Eden Collinsworth, It Might Have Been What He Said: A Novel

It Might Have Been What He Said: A Novel

Eden Collinsworth

Arcade, Jun 2006, $23.95

ISBN: 1559708123

In New York twenty-eight years old acerbically witty workaholic Isabel Simpson runs Priam Books, a highly regarded and successful publishing company. James Willoughby is fixated on becoming wealthy as long as it does not require work that interferes with his expensive lifestyle. His articles for magazines and newspapers fit his need, but also come to the attention of Isabel, who realizes that he is a major talent if he put his mind and butt to it.

Isabel decides to meet James. When they do they are immediately attracted to one another though their outlooks on life are totally polar opposites in outlook and demeanor from one another. Now fifteen years later with a son Burgo, Isabel explains to a psychiatrist she cannot remember the motive for wanting to kill her spouse, James, but she is sure she had a good reason for smashing his head with an umbrella before pushing him into Paris traffic. She begins to look back at how their love metamorphosis into an attempted homicide.

Though the Python humor is amusing, it also takes away from a serious relationship drama in which Isabel reflects back on where did the love go. Readers will initially assume that James is innocent, but his selfish behavior over time erodes his spouse's self-esteem until she cannot take anymore. Though she is wrong for resorting to violence, readers will understand what drove her to push this survivor into traffic in this modernization (without the biting satire sting) of How to Murder My Wife.

Harriet Klausner