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| Plot Summary of Francesca's Party |
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Dunne Books, Sept. 2002,384pp
ISBN #0312301723
In London Francesca Kirwan has spent more than half of her forty years contentedly married to Mark. Everything changes when she dropped off her husband at the airport so he can fly to the continent on business. Mark left his cell phone in the car so Francesca parks and enters the terminal to bring it to him. However, she sees Mark kissing a woman. Francesca learns that Mark has been having an affair with Nikki.
She kicks Mark out of their house so he blithely moves in with Nikki. At first Francesca expected Mark to beg her to allow him to return, but he never even plea bargains with her. Francesca begins to fall into a deep depression until her two adult sons and her sister try to help her become as an independent woman. A bit of revenge on her spoiled soiled Mark would sweeten her life immensely.
On the surface, FRANCESCA'S PARTY is like a zillion similar books starring a middle aged woman whose sheltered life crashes around her, but somehow out of the ruins she turns into super-person. Getting past the simplistic assumption that one is a better person following recovery from a traumatic event, readers will find this novel is quite amusing. The key to the story line is the effortlessly shifting of perspective between several characters (not just the title protagonist) so that the audience understands the same event from the different minds' eyes. This technique carried off quite smoothly shows that Patricia Scanlan is a very talented author whom entertains the sub-genre crowd with a strong contemporary character study.
Harriet Klausner
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Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Francesca's Party |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- thoughtful
Time/era of story
- present (2000-2010)
Romance/Romance Problems
Yes
Kind of romance:
- playing footsy while inconveniently married
Internal struggle/realization?
Yes
Struggle over
- vague finding self/purpose in life (i.e. no plot to book)
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Ethnic/regional/gender life
Yes
Woman's story?
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- homemaker
Age:
- 40's-50's
Ethnicity/Nationality
- British
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- business executive
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 4 ()
Europe
Yes
European country:
- England/UK
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Unusual Style:
- a lot of stream of consciousness
Amount of dialog
- significantly more dialog than descript
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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