Sometimes when life gets too overwhelming, all you want to
do is run away! For New Yorker Desiree Christian-Cohen, life
had reached the breaking point a long time ago. Her father
left her mother for another man, her mother was unhappy
about having to care for her ailing father, and her
less-than-committed boyfriend, Nick, is driving her nuts.
So, Desiree does what any slightly crazed young woman would
do -- she closes her eyes, points to a spot on the map, and
takes off for a summer adventure...in Honey Creek, Kansas --
population, 1,623.
In Lucy Jackson's clever coming-of-age novel SLICKER, the
ups and downs of a young woman's life as she tries to
decide just what she wants out of life makes for a
captivating story that is heartwarming and satisfying.
Arriving in Honey Creek, Desiree is soon the center of
attention as the only person from New York to ever visit the
small Midwest town, not to mention the only Jewish person
(or in Desiree's case, half Jewish). She meets a slew of
unusual folks by hanging out at the Sweet Tooth Café, but
her heart rate really picks up when the gorgeous Bobby
McVicar walks through the door and straight into Desiree's
heart.
The son of charming old hippies, Bobby is fascinated with
the Desiree's sophisticated airs, but deep down inside he
finds a sweet girl who is loving and caring, and just what
he has been waiting for all his life. As the couple get to
know one another, they fall in love -- but will their vast
differences and upbringings be too much to overcome for
their love to have a chance to blossom?
SLICKER is one of the sweetest novels I've had the pleasure
of reading, with charming characters, and a delightful and
funny romance which combines to make a novel that is sure
to please big city and small town readers alike.
Even life in the greatest city in the world can sometimes
feel like a little too much. For this New Yorker, running
away to the Heartland may be just the antidote.
When New York City native Desirée Christian-Cohen flees
her sometime-boyfriend, unhappy mother, Nina (who’s
recently learned her soon-to-be ex-husband Patrick is
gay), and failing grandfather, she picks the flight plan
by randomly dropping her finger on a map and hitting:
Honey Creek, Kansas, population 1,623. And if being
a “tourist” in Honey Creek weren’t noticeable enough, try
hanging out in the Sweet Tooth luncheonette, where you’re
referred to as “half a Jew.” Wary of , but wanting to,
fit in with the local populace, Desirée is forced to
defend herself and define herself in a world that feels
vastly different from her own. Her Yale boyfriends were
never like Bobby McVicar, the son of two ageing hippies,
who finds all he needs in his pinprick of a hometown. And
never—even as an only child of typically doting Manhattan
parents—has anyone paid so much attention to Desirée.
Over one surprising, transformative and sometimes very
funny summer, Desirée Christian-Cohen, member-in-good-
standing of the Self Esteem Generation, discovers how an
impulsive escape from home and family turns out to be much
more than that.