Leslie Carroll, Temporary Insanity

Temporary Insanity

Leslie Carroll

Avon, Jun 2004, $13.95, 322 pp.

ISBN: 0060563370

Thirty-something Alice Finnegan pays the rent doing odious temporary office jobs for nasty bosses while hoofing the mean streets of Broadway seeking acting gigs. Her nonagenarian grandmother, a long ago retired showgirl, lives with Alice and encourages the dream.

Besides her beloved grandma, Alice finds solace from being an out of work actress with her perfuming pals Izzy and Dorian. The Three Musketeers are there for each other. The support of these two and her granny keeps her going when office dating turns out wrong and her daytime bosses assign her the handling of trash projects. As directors tell her what they want her to fix about herself that is when they don't want to taste the goods personally, Alice, in spite of all that negativity, expects to one day be the toast of the city with her musketeers at her side.

This is a fun chick lit tale starring a delightful protagonist who with the help of her friends takes blows, but keeps on trying. Alice is a wonderful protagonist; many readers will root for her to turn Broadway into her wonderland especially when they watch the invasion of the permanent crowd on the residents of temp world. Deeper than the amusing REALITY CHECK and MISS MATCH, TEMPORARY INSANITY is a solid look at someone trying to make it to the majors, but must eat first.

Harriet Klausner