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With LILY WHITE, Susan Isaacs pulls together the best qualities of a Beach Read ---
the right length (460 pages), a juicy plot, a nod toward real people in real situations,
humor and intelligence.
Actually, she surpasses the requirements: She sets two story lines going at once.
One story focuses on a nice Jewish girl (albeit one with a big mouth) growing up on Long
Island with her oh-so-nouveau and upwardly mobile parents, who have changed their last
name from its original Weissberg to Weiss to finally reach the totally assimilated White.
Lily "Lee" White sticks out like a sore thumb in a family that defines the word
dysfunctional --- her father is a high-style furrier in Manhattan (via Frosty Furs of
Queens), mom is as neurotic and superficial as they come, and sis goes from shooting up
heroin to betraying her big sister in the worst possible way. In contrast, Lee is
straight-on, smart, and frank. She not only becomes a criminal defense lawyer, she marries
the perfect-on-the-surface WASPy boy next door. That's one story.
When we meet Lee as an adult in the other story, she's just taken on the case of a con
artist accused of killing one of his female marks. He's an easy man to find guilty. But
then his girlfriend's prints turn up at the scene of the crime. Will Lee be conned or will
she find the truth?
The alternating chapters and narrators developing each story can be a bit jarring at
times. It's frustrating to leave one plot line hanging to dive back into the other,
equally engrossing story. But the richness of both tales still comes through clearly.
Isaacs was a Long Island housewife when she first began writing novels after her youngest
child went off to nursery school. With this new bestseller --- her seventh in a row ---
she's become a very hot commodity. Two of her previous novels were turned into movies:
COMPROMISING POSITIONS(with Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia) and SHINING THROUGH (with
Melanie Griffith and Michael Douglas). This time, film rights were sold to Disney and
Whoopi Goldberg. Whoopi may produce or she may decide to star (with some obvious changes
to the story --- even the magical Whoopi would have a hard time playing a Jewish Lily
White as anything but farce).
Filled with dead-on observations and great dark humor, LILY WHITE is a fun read --- you
become absorbed by a family you'll be glad isn't yours as you meet a woman you'll wish you
knew. Isaacs has created a gloriously smart and witty friend in Lee White. Take her to the
beach for that last-chance summer sun, and let us know what you think.
--- Jennifer Levitsky
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