THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE
Lisa Tucker
Atria
Fiction
ISBN: 9780743492799

• Read an Excerpt
• Author Talk –– March 28, 2008

Ten-year-old Danny's mother has a drug problem. He only vaguely remembers when she was able to hold down a job and really take care of him and his three-year-old sister Isabelle, when they had a real home. Now, the family lives in a Philadelphia crack house (a dubious step up from the abandoned car they occupied previously), and Danny's mom is always either high or sick from withdrawal symptoms when she is unable to score a hit. As for Danny, he spends his days begging for money to buy Isabelle's necessities and worrying about his mother's addiction and his sister’s developmental delays.

Forty-year-old Matthew Connelly also has a drug problem, although his is both more subtle and more insidious than Danny's mom's. Matthew is an executive at a major Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical company. He has worked his way to the top, starting at the company in his 20s after leaving medical school, basing much of his professional achievements on the success of one particular pain-killing drug --- a medication he has overseen since its R&D phase, one that is now the most commonly prescribed medication for chronic pain.

With his high-powered job, chic urban loft, high-end electronics and a series of beautiful but shallow girlfriends, Matthew seems like the last person in the world to want a family. But when his path crosses those of Danny and Isabelle, he takes them in on a whim. He may regret his decision the next morning, but not before the two children have enmeshed themselves in his life and in the lives of his closest friends.

These include Ben, Matthew's unlikely best friend and an award-winning medical researcher who has devoted his life to solving diseases that strike the world's poor, and Ben's girlfriend, Amelia. Amelia used to be Matthew's girlfriend, even (if he had to grudgingly admit it) the love of his life. But Amelia, a bioethicist who became disillusioned by Matthew's professional activities, has now devoted her life to exposing the injustices and immoral practices of big pharmaceutical companies (including Matthew's) and to Ben, a morally upstanding man who couldn't be less like Matthew.

Lisa Tucker's fourth novel is both impressively ambitious in scope and startlingly intimate in its explorations. She delves into big social issues, including the corruption of the health care field, the questionable practices of large corporations, and the relationship between the press and business. But she also explores, in a particularly insightful approach, the questions of why we love the people we do, even when that love seems to make no sense. In doing so, she writes from the point of view not only of Amelia but also of Matthew and Danny. For the most part, she credibly and convincingly offers insights into the emotional lives of an anti-emotional man and a boy who is as innocent as he is world-weary.

THE CURE FOR MODERN LIFE, with its numerous plot twists and steady pacing, is simultaneously a compelling page-turner and a provocative examination of how a small, diverse group of characters is doing their best to navigate the unfamiliar, treacherous moral landscape of modern life. Frequent flashbacks and a strong sense of place add to the novel's cinematic feeling. Readers will find themselves hoping that it will make its way to the big screen; in the meantime, they can content themselves with the many fruitful discussions that Tucker’s latest work will bring to book clubs around the country.

    --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.

© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.