The Children of the Roses Warren Adler

The Children of the Roses

Author: Warren Adler

Publisher: Stonehouse Press

Publication Date: 01 November, 2004

ISBN: 9781931304955

Pages:

Available as: Trade Cloth, 978-1-4022-0197-4 E-Book - , 978-1-931304-95-5 E-Book - , 978-1-59006-209-8 E-Book - Adobe Ebook Reader, 978-1-931304-96-2 E-Book - Palm Reader, 978-1-931304-97-9

Description:

The darkly hilarious sequel to The War of the Roses. The Children of the Roses in typical Adler black comedy fashion deals with the impact of the Rose's horrific demise as described in The War of the Roses on their children and their grandchildren. The Roses children, Josh who is now married to Victoria and his hugely overweight happy-go-lucky sister Evie, who has not married but finds pleasure at the trough and through a series of live-in lovers. Considering the experience of Josh Rose and his bride, Victoria, also the victim of parental mayhem, theirs should be a perfect marriage. Instead, they find themselves in a different kind of shattering warfare. The overstuffed and ever-sympathetic Evie and Victoria's demonic and ever-sympathetic, male hating mother are their constant counterfoils. Throw in a suave headmaster who turns out to be a relentless sexual predator and blackmailing mobster-type husband and the stage is set for a rollicking nasty fun little tale.

PW Publishers Weekly

Review Source: Publishers Weekly

Review Date: 2004-01-19

Adler recreates the epic marital bickering that made the original War of the Roses (1989) such juicy movie material, but this tepid sequel pales despite the potential offered by the troubled marriage of Josh Rose, the son of the spouses who were killed by a falling chandelier after squabbling their way through the first book. Josh has all the trappings of success a satisfying job as creative director of a Manhattan ad agency, two beautiful children and a gorgeous albeit icy wife, Victoria, a former lawyer who was also damaged by her parent's bitter divorce. His stability is threatened, however, when he succumbs to the temptations of his chief designer, a married woman named Angela Bocci whose passion for risqu? semi-public sex leads to a hot affair. Josh manages to hide his infidelity from Victoria as the couple struggle to keep their 11-year-old son, Michael, from being thrown out of an elite private school for a petty thievery incident. But all is lost when Angela's spouse, Dominic, tries to use the affair to blackmail Josh before revealing Josh's infidelity to Victoria, who is blackmailed into a separate series of erotic shenanigans by Michael's diabolical headmaster. Adler scores points with sly irony in the early infidelity chapters, but the story flattens when Angela demands a divorce and the couple's joint custody experiment begins. The generic bickering leads to an outrageous climax in which a near-tragic house fire causes the couple to rethink their separation; the sappy, over-the-top ending comes off as a half-baked attempt to outdo the savage humor of the original. There are some funny moments as Adler sets up his marital chess pieces, but this follow-up succumbs to sequelitis. (Apr.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.