Motherly love fuels this latest romantic suspense novel by Fielding (Whispers and Lies; Grand Avenue; etc.), set in Toronto during the city's international film festival. When Julia-beautiful 21-year-old actress, imperious bitch-goddess-goes missing after a screen test with a famous director, her disappearance touches off a full-blown midlife crisis for her mother, Cindy. As Cindy searches for Julia, she envisions lurid crime scenarios, wrangles with her charming snake of an ex-husband and his trophy wife and comes to the uncomfortable realization that she and her selfish, irresponsible daughter have a few things in common. She copes by hashing out issues with her whiny sister, sharp-tongued mother and long-suffering younger daughter, by nurturing infants and pets and by having great sex with a handsome and preternaturally attentive new boyfriend. Crammed with stock situations and expected revelations, this breezy melodrama relies heavily on hit-or-miss repartee. Fielding fills space by having characters repeat one another's dialogue; a comic subplot about an incontinent dog is intrusive and tedious; and the drama takes place mostly in the heroine's head. Cindy herself is a likable mixture of brashness, panic and pratfalls, and readers will empathize as she tries to find her daughter and herself, but she is the lone bright spot in this lackluster effort. Fielding's many fans will miss her usual sharp plotting, but most will go along for the ride. (Aug.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Lost
Narrated by Lindsay Ellison
Joy FieldingUnabridged — 11 hours, 11 minutes
Lost
Narrated by Lindsay Ellison
Joy FieldingUnabridged — 11 hours, 11 minutes
Audiobook (Digital)
Related collections and offers
Overview
Julia Carver, a twenty-four-year-old model and aspiring actress, has always had a difficult relationship with her mother, Cindy. So when her daughter disappears, Cindy assumes that Julia is just being Julia. But after a day and night passes with no word, Cindy suspects that something terrible has happened, and begins a frantic search. As the days pass, secrets are revealed, lives are forever altered, and Cindy is forced to acknowledge the disturbing truth about the young woman she realizes she never really knew.
Editorial Reviews
When her daughter Julia doesn't come home, worried mother Cindy Carver begins contacting Julia's friends, boyfriends, and the last person who seems to have seen the 21-year-old aspiring actress-the producer holding auditions for a movie called Lost. Impatient with the police's missing person investigation, Cindy pursues her own detective work, tracking down leads and ambush-interviewing hapless acquaintances. She is buoyed by the support of her mother, sister, girlfriends, and younger daughter and irritated by the nonchalance of her ex-husband and his trophy wife. Although Julia emerges as a selfish, self-centered adulteress, this mother's anguish and endless inner dialog are convincing, if increasingly tiresome. Alternately predictable, then manipulative, this melodrama is as tedious as an 11-hour made-for-TV movie. Although reader Lindsay Ellison nicely portrays the cast, this novel begs for abridgment. Any public library purchasing this "chick shtick" will do so only because of picketing Fielding fans. Not recommended.-Judith Robinson, Univ. at Buffalo, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Another taut suburban thriller from Fielding (Whispers and Lies, 2002, etc.), this one a psychological exploration of a mother whose daughter disappears. On Tuesday, Cindy meets friends for lunch so they can discuss movie picks for the upcoming Toronto Film Festival, goes to her niece’s bridal fitting, has supper with a surprisingly charming blind date. She has no idea that her morning spat with daughter Julia would be their last, for as the narrator ominously opines, "great calamity, like great evil, often springs from the womb of the hopelessly mundane." Julia, a selfish and hard 21-year-old beauty, showed up at her big audition with a famed Hollywood director, but failed to return home that Tuesday night, or the next night, or the next. Cindy is understandably frantic, imagining the worst—so easy to imagine, since the worst is the subject of every popular TV show and film—wondering what happened to her elder daughter. There are a few suspects: the director; Julia’s ex-boyfriend, a writer who’s taken naughty photos of Julia and written a grisly tale of torture about her; Duncan, the boyfriend of Julia’s younger sister Heather; and Ryan, Cindy’s next-door neighbor, a handsome architect with a colicky infant and a suicidally depressed wife. Cindy accuses and confronts everyone, knowing that as each day goes by there is less and less chance of finding Julia. She silently berates herself: she is a bad mother, she drove Julia away (just like when the teenager chose to live with her father), only she can save her daughter. Fielding is a skillful storyteller, but all the fine-tuned details do little to save this otherwise compelling tale from its own ending, an intentionally"surprising" and "shocking" finale that nullifies the previous 350 pages. Akin to the shopworn "it was all a dream" ploy, this about-face simultaneously cheats and hoodwinks readers of a true catharsis. Fine work almost to the end, then a bitter disappointment.
"Disturbingly credible....You will not be able to put it down."
— Tampa Tribune (FL)
"[A] taut suburban thriller."
— Kirkus Reviews
Cindy Carver imagines the worst when her 21-year-old daughter disappears like a blip on the giant radar screen of life. Lindsay Ellison’s spirited narration keeps this story moving and engaging, without calling attention to itself. She gives the ungrateful 21-year-old the self-absorbed, in-your-face attitude that makes the listener wish she’d stay missing. Cindy’s mother sounds appropriately cloying and annoying, and her sister enters the competitive grievance war with gusto. Cindy’s ex-husband comes across arrogantly enough, even in the parts where he takes advantage of his inebriated and grieving ex. And her lover inspires delicious licentious thoughts. It’s too bad the story’s ending shortchanges this noteworthy performance. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169521320 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 08/01/2007 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Read an Excerpt
In New York Times bestselling author Joy Fielding’s mesmerizing new novel, a young woman’s mysterious disappearance throws her family into turmoil, reopening old wounds and unleashing fresh emotions.
Julia Carver, a twenty-four-year-old model and aspiring actress, has always had a difficult relationship with her mother, Cindy. After Cindy’s divorce from Tom Carver when Julia was fourteen, Julia chose to live with her father, a successful entertainment lawyer, and only returned home a year ago when he remarried. Julia’s return is a huge adjustment for Cindy, her younger daughter, Heather, and Heather’s boyfriend, Duncan, who lives with them. As a child, Julia was willful and self-absorbed. As an adult, she is even worse.
So, when her daughter disappears during the Toronto International Film Festival, Cindy assumes that Julia is just being Julia. But after a day and night passes without word, Cindy begins to suspect that something terrible has happened to her daughter, and begins a frantic search. As the days pass, secrets are revealed, lives are forever altered, and Cindy is forced to acknowledge the disturbing truth about the young woman she realizes she never knew.
Author Biography: Joy Fielding is a bestselling author whose books include Whispers and Lies, Grand Avenue, and The First Time. She divides her time between Toronto and Palm Beach, Florida.
Videos
