No, seriously, that’s the title.
Ask Again Later
Jill A. Davis
Harper Paperbacks, 2007 (ISBN 0060875976 / 9780060875978)
Fiction, 272 pages
First sentence: I can remember the first Christmas after my father left.
Book Description: Emily Rhode has a tendency to live with one foot out the door. For her, the best thing about a family crisis is the excuse to cut and run. When her mother dramatically announces they’ve found a lump, Emily gladly takes a rain check on life to be by her mother’s side, leaving behind her career, her boyfriend, and those pesky, unanswerable questions about who she is and what she’s doing with her life.
But back in her childhood bedroom, Emily realizes that she hasn’t run fast or far enough. One evening, while her mother calls everyone in her Rolodex to brief them on her medical crisis and schedule a farewell martini, Emily opens the door, quite literally, to find her past staring her in the face. How do you forge a relationship with the father who left when you were five years old? As Emily attempts to find balance on the emotional seesaw of her life, with the help of two hopeful suitors and her Park Avenue Princess sister, she takes a no-risk job as a receptionist at her father’s law firm and slowly gets to know the man she once pretended was dead.
Comments: For a book that deals with cancer, family estrangements, and general life dysfunction, Ask Again Later is a surprisingly fun read. Its main character, Emily Rhode, initially seems like she might be a standard chick-lit creation, but first impressions are wrong in this case – this is a struggling young woman, and her struggles don’t really concern designer shoes and landing Mr. Right. In fact, she’s got him already, if she wants him and can own up to it. Meanwhile, she’s trying to handle her mother’s breast-cancer diagnosis, career unraveling, and the unexpected reappearance of her father. She’s got a lot on her plate.
I really liked Emily – while I couldn’t relate to her completely, she is very human and realistic. She fumbles around a bit in her relationships, and she demonstrates that fear of commitment isn’t just a “guy thing.” One of the things I liked most about her is her self-awareness; she’s definitely got issues, but she knows what they are, she has some idea where they came from, and she’s in therapy working on them. I got a sense that she was truly growing and maturing over the course of the story, and it felt like a natural development in the character (as opposed to orchestrated for plot purposes). It made me enjoy spending time with her.
Jill A. Davis used to write for David Letterman, so she certainly has experience with humor, and she uses it well here; it leavens some of the heavy things going on in her characters’ lives, and adds dimension to their development. Emily’s first-person narration often contains a wry note. And if you were wondering about the title, it’s Emily’s favorite response to questions that she’s not ready to think about yet – and the cover of the original hardcover makes it much clearer that it’s derived from that classic decision-making tool, the Magic 8 Ball.
This is an unusual book in that it turns out not to be as light as it first appears – and that’s a good thing, in my opinion, but at the same time, it’s upbeat and enjoyable. Another good thing is that a portion of the proceeds go to breast cancer organizations – so if you want to read it, please consider purchasing your copy.
Rating: 4/5
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