![]() ![]() ![]() The pleasure of popular fiction - be it the detective novel, the legal thriller or the paperback romance - always lies in its blend of the predictable and the surprising. ![]() Nevertheless, the very fact that Weiner always seems to be intelligently pondering the genre's formulas, whether or not she ends up lapsing into them, is what makes her novels enjoyable, easy reads that are also thought-provoking. ![]() This aspect of the novel is less successful, and works best as a kind of intermittent parody, such as when the two women stop to withdraw cash from Addie's savings account, and Val suggests that they rob the place (Valerie to teller: "We need ten Gs in unmarked, nonsequential bills." Addie: "Ignore her, she doesn't have a gun." Valerie: "Do so." Addie: "Valerie, that's a tampon case." ). Their trip, however, is not a genuine flight from the law (or, at least, not a very convincing one ) rather, the circumstances that lead to their departure seem contrived to advance the plot's main focus - Addie's gradual emergence from the lonely bubble in which she has secluded herself over the years. Weiner has said that in "Best Friends Forever" she wanted to answer the question, "What if Thelma and Louise didn't have to die?" The set of events that cause Addie and Val to hit the road in an ancient station wagon, trailing a cloud of blue smoke, do include rape and an act of retribution that sets police chief Novick on their trail. ![]()
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