2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas
It’s 6 P.M. and I’m at the Center for Fiction at 47th and 5th in New York City. There are a lot of murder-mystery titles and alleged antique classics, but not much that I recognize, so I ask the clerk to pick me out his favorite. He is sporting a large, rustic safety pin as an earring and working at a bookstore, so he is already infinitely more interesting than I am, rendering his opinions trustworthy. He shrugs his shoulders as if to coolly say, “I’m busy ordering thumbtacks for my other ear, but you look kind of pathetic so I’ll let you pick my brain.” Instead, he says, “Would you like a free one?” Lol, would I like a free book? I did not die and go to heaven. I am in a store where there is a section of free books. There is also a reading room, library, and writing workspace on the floors above. Needless to say, I gave this place my first ever Yelp review.
Enough about the bookstore and more about the book itself. I hate cats but I love pajamas, so I had mixed feelings from the get-go. The author, Marie-Helene Bertino, was an Emerging Writer Fellow at the Center for Fiction—a fellowship designed to supply early-stage writers with resources to kick start their career. Since then, her writing has steadily gained recognition and the program seems to have successfully done what it intended to do.
The story is cleverly written in a time-stamp format—rather than using chapters, it is divided into consecutive time points, starting at 7 A.M. and progressively trucking along to 6:30 A.M. the following day. Set in Philadelphia on the eve of Christmas Eve, the novel rotates through the perspectives of three main characters:
1) Madeline Altimari: a sassy, self-sufficient, motherless, nine-year-old with dreams of becoming a jazz singer.
2) Sarina Greene: a middle-aged divorcee who is largely unsure of herself.
3) Jack Lorca: club owner who runs with a rowdy musician crowd and is forced to make compromises in order to save his business.
Of course, the three individuals are interconnected—Sarina is Madeline’s fifth-grade teacher and both characters find themselves at Lorca’s club (the Cat’s Pajamas) at…you guessed it…2 A.M.
Each character is extraordinarily likable in their own unique way. Madeline is a foul-mouthed brat but she’s unapologetic, which solicits some respect. Sarina is nervous and feels that she is always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, but she has a good heart, which earns her some empathy. Lorca is not necessarily the model father, but he is willing to evolve and sacrifice for the things and the people that he loves, which grants him some leeway.
On the other hand, everyone seems a tad overly suave, and it annoys me. Yes, it’s fiction and I can use my imagination. But with something like this—a novel that seems intended to capture people’s imperfect lives and the emotions that are tied with that—I want it to feel a little less whimsical. It comes from a selfish place— I like it when a character’s pitfalls and triumphs clarify my own feelings about life and my place in it. Not everything can be so smooth. It’s like the first time Jennifer Lawrence tripped and everyone said, “Omg, she’s so charming and funny and real” and then she fell a bazillion more times and everyone was like, “This is bullshit.” Moral of the story: the charm in the novel is a little too contrived. The dialogue reads like a light-hearted dance when at times I wanted to feel more grounded.
Overall, Bertino’s debut novel gets 3 out of 5 flames. I look forward to her next book and hope that she can still retain her cleverness and suavity without overdoing it.
If you enjoyed this review, please consider purchasing this book from my Amazon Associates link: https://amzn.to/38fFLWK. The commissions I receive from your purchase help pay for the costs of running this website. Thanks for your support!
