Live a Little: A Novel

Kim Green
5 Spot (2008)
ISBN 9780446697934
Reviewed by April Sullivan for Reader Views (9/08)

 

“Live a Little” by Kim Green tells the story of Raquel Rose, a suburban housewife and mother of two teenagers in Northern California, who is diagnosed with breast cancer. As expected of any book with this premise, the story is dramatic. But this is no ordinary woman and no ordinary book. As suddenly as Raquel is diagnosed with cancer, she is just as suddenly undiagnosed. It was all a clerical mishap. Raquel does not have breast cancer. As relieving as this is, life is not as simple as it seems, when Raquel chooses to delay telling her family and lets the mistake build into a full-blown lie.

The character of Raquel Rose is so over the top, yet so real. I could never imagine someone really pretending to have cancer for the local fame it brings her. At the same time, when you add up the sum of small actions in Raquel’s life, it all seems plausible. One day her husband, kids, sister, and mother are all ignoring her and taking her for granted. The next, she is pampered and noticed. Who would want to give that up?

Author Kim Green has written a gem of a book here. She writes about the large and the small tragedies of everyday life, while keeping a witty, funny edge to it all. One minute I am drawn into the drama of a life threatening illness, the next giggling at Raquel’s untimely thoughts of sex. So many sentences in this book made me laugh out loud. Kim Green’s style is contemporary and right-on. She lets her characters say what most of us only dare to think. For example, Raquel on the topic of a woman’s best day of her life:

“Ask any mom what her best day was, and she’ll tell you – as she peels her newborn off her shredded nipple or locks herself in the bathroom to escape her haranguing teenager – that the number one slot belongs to the day she delivered her children into the waiting arms of her OB. She will be lying. That slot belongs, by rights, to the day she received notification of her acceptance to NYU Law, consumed five flawless piña coladas, and bedded the elusive Trinidadian underwear model on her belly-pierced-flashing roommate’s Amish quilt.”

It is the raw truthfulness of this book that keeps the reader hooked. You don’t have to be a mother or housewife to enjoy this book or to relate to the characters. I was able to relate to Raquel as a woman, an artist, a sister, a daughter, and a friend. “Live a Little” by Kim Green is for that imperfect person in all of us.

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