No Kidding

I heartily recommend No Kidding by Wendy Tokunaga for a book group selection. It is very well written fiction that provides an indepth character study of a 35-year old woman who wants to choose her own path to happiness. Because the topic is provocative, it leads to very active group discussion.Even if you do not belong to a book group, I recommend this for both men and women. It's good, thoughtful entertainment.

At last, a novel in which the heroine has genuine "issues," specifically: whether to marry, whom to marry, whether to have a baby. Tokunaga has written a riveting story which certainly makes the reader think. She begins her tale by rejecting the notion, out of hand, that only by bearing children can a woman be fulfilled.Along the way to resolving this question--if, in fact, there can be any resolution--Tokunaga exhibits an impressive range of expertise, from old movies to film preservation, from computers and Silicon Valley to wine tastings. Her heroine is an engaging one and the characters of the supporting cast are better developed than in the typical woman's fiction.If there's one significant difference here from other women's fiction, it was the failure to display exactly why this particular heroine was so lovable that men practically dropped at her feet. Yet that answer really has no impact on the more important issues addressed in the book.NO KIDDING is a fascinating story, and the only flaw was grammatical. She has persistent problems with the past tense and with the proper use of subject or object in a sentence. (Who, whom, I, me.) I hope that Ms. Tokunaga writes many more novels, and I hope that she finds a capable editor before her next work is published; her storytelling skills deserve better.NO KIDDING addresses some very important issues which almost always are otherwise ignored, and it does so in a lively style which draws in the reader.

One of the first rules in fiction writing is to create a sympathetic character, one with whom readers can identify. It may be for this reason that so few novelists have tried to create interesting, empathetic childfree women characters, thinking that the majority of readers cannot relate to such a character. However, in the novel, No Kidding by Wendy Tokunaga, not only do we have a sympathetic childfree character with whom it is easy to relate, but an interesting, intelligent, thoughtful, compassionate, caring female protagonist.In the tradition of the best fiction, there are several crises, and each one creates more pressure and problems for Audrey until she has resolved them all in due course of the novel. Using emails, old postal letters, shower invitations and the like are a unique way of moving the story along too. And yes, the story has a happy ending . . . just not an expected one, or a traditional one. All in all, one of the best novels I've read in some time. I don't know why there aren't more such positive, empathetic childfree characters in fiction. . . but I do think there will be in the future as authors begin to show others that the childfree are not stereotypical shrews or selfish, self-centered, uncaring people. No Kidding is a good example in that direction, and I highly recommend it, whether you are childfree or not.

Assistant Manager for Technical Support at a hi-tech firm, thirty-five years old Audrey Mills wonders if something is going around. It seems every woman she knows is either pregnant or having just given birth to a perpetual poopster. At the office and in her personal life, every childbearing female that Audrey knows is doing the next generation bit. Audrey is contented in her live-in relationship with Doug, but still wonders why some unknown thing seems missing. To Wendy, it better not be her biological clock ticking away, even if her own mother turns traitor and demands grandchildren. Perhaps it is her desire to work with film and not just see flicks. Technical writer Aldo Pucetti joins the Kentucky Kernel project team as a short-term contractor. Aldo is the perfect hunk, kind and gorgeous, and tempts her beyond reason to go for her dream and give up hi-tech security business. However, Audrey who is attracted to Aldo, knows she loves Dough or why was she living with him for seven years? NO KIDDING is an amusing modern day relationship drama that centers on choices and decisions. The story line works because the bewildered but intelligent Audrey comes across as a real person lovingly struggling to make up her mind between a spoonful of magic and a cup of security. NO KIDDING, Wendy Tokunaga's novel is worth reading.Harriet Klausner

Although the first chapter is saccharine and fairly sickening -- the main character is beset on all sides by baybees and women with baby rabies, this book becomes very good when she grows a spine, takes charge of her own life, quits living to please everyone else, and decides what she wants out of life. This is the first novel I've ever read where there is a childfree heroine, and I for one want to see more books like this. I cheered for the woman when she dumped her emotionally shut down boyfriend; I cheered when the author had the main character and her friends talking straight about what pregnancy and childcare was really like (hard, unremitting and not always rewarding). As a childfree woman myself, this novel is priceless. I intend to pass it around to my niece, my students and anyone else I know. Although I've always been an early articulator, I was keenly interested to read about a woman who was a fence-sitter. Way to go Wendy Tokunaga! Please write more! ;)