{"id":672,"date":"2012-09-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-08T22:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/?p=672"},"modified":"2025-05-03T13:56:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T01:56:47","slug":"the-not-so-perfect-life-of-mo-lawrence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2012\/09\/01\/the-not-so-perfect-life-of-mo-lawrence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Not So Perfect Life Of Mo Lawrence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Catherine Robertson<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Random House<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Otago Daily Times, September 1st 2012<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Catherine Robertson\u2019s second novel, The Not So Perfect Life of Mo Lawrence<\/em>, is a classic example of why a book should not be judged by its cover.\u00a0 Not a fan of chic lit, the all-pink picture and endorsement by Kerre Woodham would normally have me running a mile, but much to my surprise I thoroughly enjoyed it.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basic set up is fairly standard; Michelle has always known what she wants, and thus things have unfolded just as she planned it: a successful legal career followed by marriage, children, and a picture-perfect house in the wealthy suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina.\u00a0 So it comes as a complete surprise when her normally malleable husband moves the family to San Francisco, then decides he needs a month away to \u2018find himself\u2019, leaving a furious Michelle stranded in a world of blonde, waif-like society wives she despises and terrified that her dream life is disintegrating.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desperate for allies in this enemy territory, she strikes up friendships with an unlikely trio of outsiders whose only point of commonality is their desire to escape. The first of these, Aishe, has spent the last 14 years creating her own perfect life, one which includes only herself and her son, Gulliver, only to find that this is the last thing a teenage boy wants in his life is his mother. The second, Gulliver\u2019s tutor Bernard, has spent years travelling from place to place in a desperate attempt to outrun his past, and is smitten by the hostile Aishe, a woman who has elevated misanthropy to an art form. And then there is Connie, one of the Stepford Wives for whom Michelle develops an unexpected sympathy and a determination to rescue. As volatile as this mix of personalities may be, it also creates opportunities for each of them to regain control of their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of the plot, some events are predicable, but other predictable events are absent. Although the novel contains its fair share stereotypes and unlikely coincidences (Michelle\u2019s forthright, blunt-spoken Kiwi attitude is contrasted against the superficiality of American trophy wives that surrounded her, while Aishe is the estranged sister of her best friend\u2019s boyfriend), it refuses to take itself seriously. In fact The Not So Perfect Life of Mo Lawrence<\/em> is as quirky, funny and unafraid to puncture pretension as Michelle herself. How can you help but enjoy a story in which a person can be cut from a cloth that is “the kind of synthetic, flocked upholstery fabric that felt like hell against your skin but which would wear until the crack of doom.\u00a0 And which matched the curtains?<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.odt.co.nz\/entertainment\/books\/quirky-funny-and-unafraid-puncture-pretension<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catherine Robertson
\n
\nOtago Daily Times review September 1st 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[153,166,370,500,18],"class_list":["post-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-153","tag-catherine-robertson","tag-fiction","tag-nz-author","tag-odt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1551,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions\/1551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}