Carrie Kabak, Cover the Butter

In her debut novel, Cover the Butter, author Carrie Kabak has delivered the reader a true reason to stay on the couch reading all day long. I read this book within 24 hours, because I was unable to put it down! ....After a bottle of wine and a vow to never sleep with her husband again, we follow Kate's story back in time. Kate takes us through her life, from her early teens to the present, with such humor and grace that we can't help but fall in love with her. Kate's life is peppered with amusing people, including the types of best friends every woman should have. The characters in this book are very well developed, and brought out a range of emotions. I found myself frustrated with Kate at times, and at other times rooting for her. I haven't felt this connected to a character in a very long time. The only problem with the ending of this book is that it came too soon. I became drawn into Kate's world, and was sad to have to leave it when I got to the last page. This is one author I know I will be looking forward to reading more work from.

COVER THE BUTTER by Carrie Kabak examines the buoyancy of the human spirit. After finding her lovingly restored home in shambles from her teenaged son's party (a rollicking yet poignant scene that alone is worth the price of admission), Kate takes a searing look back at how her life, too, has come to be such a mess. Belittled by her domineering mother, failing to find an ally in her feckless father, Kate struggles to make her own voice heard beneath the white noise of everyone else's demands. Kabak's writing brings alive even the most prosaic objects (I defy anyone to find better descriptions of decor and food, for example) but her gifts are most evident in her rendering of human relationships. Kate's interactions with her mother, Biddy, are by turns horrifying, hilarious and heartbreaking; Kabak perfectly captures the mother-daughter dynamic, the tangled knot of loyalty and knowing when to let go. Kate's relationships with the men in her life are drawn with equal force and a keen wit, most notably the scenes with Rodney, her priggish yet sexually peculiar husband. "His hair stuck up in tufts and I tried to find it endearing," Kabak writes. "I tried to yearn for the touch of those thin lips that bristled with a moustache the texture of coconut husk." Kabak's voice is so vibrant and achingly personal I felt as if I'd known her heroine for years, and her story and ultimate redemption stayed with me long after I turned the last page. Carrie Kabak is a brilliant new talent, and I eagerly await her next effort.

Cover the Butter By Carrie Kabak

In Dorton, England forty-something Kate Vadogan comes home after being away for a few days to find a disaster. Apparently her teenage son Charlie hosted a party that got out of control leaving their house a ruin and apparently the police came to end the gala when neighbors complained. Disgusted, Kate questions Charlie, who's indifferent. She turns to her spouse Rodney who was home, but he tells her he has a golf date and leaves. Other efforts to reach Rodney fail as he ignores her to watch sports.

Disappointed in her two men, Kate drinks several glasses of wine to forget her woes. As she gets drunk, she suddenly travels back three decades to 1965 when as a young teen she is about to obtain her first bra. Kate sees herself as a suppressed youngster raised by a harsh dominant mother and a feeble father. With her two best friends at her side, she begins to enjoy life, but which Kate will become the two decade married woman, the suppressed soul who always covered and refrigerated the butter or the passionate person who joined with her family enjoying the butter?

Similar to Peggy Sue Got Married, COVER THE BUTTER is an insightful family drama. Kate's frustration seems totally right until readers realize that there are a series of small insignificant matters that Kate turned into Mount Everest driving her males into avoiding her. COVER THE BUTTER is a deep relationship tale with a fantasy twist that enlightens Kate that leaving the butter uncovered is not life significant; don't sweat the small stuff and work those that matter.

Harriet Klausner