Lunch at the Piccadilly

August 25, 2003
Edgerton writes with warmth about the plight of the elderly in his latest, an ensemble portrait that tracks the ups and downs of a group of nursing home residents at the Rosehaven Convalescent Center. The central figure is contractor Carl Turnage, who devotes most of his time to caring for his dotty, eccentric aunt, Lil Olive, after a fall puts her in convalescent care. The friendly, rambunctious Lil quickly strikes up several friendships at the home, organizing a series of cute but ill-advised adventures as the various patients battle to keep their driving rights and other privileges. Turnage, meanwhile, becomes involved in an adventure of his own with another resident, a flamboyant preacher-cum-musician named L. Ray Flowers who talks him into playing bass in a duo after he sets some of Turnage's lyrics to music. Edgerton hits the mark with his quirky characterizations, and his sympathy for his subjects is evident as they struggle to retain their dignity through their twilight years. Much of the humor is stuffy and outdated, and the comic material involving elderly driving is off-key. But Edgerton compensates with a strong finish: Lil is suddenly hospitalized, and Turnage is forced to come to terms with her mortality, even as a lurid incident involving Flowers's flagrant behavior with the female residents forces another crisis on him. This underplotted novel isn't one of Edgerton's best efforts, but it remains a solid, touching treatment of a neglected subject. 25-city author tour.

July 1, 2003
Carl's mother has passed on, and his favorite aunt, who never had any children of her own, has landed in the Rosehaven Convalescence Center, where he visits her regularly. The poignancy of old people giving up their apartments and their independence is mingled with the hilarity of the goings-on at Rosehaven once elderly preacher L. Ray Flowers tries to organize the ladies there into a "movement." Carl's kindness to all the residents and his awkward attempts at romance with social worker Anna reveal his gentle humanity. Despite their failing eyesight and lack of mobility, Aunt Lil and her buddies manage to (mistakenly) steal a car for a final, disastrous shopping spree. The novel blends humor and sadness to a remarkable degree. Edgerton, the author of such fine books as Raney and Walking Across Egypt, is a treasure.-Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., VA

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2003
With wry humor and priceless dialogue, Edgerton (" Walking across Egypt, "1987) pulls off the near impossible--he turns a nursing home into the most convivial of establishments. The halls of Rosehaven Convalescent Home are far from grim. Mrs. Maudie Lowe and Mrs. Beatrice Satterwhite are engaged in a heated debate about whether Clara Cochran removes her glass eyeball at night. Preacher L. Ray Flowers has got the ladies all worked up about his idea for a new religious movement--making nursing homes and churches interchangeable ("nurches"). Eightysomething Lil Olive insists that she is perfectly capable of driving, even though she keeps looking for stoplights on telephone poles. And then there's Lil's patient nephew, Carl, whose lifelong dream is fulfilled when L. Ray teaches him to play bass guitar and puts music to his lyrics ("How Come I Miss You When You're with Me All the Time?"). With equal parts skill and whimsy, Edgerton creates a screwball portrait of this "life after life," effortlessly convincing us that it's better, " much" better, to laugh than to cry about it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)