Zelda's Cut

From AudioFile While Isobel Latimer's literary novels receive ever smaller advances, her nonworking husband clamors for a new swimming pool. Isobel and her agent conspire to create a fictional author, Zelda Veer, for whom Isobel will ghostwrite a bestseller with no literary value to fill the family coffers. Norma West's refined English captures Isobel and her educated husband perfectly, both in dialogue and narrative. West proves equally adept at sliding into sleaze when Isobel dons the wig, clothing, and persona of Zelda. The smarmy pool salesman and Isobel's gender-confused agent are nailed with equal accuracy. Despite the story's abrupt and farfetched ending, West's performance creates a polished production. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine Product Description Isobel Latimer, a writer known for her moral tales, is trapped by the confines of her puritan image. Not a single dress can show off the faintest traces of her figure. With a literary reputation to uphold and massive, increasing debts to keep secret, Isobel is about to crack - everyone wants a cut of her talent, her time or her money, but only she knows there's nothing left to give. At wit's end, Isobel and her agent, Troy, conspire to create a new Isobel, a taboo-breaking, uninhibited bombshell of an author named Zelda Vere, a glamorous beauty with a blonde wig, artful makeup, and sexy underwear. As Zelda, Isobel wows the editors, and her manuscript is auctioned for gobs of money; but as in all morality tales, bad things happen: Philip learns he's been conned by the pool man, and Troy disappears with the proceeds of Isobel's second novel. However Isobel, who's learned a thing or two from Zelda, knows exactly what to do... A witty and entertaining romp that sizzles with intellectual energy and frankness. KIRKUS REVIEWS