Promiscuous Unbound

May 15, 2003
Vivienne Yellow is an American woman with an adventurous past, having spent her years growing up with her father, a famous, much televised naturalist who went just about everywhere. Her past also consists of sordid affairs, even lasting through her marriage to a well-known British television producer. Her past catches up to her as she lies, miserable, in a French hospital after being hit by a truck on a Parisian boulevard. Unable to move, her only company is a teenager named Sonia, who is poor and disillusioned about her life and her own failing heart. Vivienne tells Sonia about her growing up and her troubled marriage. Together they obsess over a fellow patient, a refugee from Kosovo, who quickly ends the misery that they all have in common. As Vivienne begins to recover, she examines her own life to decide if it really is worth living--as she traces her relationship with her father, with men, and with her own (now badly functioning) body. The revelations of her self-analysis come together and make her a much stronger woman.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)