*Starred Review* When her latest boyfriend leaves her for another
woman, twice-divorced Angeleno Dawn Tarnauer buries her face in the fur
of her mixed-breed canine, Chuck, and cries. The dog, it seems, sensed
trouble all along. "I should have said something before," he laments in a
gravelly voice. "Couldn't you smell her on his pants?" Has Dawn gone
nuts, or is her dog actually talking to her? This latest offering from
multiple Emmy winner and one-time David Letterman head writer Markoe (
It's My F***ing Birthday,
2002) may be her best yet, delivering the drama, dark humor, and
dysfunctional characters that have become the author's cachet. There's
Halley, Dawn's dim, cell phone-addicted sister, determined to succeed in
her new career as a Life Coach (thanks to the encouragement of her
friend, convicted-killer Scott Peterson); their woefully nonmaternal
mother, Joyce, inventor of the hokey but potentially very profitable
Every Holiday Tree; and Dawn herself, a tall, blonde California beauty
who feels more comfortable sharing confidences with mongrels than men.
Markoe's fans will delight in her hilarious doggy dialogue, as when
Chuck enlightens his owner on the topic of urination: "There's two kinds
of peeing," he says. "There's regular peeing, because you have to pee.
And then there's auxiliary competitive peeing. For acquiring an empire.
I'm all about the real estate."
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