Reading Lorna Landvik is a true delight! I read Oh My Stars! at the beach a couple weeks ago and rediscovered my love for this author of wonderfully quirky characters and stories.
The heroine in Oh My Stars is Violet. She is so unique, so complex, she’s like a cool breeze that finds you on a sultry, cooker of a day. The characters are not mere eccentrics pasted into a story, begging to be noticed. No, the characters are slowly built, carefully crafted, revealed in the reader's peripheral vision.
I laughed out loud and I also hid some tears behind my sunglasses over the course of this wonderful story. I have to come back to that first word I used to describe it: Delight. It’s not so much an easy, light read, but the emotional surprises are what evoke that delight. Lorna Landvik has a way of writing about meaty topics in a way that is both humorous and lighthearted, but at the same time serious and pointed.
There is a cupcake shop near my home who makes very tasty treats. Last time I was in the shop I saw a sign on the wall: Icing Shots, $1. I can only imagine how good that would taste on the way down, but how spiky the sugar-headache would feel afterward. No, I prefer my icing atop a delicious piece of cake. It’s richer. The flavor is much more balanced and just . . . right.
Lorna Landvik writes like a good cupcake. It’s not mere fluff. Not like an icing shot. The story is deep and rich and balanced.
When was the last time you closed a book and said to yourself, “Well, that was delightful!”? Read Oh My Stars! and I think you just might.
By the way, also try Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik. And especially you Minnesotans up there, try Patty Jane’s House of Curl.
