown in - highly recommended for passing time in an enjoyable way!

A light, fun story of a slightly pathological young woman who gets involved in murder because she is compulsively following her college nemesis. Witty Manhattan wiseacre voice and lots of Manhattan flavor.

Newly unemployed Alice begins to follow her old college classmate to prove she can stalk with the best of them and to learn what makes others successful. But soon her object is found dead and Alice has to start following other to find the true killer and prove her innocence. Following Polly is a nice, quick summer read. It's cute. It's funny. It's predictable, but in a good way. Not at all bad for a first book.

http://iwriteinbooks.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/following-polly-karen-bergreen/

Alice Teakle is your average Harvard graduate with a steel trap memory, an obsessive crush and no ambition. She’s single but she has friends to live vicariously through. She has a slightly hellish job as a casting agent until her good-natured honesty helps her career take a turn for the pits.

She also has a slightly odd hobby of following people around but it’s never really lead to anything sinister.

It’s never lead to anything sinister before Polly Dawson.

After her job hits the rocks, Alice finds herself tailing Polly, an old Harvard gal cum fashion mogul. All is perfectly fine as stalking goes, until Alice stumbles upon her subject stabbed to show more pieces.

Suddenly Alice does have some ambition, focusing mostly on not going down her Polly’s murder.

Along with a strangely timed meet up with her lifelong crush, Alice navigates the tricky waters she seems to have found herself in.

This book is so totally weird and funny but hard to describe without explaining too much. This is Karen Bergreen’s (also a Harvard lady and comedienne) first novel and I’ll definitely attest to her sparkle as a quirky, light mystery writer. I wasn’t really sure how this one would turn out as it balanced what seemed to be a light, silly premise with an Ivy League writer but it worked. It’s a fun, fast read but it’s also incredible adorable and quirky in a way I don’t think a lot of light mystery reads ted to be. I loved Alice and the peripheral characters played in nicely.

It’s no deep, psychological thriller, for sure, but it held my attention and I would definitely pick up another Bergreen story if given the chance. show less

This book was a great summer read. I started it while on vacation and finished reading it in the car on the way home. Normally I can only read for a little while in the car, before I either get restless or a headache - but not with this book - I read it right through to the end of the book!

Alice has lost her job and is just sort of floating, not really sure where she wants to land, when she sees Polly Dawson. Polly is sort of her long-time nemesis from college - the one who always had everything, perfect looks, perfect clothes, perfect life, etc, so she decides to follow her. Before she knows it, it has become an everyday obsession. She probably knows more about where Polly goes than even her husband! And Polly never notices her. show more Unfortunately, it seems someone else has and she becomes framed for Polly's murder.

Alice goes into hiding, sort of. She camps outside of her college crush's apartment (he is/was a lawyer). He eventually confronts her, not remembering her from college, and for some reason believes her story and takes her in. He has his own ulterior motives for helping her.

There are a couple of mysteries happening - first off is the obvious - who killed Polly and framed Alice - and the second is what's up with Charlie's father and will Alice be able to help Charlie find out the truth?

There is alot of humor in this story. It is kind of a dry humor in face of the dire situation that Alice is facing. I especially liked this part - Alice has asked that Charlie get in touch with her best friend, Jean, to let her know that she is okay.

"Hi, Jean. I don't know if you remember me. My name is Walter Redwin. We went to Harvard Law School together."

Jean pauses for a second. I know that she's dying to get in touch with me to tell me that my Charlie called her.

This is where Charlie's part gets tricky.

"You may know me as Charlie."

Now, I know you may be wondering how I managed to get Charlie to identify himself by his crush-name.

"Just introduce yourself to her on the phone," I instructed him casually just minutes ago. "And then tell her that she may know you as Charlie."

"Why Charlie?"

"Oh, it's this thing with me and Jean."

"What kind of thing?"

A thing where I made up a name for you when I decided to become obsessed with you.

"I promise I will tell you the second I get out of trouble." Curiosity is a great motivator. (p148-149, Following Polly)

Now maybe you need to read more of the story to appreciate it, but Alice's character is definitely quirky. But it is a good quirky. During the story you get to see her grow and to embrace who she really is. There are a couple of twists at the end, but one I definitely did not see coming. The book wrapped up nicely. I will definitely be watching for another book by Karen Bergreen. show less