Mameve Medwed, How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life

How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life

Mameve Medwed

Morrow, Mar 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 0060831197

The earthquake that killed the two female lovers left the thirtyish daughter of one Abby Randolph with a chamber pot that once belonged to Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Not long afterward, Abby shows her prize on the popular Antiques Roadshow that tours the Cambridge-Boston area, and her ugly porcelain becomes the star. However, soon after that event, Lavinia Potter-Templeton, daughter of the lover of Abby's mother, sues her over who is the rightful owner of the chamber pot.

Feeling betrayed by her former best friend Lavinia, Abby takes another blow when her lover deserts her to elope with another woman. Finally, the shell-shocked Abby receives one more shot to her equilibrium, when Ned, the man she has always loved, wants to be back in her life.

This is a strange chick lit tale, starring a somewhat stunned heroine wondering how a porcelain pot could prove that bad things happen. The prime storyline of what occurs to Abby contains too many subplots, that loosely, in a five degree way, tie back to the lead protagonist. Still overall, this is a fine, often amusing contemporary tale starring a likable but bewildered female who got off the pot to showcase it, only to be covered with excrement; Ned being the one potentially golden exception if she takes a chance, though she fears he too will shower on her parade.