Claudia Carroll, Remind Me Again Why I Need A Man

Remind Me Again Why I Need A Man

Claudia Carroll

Harper Collins, May 2007, $24.95

ISBN: 9780061140532

Closer to forty than thirty Amelia Lockwood works as a deputy producer on a soap opera; the job is great except for the actors as she hates all actors except for Jamie, an honorary member of the Lovely Girls Club. Single, but never lacking a male if she chooses, Amelia lives in a terrific apartment and knows she has four dependable friends. Everything is perfect except she wonders why she has never met her soulmate. This is the year she vows that she will select a husband.

Amelia feels it is fate when she sees an ad for a class, How to Find a Husband over the Age of Thirty-five so she signs up for the seminar as she has failed on her own attempts to marry Mr. Right. "Professor" Ira Vandergelder mentors Amelia to drop the romance novel outlook and instead apply Harvard Business rules (without the ethics) to achieve her objective. She returns to previous but failed romances while the fearsome foursome encourage her albeit sarcastically. As Amelia fumbles and stumbles, she asks her buds every step of the way "Remind Me Again Why I Need a Man".

This is an amusing satirical character study of a wonderful female who seems to have everything going for her yet feels she has failed in her personal life because she lacks a spouse. The cast is delightful especially the four frantic friends (who would cause Osama bin Laden to turn himself into Guantomino to escape their tongue), and Ira (whose bone marrow reeks of New York cynicism). Readers will appreciate Amelia's gong show attempts to find a husband.

Harriet Klausner