Mean Season

The publicity suggests that its central premise is about a movie star forced to stay in a fan's house in a small West Virginia town. Maybe I'm snobbish but that put me off and relegated it to the romance category. I was expecting an unlikely story full of clichés and slushy sentimentality. Its central plot is not really about the movie star but a realistic and finely crafted tale of a woman forced to stay home to look after a brain-injured brother and a depressed mother. It is told in a spare pitch-perfect prose with never a wasted word.. I was reminded of Bobby Anne Mason, and even Eudora Welty. "Back in Momma's worst times I'd call Tommy or Susan for help but neither ever offered to head home for even a week to make dinner or check which bills were least overdue. (That was around the same time the idea of me going off to a full-time college stopped being talked about like it was a good thing, something that might really happen.)" Even the movie actor angle is not entirely fantastic (especially with Martha Stewart in minimum security in West Virginia). Joshua is a soap opera actor making a movie om location in the area, convicted of a second DUI, and sentenced to house arrest with work and AA release. I've got to admit that it is warm and fuzzy and ends happily, so that it won't get reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement or the New York Review of Books but it contains better writing than many more pretentious works.

This is absolutely one of the best Red Dress Ink books that I have read. Hands down. (And I've read MANY!) At first, the idea of a celebrity moving in (temporarily) with the prez of his fan club in middle of nowhere West Virginia seems kind of corny, right? But Cochran's Mean Season is so much more than what first meets the reader's eye. We see a protagonist, Leanne, who is struggling to find herself within a dysfunctional family. Her life is as real as it gets--and she doesn't live in L.A. or NYC and doesn't work in publishing. We see the price of fame and fortune and "worldly" success in her houseguest, Josh, who has struggled to overcome similar small-town roots. We see the consequences of small-town life and its positives and negatives. Finally, we see characters who move us and make us appreciate however "together" we might be. This is a highly entertaining and engaging read. Enjoy!

The dramatic situation of Mean Season is immediately interesting, but it's the earthy complexity of the characters that kept me reading. The narrator's voice convincingly and appealingly reflects her unsophisticated origins, her native intelligence, and the media-speak that pervades every hollow of our land these days. The elements of any good Cinderella story are here, including a dark side, but Cochran spins them her way to create anticipation and satisfyngly unpredictable outcomes.

Because I thought the premise sounded mildly amusing, and the book was given to me, I picked up Mean Season a few weeks ago. I am so glad I did! I was expecting a light book and, when I read where it took place, I expected the typical annoying stereotypes of people in small towns. Not so. Though it at first seems light, the book actually deals with some interesting and important issues, such as finding your purpose in life, developing self esteem, treating others fairly, seizing the moment, and treating your family and friends with love and kindness. It even made me teary-eyed in a few spots. Despite all these layers, though, the book moved quickly and had many genuine laugh-out-loud moments. I heartily recommend Mean Season.

I loved the characters and living in LA la land myself, I particularly enjoyed the storyline. ; ) Bottom line is this: I enjoyed it tremendously. It's a marvelous debut and I look forward to her next one. I recommend it