Product Description

At thirty-five, Mary Frazier Armstrong, called "Frazier" by friends and enemies alike, is a sophisticated woman with a thriving art gallery, a healthy bank balance, and an enviable social position. In fact, she has everything to live for, but she's lying in a hospital bed with a morphine drip in her arm and a life expectancy measured in hours. "Don't die a stranger," her assistant says on her last hospital visit. "Tell the people you love who you are." And so, as her last act on earth, Frazier writes letters to her closest family and friends, telling them exactly what she thinks of them and, since she will be dead by the time they receive the letters, the truth about herself: she's gay.

The letters are sent. Then the manure hits the fan in Charlottesville, Virginia, because the funny thing is, Frazier Armstrong isn't going to die after all.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #541965 in Books
• Published on: 1994-01-01
• Released on: 1994-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 400 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780553564976
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
The risible title is arguably the best thing about Brown's latest comic novel, the tale of a woman who unwittingly comes out of the closet in midlife when she is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Under the impression that she is on her deathbed, wealthy North Carolina art dealer Mary Frazier Armstrong mails a series of brutally candid letters to her kith and kin, only to discover that she isn't dying after all. Brown delivers some nicely sketched southern characters: Mary Frazier's imperious mother, Libby, whose long-simmering anger has poisoned her daughter's life; her sensitive brother, Carter, an alcoholic redneck whose lifelong self-destructiveness is partly a response to Mary Frazier's success; her closeted lover, Ann, who is made uncomfortable by their claustrophobic secret life; and her dazzlingly outrageous gay friend Billy Cicero. But this gallery of character sketches cannot save the story from predictability and a deeply unconvincing resolution. Arch dialogue, lack of plot and an overall inattentiveness to nuance are the distinguishing features here. Fans of Brown's previous books ( Bingo ; Rest in Pieces ) may enjoy this story, but first-time readers are bound to be disappointed.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
More frothy fun from the queen of southern sexual farce--this featuring a former debutante who comes out of the closet in gossipy, backstabbing Virginia. ``Dying's not so bad. At least I won't have to answer the telephone,'' remarks 35-year-old Mary Frazier Armstrong, who's lying in the hospital with a terminal case of lung cancer. A stressed-out art-gallery owner with brilliant business instincts and drop-dead looks, the well-born Virginian cares more about dying than she'll admit to others and--on what she believes to be her final night--scribbles half a dozen heartfelt messages to her nearest and, in some cases, dearest. The next morning Frazier learns that her diagnosis resulted from a computer error and that she suffers only from bronchitis--but the letters, in which she finally informed her loved ones that she was gay--have already gone to the post office and can't be retrieved. Happy to be alive but dreading the nasty backlash sure to come, Frazier has no choice but to brace herself for the catty remarks, social snubs, tears, and general lambasting that inevitably do come her way. Only Frazier's eccentric aunt, her stoic father, her loyal assistant, a bisexual friend, and, when not in his cups, her layabout brother stand up for Frazier while society's vultures circle to rip her to shreds. But Frazier's a survivor--and when the pressure grows too great, she simply escapes via a fantasy visit into a painting of Mount Olympus, to sport with the ancient, wiser goddesses and gods. Brown's story drapes thinly across a tiresome string of platitudes (``You are as sick as you are secret,'' ``Normal is the average of deviance,'' ``Death is like a punctuation mark, a period at the end of a sentence,'' etc.), but her sexual frankness and flippant humor are as refreshing as always. (First printing of 75,000) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From the Publisher
"Frothy fun from the queen of southern sexual farce."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Hilarious and touching."
--Ms. magazine

"From tear-jerking hilarity to Kleenex-level sadness."
--Daily News, New York

"Witty and tender."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review

Customer Reviews

What promise this story had!
When I started reading this book, I thought, Good ol' Rita Mae has out-done herself this time--it was the funniest, cleverist beginning of a book I have ever read--but I would rate the whole book as one of her worst. I recommend you read only the first 4 or 5 chapters--it is hilarious--but then close it up and give it to the book exchange before you get bogged down in the almost unreadable ending. I am a dyed-in-the-wool Rita Mae Brown fan--but this one really goes bad at the end. Her earlier works are much better; Rubyfruit Jungle, Six of One, and Southern Discomfort, High Hearts, and Sudden Death being her best.

a premise that holds promise lost in bad writing
When I read what this book was about, I thought it sounded interesting - what would we do if we thought we weren't going to live. However, I found the interesting idea was way overshadowed dull characters and writing. The characters are either goody/goody or someone absolutely hateful - very one-dimensional and totally unrealistic. As for style of writing, I felt like the book was written for pre-teenagers - very, very simplistic, although the subject matter certainly is adult. The ending read like some kind of inane dream that the author had one night, embellished with some kind of misdirected how-can-i-make-this-seem-spiritual mythology which seemed to me to be just asinine. I was bored from the beginning but kept reading, hoping it would pick up. Alas, it never did - I was embarrased for the author.

"Normal is just the average of deviations."
I do like Rita Mae Brown. I share many of her notions of the world. I picked this book up as a second RMB read after reading (finally, after all these years) Rubyfruit Jungle to see what was the author and what was the story, if you know what I mean. The premise of the book is great fun! I must say though that reading this book felt like living in someone else's head as they worked through their processes, demons, angels, trying to convince themselves (& the reader). That grew a bit tiresome, esp. towards the end. While Rita can turn a phrase nicely, I found, generally, her dialog was preachy, a little too unnatural for conversation, her arguments a tad pat, abet "unconventionally" so. I will read more Rita Mae.