A friend said, “I am heading out of town for a while. Suggest a book; give me my literary summer fling. Make it something funny but profound and unforgettable.”
A literary summer fling, she said, and I thought of this book, because The Darren Effect is the best-looking book I’ve ever laid eyes on, and, a truly unforgettable read. I don’t remember every book I read in 2008, but this one’s never left me. So I suggested Libby Creelman’s The Darren Effect. Described by Lisa Moore as “Pepper-hot and Coolly comic,” it fit her request for the perfect literary summer fling.
The Globe and Mail said it best: “ The novel marries the tragic and comic to wonderful effect in developing the complexity of ordinary lives.”
With its scenes of women stalking a man stalking birds in the woods, and a weird teenager who crawls on all fours, I would have to re-read the novel, twice, to do it justice, but I think its publisher does as good a job as possible in pitching the book:
“An affair. A marriage. Accidental encounters. A secret spying mission masquerading as research for a short story on desire. This is the rich ground from which The Darren Effect springs, carrying us through the complexities, tragedies, and unanticipated triumphs of love and loss. The Darren Effect is a miraculous novel, in which the characters coalesce and crisscross in awkward, surprising, and hilarious ways. Damaged by grief and circumstance, Heather, Isabella, Darren, and Benny offer each other heartbreak, love, and redemption at a time when all previous points of reference have vanished. Creelman’s writing snaps with wit. Spinning a cunning plot, she upends reader’s expectations in a devastatingly funny novel that entertains with ticklish tenderness and keen perception.”
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