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 111
... stayed bony , but Gene Kelly and Cary Grant widened , and not with fat . More like girdles giving way . I learned the business about Cary's favorite lunch from one of the trashy biographies I read secretly , shamefacedly , when I was ...
... stayed bony , but Gene Kelly and Cary Grant widened , and not with fat . More like girdles giving way . I learned the business about Cary's favorite lunch from one of the trashy biographies I read secretly , shamefacedly , when I was ...
Page 287
... stayed with them one night when she was a child , sleeping in the same room where the seamstress stayed twice a year when she came to sew all of their clothes ; a man who wanted to hear " Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree with Anyone Else ...
... stayed with them one night when she was a child , sleeping in the same room where the seamstress stayed twice a year when she came to sew all of their clothes ; a man who wanted to hear " Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree with Anyone Else ...
Page 291
... stayed , while Lew drove Valerie ( who didn't care for movies ) home . Jane put on Crossing Delancey ( despite ... staying ? " " In my house . One of the tenants is away . ' 99 She had told him this earlier , but he'd forgotten , either ...
... stayed , while Lew drove Valerie ( who didn't care for movies ) home . Jane put on Crossing Delancey ( despite ... staying ? " " In my house . One of the tenants is away . ' 99 She had told him this earlier , but he'd forgotten , either ...
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answer asked aunt beautiful began beside better Bill called Cary coffee coming couldn't dark didn't Dinah don't door everything eyes face fall feel felt fern Fiona Frame front Garbo gave give glass going gone hair hand happened hard Harriet head hear heard heart interest It's Italy Jack Jane Kenny kids kitchen knew later laughed Leah leave light living looked mean mind morning mother moved movie never night once Pauline picture play reached remember side sitting sleep smile snow someone sound standing stayed steps stood stopped story street talk tell thing thought told took tree turned voice waiting walk watch week window woman women wonder write wrote