Happy Family

March 7, 2016
Barone’s debut novel explores the pursuit of human connection with pathos and humor. A baby girl, born and abandoned in 1962 in Trenton, N.J., impacts multiple families in the community. Forty years later, that baby, Cheri Matzner, is still searching for a sense of belonging. She never felt completely understood by her adoptive parents, and as an adult she attempted to find refuge in both her marriage and her career. But now she has trouble connecting to her husband, an aging filmmaker who hasn’t had much success since his first documentary, Disco, Doughnuts, and Dogma, and her career has also fallen short of her expectations—first as a cop on New York City’s Lower East Side and then in Chicago as a professor of ancient civilizations. With her future uncertain, Cheri mines her past for answers, uncovering family secrets along the way. As she learns more about her history, she begins to better understand those around her. The narrative, like the path Cheri takes on her quest for self-discovery, is long and meandering. Though the supporting characters are underdeveloped, Cheri is a compelling protagonist, making her journey into the past well worth following. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writers House.

March 1, 2016
In her debut novel, screenwriter, playwright, and film producer Barone uses a wide lens to capture Cheri Matzner's life, from a precarious beginning to a confident, peaceful middle age. A novel in four parts, the story begins with a list of significant news items from Aug. 5, 1962, followed by the scene of a teenage mother abandoning her baby shortly after giving birth. Miriam ducks out of the Trenton Family Clinic with her IV line filled with stolen morphine tucked under her dress. The baby is almost forgotten as readers are introduced to the fully, and humorously, characterized supporting players who take responsibility for her. Infant Cheri makes her way to a home where she is deeply loved and desperately wanted (by at least one parent), but the rest is not a happily-ever-after tale. Though Part II skips ahead 40 years, Cheri's significant experiences, as well as the events that influenced her from childhood through adulthood, are unpacked in the same comprehensive detail as her first weeks of life. The Matzner family story branches out into the fantastic and scandalous, yet the book is rooted in realistic, Everywoman-style struggles. Despite her momentous beginning, adult Cheri's dealings with career disappointment, relationship failure, and fertility struggles put her on a level with any average 21st-century woman. The novel is never rushed--every character, every setting, and every scene gets its due, painstakingly elaborated on so that the full picture of Cheri's life and those who made it is clear and complete. Cinematic in its scope, this novel takes readers on a broad, deep, and poignant journey alongside a tough, admirable woman and the varied characters who populate her life.

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December 1, 2015

Cheri Matzner is struggling with her academic career, marriage, and dashed hopes of motherhood. But what looms even larger is the need to come to terms with her adoptive family and abandonment by her teenage mother in the Sixties. From screenwriter/playwright/producer Barone; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

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