Straight Up

by Catriona McCloud

Verity Drummond—florist by trade and a fantasist by nature—deals with the end of her marriage by writing Straight Up , a novel in which a man on a mountaineering expedition (bearing a striking resemblance to her ex) dies all alone in a hole in the ice, starving, wretched, and with his broken bones poking through his skin. Meanwhile in Hollywood, Jasmine and Patrice want to adapt Straight Up for the screen. When Verity goes to meet them, somehow, between the dead man on the mountain and her inability to admit that she's just another divorcee like the rest of California, she becomes The Widow. The buzz around the script, now "based on a true story," begins to grow and with it, the biggest rolling snowball and the tightest tangled web of Verity's life. The story whirlwinds from LA to NYC—and while the voice as is sharp as it is dark, there is a top-note of poignancy, and 100 laughs along the way.

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 21, 2008

About the author

A pseudonym of Catriona McPherson

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Newly divorced Verity Drummond has a manuscript, an agent, and Hollywood with its tongue hanging out to option her book for a movie. The script is full of La La Land characters, all assuring Verity that they have read and loved her book although it's unpublished. There is fun, pathos, and well developed characters, also from Cornwall where the second half of the book is set. The humor is sometimes subtle, sometimes broad, and full of the author's innate sense of timing. There are two books written under this synonym, and both very good as well as very different from the body of her work. Light and quirky, this is the perfect beach read, which I read during a snow storm. Go figure.

[Tracy Bishton]

Only got to ch 3 and it seems like the whole book is based on lies and deceit. Seeing the poor ratings given by most other readers was enough for me to give up :)

[Leslie Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my .... there is so few good things I can offer. The book was very hard to read, the writing style was chopping, most of the story hard to follow ... innuendos and things the characters knew but weren't disclosed allowing the reader to be part of the story - things were hinted at but not revealed. The end of the story brought it full circle, when it revealed that the ONLY thing you thought was true through the entire book, was in fact the first lie.

I didn't feel any closeness of warmth with any of the characters. They may have been worth getting to know - but the author never allowed that - instead skimming the surface and never being real.

Not the best book I've ever read. Close to the bottom actually.

[Cass · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of sporadic twists and turns in this book, very unique story.