Short description
To the outside world, Sarah and Oliver Watson had the perfect marriage. Happy and successful, with three beautiful children, they seemed to have it all. But under the surface, Sarah felt lost, empty and inadequate. And one Christmas, after eighteen years of marriage, she walked out. Left alone, Oliver struggles to cope with raising his 3 children.
Long description
Oliver Watson has worked hard to build a safe, predictable world. But suddenly it seems to dissolve around him. The marriage he thought was perfect crumbles after eighteen years. His mother is killed in an untimely accident, leaving his father newly widowed and trying, at seventy-two, to build a new world for himself. Oliver's eldest son rejects him and reaches out towards a life of his own, a life he is not mature enough to handle. Melissa, his daughter, unequivocally blames her father for her mother's desertion, while Sam, the 'baby', is too shaken to deal with it all. Now the only parent, Daddy must somehow cope with his troubled family, even as he explores an unknown world of new responsibilities, new women, and new experiences that are funny, sad, touching, scary, poignant, but always real.
Review
Steel's latest plump Twinkle is about a nice, nice dad of three, and is filled with juicy, domestic head-bangers. Sarah and Oliver Watson (advertising dynamo) have been married 18 years, producing two teen-agers and a nine-year-old reared in a storybook town in suburban New York. But now Sarah, who'd chucked a writing career for all this, wants out. Oliver has it all. When do I get mine? demands Sarah, who then splits for Cambridge and a Harvard M.A. Poor Oliver. Daddy-ing-to-the-optimum and career don't mix, and troubles swarm in: his mother is dying of Alzheimer's, and, worse, 17-year-old Benjamin, a glory boy headed for the best colleges, drops out to care for featherweight Sandra, who's expecting his child. Oliver moves to Manhattan with the diminished family, while Benjamin honorably attempts to support Sandra on minimum wages. In the meantime, Oliver's good friend Daphne soothes Oliver's wildly grinding gears (nonsexually), and he has a frenzied affair with young Megan. Never a dull moment: Oliver's now-widower father begins courting; Benjamin's baby Alex arrives, and Sandra's out to cause crises. Then there's a move to L.A., along with a gloriously happy fade-out with another woman who chooses between career and coziness. Steel continues to do what she does very, very well. Stock by the yard. (Kirkus Reviews)