Title: The Everyday Housewife: Murder, Drugs, and Ironing
Author: Bryan Foreman
Publisher: iUniverse Editor’s Choice
ISBN: 9781450234726
Pages: 221, Paperback & Hardcover
Genre: Humorous Fiction
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
That does an Oklahoma City housewife and mother of two teenagers have in common with a New York City feminist author, drug user, murderer, and Mafia accomplice? When you find out, you’ll be as impressed with The Everyday Housewife: Murder, Drugs, and Ironing by Bryan Foreman as I was. Foreman wrote an iUniverse Editor’s Choice award winning, out-of-the-box literary novel going far beyond just being called creative. In fact, the old adage about not judging a book by its cover actually set the bar high for me as I adored his choice of cover art, graphics and comic overtone. “Wow,” and “Over-the-top” is all I can say about his work – a definite home run piece of wordsmithing genius.The Everyday Housewife truly is a multi-dimensional novel, as Bryan Foreman created his character, Katharine Beaumont as being an author herself. He brings her writing within his novel, creating a “book within a book,” so to speak. Then Foreman interleaves Katharine’s thoughts, her morals, her steadfast fortitude and uniquely individual decision making reasoning into ancillary tangents within his story, creating a reading experience guaranteed to entertain and inveigle the most sophisticated of audiences into overwhelming accolades of praise. As for the details of the storyline, perhaps those are best left undisclosed; however the sequence of events, the people of New York City, their attitude and personalities are cleverly depicted with terse and focused character development, credible circumstances, and enjoyable moments of interaction. The book moves along at lightning speed, with a contemporary stylized attitude of a maternally mature woman acting out what can be called childish behavior; however it is postured as being understandable and even justified. These remarks may be considered “riddles” to some reading this review, but it is for your own enjoyment to read this book with an impressionable mind, not knowing the synopsis.
I have become an instant fan of Bryan Foreman’s work, and I envision The Everyday Housewife becoming not a blockbuster movie, but perhaps a Broadway play. It circles back to a point where I don’t see a sequel in the making, but who knows what lies on the other side of Bryan Foreman’s keyboard. One last detail of the book not viewable on the cover is the back cover photograph. It is an ordinary picture looking up at some of the New York City skyscrapers from street level, not an especially planned shot but more like one would take while walking the city’s sidewalks. This is how people from “out of town” are depicted by New Yorkers – standing out of the crowd as they gawk with their mouths ajar and heads cocked back walking while looking at the skyline rather than the sidewalk. A perfect ending touch of intrinsic comic relief to this brilliant book.
