Sara Faith Alterman, Tears of a Class Clown

Tears of a Class Clown

Sara Faith Alterman

Avon, September 2006, $12.95

ISBN: 006075592X

She was always known for her wit and comedic barbs culminating in high school when Nina Kurtz was voted "Class Clown". Now, almost a decade later, Nina remains the clown on the outside, but inside she is lonely and sad. She has no man, and her employment is to tend a bar at a comedy club, that ironically serves no alcoholic beverages.

Nina receives the invitation to attend her tenth anniversary high school reunion, but has no plans of going, as she cannot deal with everyone looking at the queen of sass with pity and believing she is a failure. Her high school boyfriend Jacob invites her to be his date at the event. She considers going because her quips never turned him off; instead he enjoyed them. However, her boss plans an improvisation that same night that would allow her a chance to get out from behind the bar as she is positive if she struts she will win.

Nina is a fascinating lead character, as her insecurities conflict with her skills to rattle quips and her desire to be a stand up comic, though she suffers debilitating stage fright. The storyline follows her internal skirmish of wanting to see her number one fan vs. performing, as she ponders whether she is using Jacob to rationalize not going on stage. Though a fine character study, readers will be disappointed that Sara Faith Alterman didn't dig deeper inside the psyche of her heroine so that we could understand the schizoid of why she wants to perform and why she fears performing.