Skip to main content

The Sunday List of Dreams

Review

The Sunday List of Dreams

There are far wilder women than Connie Nixon --- she's a regular
gal on the verge of retirement, a change she expects will find her
hibernating from the crazy world outside her midwestern window.
Connie fine-tunes her 30-year project called "The Sunday List of
Dreams," pages and pages of things she wants to do, hopes to do, or
dreams about doing someday (but nothing that she thinks will ever
be completely accomplished).

And yet, when cleaning out her garage, she finds a box of her
estranged oldest daughter's plans for a dream job she never shared
with the family --- a franchised sex toy company that will help
women find the satisfaction that is missing from their dreary
American lives --- and Connie jumps into action. Packing the store
address, her notebook and a heightened maternal instinct that has
been dormant for years, Connie sets off for New York City, where an
education in love and living is in store for her in the most
unexpected ways.

Connie meets a stylist on the plane who ends up unleashing Connie's
inner sex goddess. Connie's daughter, Jessica, finds herself drawn
to her mom at a time when her own life is shifting, as her store is
about to go national. A fluke trip to New Orleans to meet with the
political strife of local conservatives at a toy production
facility wakes up the two women to the twin excitements of romance
and commerce as well as long-submerged familial connections that
express themselves in surprising ways.

Connie gets a bayou kiss that shakes her very foundation and runs
down Bourbon Street with Jessica in tow, baring breasts and letting
go of all logic and inhibitions in a race for the promise of the
future. One women's music festival and a gala store opening later,
Connie's life (and that of her daughter) is completely altered, and
this 60-something retiree ticks off the things in her life with
growing confidence and a combination of hard-earned wisdom and
open-hearted wonderment.

Kris Radish gives Connie a voice that is strong and direct, filled
with the contradictions of self-trust and self-deception that
anyone will be able to relate to, regardless of age. The way she
inspires Jessica, the brave entrepreneur of sexual satisfaction who
hasn't had a date in years, is a real coup for moms everywhere who
cherish the notion that their struggles can teach and inspire their
offspring as well as themselves. The only problem I have with the
characters is that, although love is paramount to their adventures,
the men are barely more than stereotypes --- Connie even calls one
of her suitors "Burt" (he looks like Burt Reynolds).

In the end, this is a story about women helping women and the
ability of one brave individual to inspire all of them to live
their most authentic lives. It's an extreme metamorphosis that
Connie undergoes --- the idea that she ends up running a sex shop
for her formerly estranged daughter is a bit of a jump --- and yet,
somehow, her good heart and gentle concern for womankind's
happiness comes across as a feminist coming-of-age that shows how
"coming-of-age" can happen at any age.

Reviewed by Jana Siciliano on January 23, 2011

The Sunday List of Dreams
by Kris Radish

  • Publication Date: January 23, 2007
  • Genres: Fiction
  • Paperback: 378 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam
  • ISBN-10: 0553383981
  • ISBN-13: 9780553383980