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Rootie Kazootie: A Novel
Richard's married to Caroline, but how long can he endure her constant chatter? When cool, calm Cynthia tempts Richard with sex, money, and peace and quiet, crazy Caroline goes on the warpath. Rootie Kazootie was a children's television show in the early 1950s. The show was broadcast live from New York City on Saturday mornings. Rootie also appeared in comic books and Little Golden Books during that period. In this novel, the title refers to a character who shares Rootie's personality.
- GenresFiction
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
16 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 4, 2023
written July 1994
Quill & Quire's reviewer is clear that Naumoff's "occasional pronouncements on the deep structures of human nature might profitably have been excised." The New York Times Book Review's reader finds the "omniscient observer [who] frequently breaks into the story with comments from on high, distracting and distancing." The Publishers Weekly reader spots a more general problem -- "fiction delivered into print too soon." In total contrast, Marianne Gingher (to whom one of his later books is dedicated) reports that she read this "brilliant comedy of errant romance so obsessively that [her] copy's still hot to the touch" and finds Naumoff "plaintive, madcap, utterly seductive" {prompting me to wonder if it's the writing or the writer she's talking about}.
I bring all this up to confess that my copy is not glowing and neither is my review, but neither am I clear about what went wrong in Naumoff's writing or my reading. In the book's very last lines, Naumoff speaks for many of us when he says, "It was so easy to go wrong in these modern times. It really was" (281). Like his characters, I am looking for clear rights and wrongs, should and shouldn't haves, and like them (and unlike those confident critics quoted above) I'm never quite sure exactly where I or anyone went wrong. I yearn to be able to explain my life to myself, or Naumoff's errors to him and you, but I'm just not sure. Instead I'm left feeling vaguely uneasy, as if there's a missed opportunity lying around here somewhere. I remember that the book began with Caroline having lost her keys twice in a week, and me saying, "how dumb." By the end of the book I don't exactly like or even sympathize with Caroline, but I know that I have trouble keeping up with more important things than keys.
What interested me in Silk Hope NC is mostly missing from Rootie -- those authorial intrusions that tell me what the world is really like. Every once in a while we get one, like on p. 243 when Naumoff tells us we look better in clothes than naked. This is news? But mostly we get Caroline talking. And I think I have decided that I would rather listen to Naumoff than to Caroline. But mostly I like this book when people DO things -- when Caroline drives the tractor into Cynthia's house is obviously the heart of the book, but even Caroline collapsing on the sidewalk is better than Caroline telling her life story to a stranger in the bar. And Caroline following Jeep the wonder dog into that magical clearing in the woods is better than Caroline driving Richard crazy with her chatter. Like Richard, I get tired of her motor-mouth.
But I also get tired of trying to figure out whose words and feelings I am reading. When I come upon chauvinistic or judgmental comments, I have to stop in mid-snarl or grimace to determine if this is really Richard the character instead of Naumoff the author. Remember all the comments about women looking good on the outside and being so messed up inside? Why is it just women? Richard certainly loses it at the end, but no one makes comments about how dumb MEN are.
I like the indeterminate ending -- is the magic house Eden or a pot farm? Is Caroline changed forever or still totally out of control? Naumoff's offer of both possibilities is clever and satisfying. If we could just get below the chatter to the people . . .
Quill & Quire's reviewer is clear that Naumoff's "occasional pronouncements on the deep structures of human nature might profitably have been excised." The New York Times Book Review's reader finds the "omniscient observer [who] frequently breaks into the story with comments from on high, distracting and distancing." The Publishers Weekly reader spots a more general problem -- "fiction delivered into print too soon." In total contrast, Marianne Gingher (to whom one of his later books is dedicated) reports that she read this "brilliant comedy of errant romance so obsessively that [her] copy's still hot to the touch" and finds Naumoff "plaintive, madcap, utterly seductive" {prompting me to wonder if it's the writing or the writer she's talking about}.
I bring all this up to confess that my copy is not glowing and neither is my review, but neither am I clear about what went wrong in Naumoff's writing or my reading. In the book's very last lines, Naumoff speaks for many of us when he says, "It was so easy to go wrong in these modern times. It really was" (281). Like his characters, I am looking for clear rights and wrongs, should and shouldn't haves, and like them (and unlike those confident critics quoted above) I'm never quite sure exactly where I or anyone went wrong. I yearn to be able to explain my life to myself, or Naumoff's errors to him and you, but I'm just not sure. Instead I'm left feeling vaguely uneasy, as if there's a missed opportunity lying around here somewhere. I remember that the book began with Caroline having lost her keys twice in a week, and me saying, "how dumb." By the end of the book I don't exactly like or even sympathize with Caroline, but I know that I have trouble keeping up with more important things than keys.
What interested me in Silk Hope NC is mostly missing from Rootie -- those authorial intrusions that tell me what the world is really like. Every once in a while we get one, like on p. 243 when Naumoff tells us we look better in clothes than naked. This is news? But mostly we get Caroline talking. And I think I have decided that I would rather listen to Naumoff than to Caroline. But mostly I like this book when people DO things -- when Caroline drives the tractor into Cynthia's house is obviously the heart of the book, but even Caroline collapsing on the sidewalk is better than Caroline telling her life story to a stranger in the bar. And Caroline following Jeep the wonder dog into that magical clearing in the woods is better than Caroline driving Richard crazy with her chatter. Like Richard, I get tired of her motor-mouth.
But I also get tired of trying to figure out whose words and feelings I am reading. When I come upon chauvinistic or judgmental comments, I have to stop in mid-snarl or grimace to determine if this is really Richard the character instead of Naumoff the author. Remember all the comments about women looking good on the outside and being so messed up inside? Why is it just women? Richard certainly loses it at the end, but no one makes comments about how dumb MEN are.
I like the indeterminate ending -- is the magic house Eden or a pot farm? Is Caroline changed forever or still totally out of control? Naumoff's offer of both possibilities is clever and satisfying. If we could just get below the chatter to the people . . .
January 27, 2020
This book's impact on my life is a long story, and isn't that kind of crazy? Considering the book is sort of comedy, but really... isn't, though, either. Anyone who has read it and enjoyed it will understand. It has funny moments, but if you've ever struggled with your own impulses to act out, then you get it. At the time, I never did. I was someone who hid from my impulses, who never disrespected the person who had control over me, and every choice I made seemed to make me more of a victim. This book helped me escape from a bad situation in more than just the usual brief figurative break from reality. I made it, I'm out. I disappeared.
December 1, 2007
This book is just the life of this wacky woman, it's just fun.
February 27, 2014
Quickly: Great writing style; interesting sentences; slow story
November 17, 2016
Ugh! Will not be finishing this book. There are so many other good books waiting in the wings. Cutting my losses and moving on.
August 4, 2011
This was one of the funniest, laugh out loud books I have ever read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews