Literary Quote of the Month

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies," said Jojen. "The man who never reads lives only one." - George R.R. Martin, A Dance With Dragons

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Penguin Luck by Kay Mupetson... A Review

Penguin Luck by Kay Mupetson

From the Author... In the novel Penguin Luck, Doreen Lowe is a young, sophisticated junior associate in a small Manhattan law firm that primarily serves the lower echelons of society. Regularly visited by three ghosts, Doreen is forced to listen to their pleas that she "carry on for them"- after the Holocaust- all while balancing the demands of her career and personal life.

After Doreen marries a banker with an entrepreneurial spirit, he achieves his dream of establishing a telecommunications company. Within a few years, Doreen is serving as the company's legal counsel while simultaneously raising a son, but is still being tormented by her spirits. As the young couple rides out the tech boom of the late 1990s, Doreen must reconcile her unorthodox personal choices with her widowed father, her friends, and her large conscience. Penguin Luck is a compelling tale about one woman's emotional journey as she learns to cope with a burdensome family history, a trio of determined ghosts, and the power of luck.

Penguin Luck by Kay Mupetson was a surprising and refreshing novel. On the surface this could have been a simple story of a girl named Doreen working in a Manhattan law firm, with an immigrant background and a close family, who falls for a guy not her fiance and marries him. But the story isn't simple... it's about a family who suffered the horrors of the Holocaust, other family secrets, and how one balances living in the hustle & bustle of the corporate world and still honor your family. How Kay Mupetson does this is through her great writing and the 3 ghosts of Doreen's family's past, who we first meet on a subway ride in NYC - The 3 ghosts manifested to Doreen in the subway thinking they are on a train going to Auschwitz and this is where we find out that the 3 ghosts had died in the Holocaust. We find out later that these ghosts, relatives of Doreen, expect Doreen to fulfill her family's legacy... The characters are well written and the story is unique. An enjoyable read and one I'd to thank Jocelyn of Meryl L. Moss Media Relations for sending me a copy of! Thanks Jocelyn I really enjoyed Penguin Luck.

2 comments:

Harvee (Book Dilettante) said...

An unusual plot, using ghosts of the past, but interesting. Thanks for the review.

Carina said...

The premise of the 3 ghosts has me really intrigued - definitely adding this to my TBR pile!

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