December 27, 2005

Book: The Givenchy Code, Julie Kenner

I really enjoyed the opportunity of blurbing Julie Kenner’s Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom. So when I spotted Kenner’s The Givenchy Code, I figured I’d like it, too. I was right.

Kenner’s protagonist, New Yorker Melanie “Mel” Prescott is a sucker for brand names, not an addiction I normally care for, but there is so much more to Mel than an obsession with designer footwear. She is also an accomplished code-breaker and math whiz. You would think that since she’s blessed with a great figure and a lot of brains, Mel would be a focused Type-A person, poised on the edge of a great career . . . but she’s not. There’s a curious lack of confidence in this young woman, no matter how many advantages she seems to have.

Events conspire to challenge Mel in a terrifying way. A lunatic millionaire has noticed Mel’s high score on an on-line assassination game, and when he dies, events are set in motion that cause Mel to become the prey in a real-life game based on the fictional one she played. Fortunately for Mel, she is appointed a protector, Matthew Stryker, who has found out the hard way that the game must be taken seriously. This capable man joins forces with Mel to defeat the killer determined to win the game and claim the money prize.

Julie Kenner’s work could be classified as chick lit, but that would be dismissive. Kenner is a writer of great ability, and her characters live and breath and have dimensions. I’m really anticipating reading some of her other work, and I highly recommend both Carpe Demon and The Givenchy Code.

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In my last blog, I told you of the Christmas I planned to have. Now, let me tell you about the Christmas I actually had. The Sunday before Christmas, when I was knee-deep in church plans and house cleaning, I got news that my mother had had a stroke and was in the hospital in Memphis. I dropped everything and drove up there, to find that the stroke, which was classified as “light,” had affected her left side quite a bit. I don’t want to see a heavy stroke, if this was a light one.

I spent many hours in her hospital room, watching her struggle, and she regained a little bit of her muscle control every day. My mother is brave and determined, and she will fight this. Now she’s been moved to rehabilitation, I am back home, and life is picking back up where it left off. My husband brought all the presents and the kids up to my mother’s house, so we could have Christmas together, and then we went to Memphis to visit her in the hospital; so we were all together on the day, just not in the way we had planned. Once again, while I was looking in a different direction, I was blindsided by a drastic change.

My mother is setting a great example for my children, whether or not she will ever realize it. When I commented on her determination to re-learn how to use her left arm, my oldest son asked, “What else could she do?” I have seen first-hand what she could do instead of exercising in rehab. I’ve known stroke victims who give up entirely, who (as Job is advised to do) “curse God and die.” But not my mother -- in her opinion, independence means not causing trouble for other people, doing for herself. And that’s what she’s going to do. This seems a strangely old-fashioned reaction, but one I admire intensely.

Now, what I have to do to get myself back on MY track, is to work like an ant, and get GRAVE SURPRISE finished. Send good thoughts and prayers my way! I hope all of you had a peaceful Christmas and had a lot of time with those you love.

Charlaine Harris