Garbo LaughsFrom the award-winning author of A Student of Weather, a funny, sad-eyed novel about a woman caught between real love and movie love--and real love doesn't stand a chance. This is a novel about movie love. Set in Ottawa in the 1990s, it is the quixotic tale of tall, thin Harriet Browning, inflamed by the movies she was deprived of as a child. Bent on seeing everything she has missed, she rapidly becomes so saturated with old movies, seen repeatedly and swallowed whole, that she no longer fits into this world. Equally addicted are her three companions- of-the-screen: a boy who loves Frank Sinatra, a girl with Bette Davis eyes, and an earthy sidekick named after Dinah Shore. Breaking in upon this quiet backwater, in time with the devastating ice storm of 1998, come two refugees from Hollywood, the jaded widow of a famous screenwriter and her movie-expert stepson. They are Harsh Reality. With them come blackouts, arguments, accidents, illness, and sudden death. But what chance does real life stand when we can watch movies instead? What hope does real love have when movie love, in all its brief intensity, is an easy option? In this brilliant and poignant comedy of secondhand desire, m |
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Page 7
Elizabeth Hay. She had the fern in her lap . Lew was telling her where it came from . A fern museum , he said , outside Santiago de Cuba , a small estate once owned by a fern enthusiast who , upon finding himself too old to look after it ...
Elizabeth Hay. She had the fern in her lap . Lew was telling her where it came from . A fern museum , he said , outside Santiago de Cuba , a small estate once owned by a fern enthusiast who , upon finding himself too old to look after it ...
Page 60
... fern over and pointed with his thick finger . " It was a big mystery for a long time , the sexual lives of ferns . They don't have flowers , they don't have seeds , so how do they reproduce ? Spores . They reproduce by means of these ...
... fern over and pointed with his thick finger . " It was a big mystery for a long time , the sexual lives of ferns . They don't have flowers , they don't have seeds , so how do they reproduce ? Spores . They reproduce by means of these ...
Page 243
... fern that Lew brought back from Cuba , the - same spear - tip fern that he'd put in her lap . " Which ? " " I showed you this fern . " " I remember you showed me a fern - " " It was this one . " She dipped down to the purse at her feet ...
... fern that Lew brought back from Cuba , the - same spear - tip fern that he'd put in her lap . " Which ? " " I showed you this fern . " " I remember you showed me a fern - " " It was this one . " She dipped down to the purse at her feet ...
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Common terms and phrases
asked asked Harriet Audrey Hepburn aunt beautiful beside better Bill Bender Buster Keaton called Cary Grant coffee dark desk Dinah Dinah Bloom door downstairs eyes face feel felt fern Fiona Chester Frank Sinatra Fred Astaire funny Garbo Gene Kelly glass going Greta Garbo hair hand happened Harriet Browning Harriet looked hated head heard Jack Frame Jean Simmons Jim Creak Kenny and Jane Kenny's kids kitchen knew laughed Leah Leah's Lew's Lionel living room Marlon Brando mind morning mother never night Ottawa Pauline Kael Peter O'Toole rain remember Rod Steiger Sean Connery Shawl side sleep smile snow someone song detective stayed stood stopped story street talk tell There's thing thought Harriet told took tree turned upstairs voice walk watch What's window woman wonder write