True Confections

October 5, 2009
In this winning, offbeat tale, Weber unfurls Alice Tatnall’s insecure Unitarian adolescence, which leads to her approval-seeking adulthood as the wife of candy heir Howard “Howdy” Ziplinsky. Alice has felt ostracized by family and peers after accidentally burning down a classmate’s house as a teenager. As a result, her college acceptance is rescinded, and she ends up working at Zip’s Candies, where she meets and falls in love with the owner’s son, a Jewish man 10 years her senior. After marrying Howard, Alice takes to the candy business quickly and has two kids. Alice’s story, framed as an affidavit, is a pleasure to read and full of small and not so small surprises, including the near-tragedy at the candy company that has much to do with why she’s writing an affidavit in the first place. Alice is an immediately lovable narrator, and her narration eventually bears hints about its possible lack of credibility, giving readers even more of a reason to keep turning pages. This story of love, life and sweets is a genuine treat.

November 1, 2009
Sweet and sour tales of life in a New England candy factory.

Perhaps Weber wanted to embrace the same premise—intricate oral history of a doomed manufacturing plant, laced with family drama—that underpinned her previous novel (Triangle, 2006, etc.). While similarly amorphous and rambling, this lighter text adds enough satiric bite to make it slightly more palatable. It takes the form of a legal affidavit by Alice Tatnall Ziplinsky, who recalls her 33-year career at the Zip's Candies factory, starting with her initial infatuation."A certain burnt sugar and chocolate aroma hung in the air, that marvelous, inevitable, ineffable, just-right aura of Zip's Candies, that unique blend of sweetness and pleasure and something else, a deep note of something rich and exotic and familiar…I have loved that smell every day of my life from then to now," Alice confesses. After revealing herself as the local"Arson Girl" who burned down a classmate's house during an adolescent fit, Alice examines her troubled relationship with Howard"Howdy" Ziplinsky, heir to the candy throne, and her subsequent marriage into the convoluted family. The novel's most successful elements are its most uncomfortable ones. Alice reveals trade secrets like the roots of signature product Little Sammies, which take their name from the controversial children's book Little Black Sambo, and the company-ending Little Susies, a white confection snuggled uncomfortably between two Little Sammies, attracting charges of racism. Weber's pointed deconstruction of the beloved children's classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is also bracing. Unfortunately, the narrative frequently bogs down in interminable, long-winded accounts of the family history and the subsequent fight for control between Howdy and his greedy sister Irene, ending in yet another conflagration.

Too often wastes the tasty potential of its sticky setting.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 10, 2009
Alice Tatnall Ziplinsky knows a lot about the history of Zip's Candies and the Ziplinsky family, and she lays it all out for an affidavit, starting with her taking a job at the family-owned New Haven, CT, confectionary (after unwittingly pleading guilty to arson). She falls in love with and marries the owner's son, Howard "Howdy" Ziplinsky, learning later that Howdy had been bribed by his parents to marry her in an effort to prevent him from moving to Madagascar, home to the family's vanilla and cacao plantations-and the two children he conceived with a cousin. Alice grows close to Howdy's father, Sam, who appreciates her business sense and passion for Zip's Candies and wills her a quarter of the business. After Alice's divorce, this inheritance turns into a controlling share and leads to a legal battle with Howdy's sister. Verdict Mixing humor with sweets, Weber's (The Music Lesson; Triangle) latest novel is a nicely crafted literary tale about an enterprising Jewish family and the woman who becomes an integral part of their lives and business. Sure to attract the author's fans as well as readers who enjoy family sagas.-Karen Core, Detroit P.L.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2009
In her fifth novel, after Triangle (2006), Weber unleashes a wacky comic sensibility. Ostracized by her high-school clique and denied admission to college after accidentally setting fire to a classmates home, Alice Tatnall applies for a job at Zips Candies on a whim and finds her lifes calling. Immediately taken under the wing of candy magnate Sam Ziplinsky, Alice learns the ins and outs of the candy-making business, from mixing the proper proportions of the ingredients to repairing the ancient production line that churns out the companys reliable moneymakers, Little Sammies, Tigermelts, and Mumbo Jumbos. She further cements her place within the company and the family by marrying Sams son and heir Howard Howdy Ziplinsky and bearing him two children. Billed as an affidavit, Alices slyly funny, frequently self-serving, and perhaps unreliable narration leads to some unexpected surprises when Alices old nickname, Arson Girl, comes back to haunt her in a big way. Filled with candy lore, impassioned critiques of chocolate, and Alices one-of-a-kind takes on marriage and family, this is sweet reading for fans of the offbeat.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)