Young Fools: A Novel by Liza Palmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I thoroughly and wholeheartedly enjoyed reading this book! Bravo, Liza Palmer! We get to spy on a group of wannabe writers vying for a coveted prize at an exclusive writer’s workshop. This is everything you ever wanted to know about the agony and ecstasy of trying to get your work recognized and published.
We meet the socially inept Helen Hicks (what a cringe-worthy name, for sure!) and the irrepressible Cherry Stewart as they arrive at the prestigious and much coveted Hayward Writing Intensive competition.
Helen has a degree from a prestigious college and an MFA to boot. She’s attended just about every literary retreat and workshop she could get into and this time, after years of fruitless struggle, she is frantically determined to claim the literary flag that she believes is rightfully hers.
Cherry Stewart, born in the slums of L.A., is the epitome of everyone’s zaniest wild child friend. Her high-volume, way-out-there personality keeps her on the fringes of all the literary action. She has the talent and the desire, but her writing needs more polish and depth.
I was glued to every page as we are exposed to the trials and tribulations of these struggling unpublished group of writers. For those of us who ever dared to to hope or dream of publishing a novel during our misguided youth, Young Fools is proof that talent, perseverance and willpower may not be enough to get the job done. The competition is fierce and the chances of getting an agent to give you the time of day are dismally low… not to say non-existent.
Potential Spoiler Alert: I’ve read a few reviews here on GoodReads that state outright that the first half of the novel was actually “a novel within a novel.” Maybe it’s me, but I just don’t see that at all. I did notice that there was a time leap – and a CHANGE OF POINT OF VIEW around the half-way mark of this novel.
The%20point%20of%20view%20shifts%20to%20the%20other%20central%20figure%20in%20this%20novel:%20we%20now%20experience%20the%20action%20from%20the%20eyes%20of%20an%20older,%20slightly%20wiser%20Cherry%20Stewart%20who%20has,%20almost%20two%20decades%20later,%20published%20several%20thrillers%20and%20whose%20books%20have%20spawned%20a%20televised%20series%20or%20two.%20Go,%20Cherry!%20
Cherry is incensed that her former BFF, Helen, has finally managed to publish a book that shamelessly lampoons the entire gang of wannabe writers at that fateful Hayward Writing Intensive. The last portion of this novel contained so many well timed literary explosives that I was starting to cower at the end of each chapter. What could possibly happen next?
Well, I have to say: that ending was positively heart-warmingly perfect. (I invariably root for the underdog!)
Very well done, Liza Palmer!!! I have read just about every one of her books – and loved them all. (I’m also happy that she has recovered from her own cancer diagnosis – if Helen is to be believed!) This was an engrossing and highly entertaining glimpse into the professional writer’s world and it deserves all the stars!!!
My thanks to the author, Liza Palmer, her publishers, and NetGalley for an ARC of this brilliant novel (potentially within another novel – heck, what do I know?!?!) in exchange for an honest review!! 5 out of 5 enthusiastic stars! Highly recommended!
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