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In the big bad city
of New York, Alice Finnegan is just one among thousands of aspiring
actors who works a mundane job to support herself while waiting for her
big break. For Alice, acting is as natural as breathing since it’s a
talent she’d inherited in her genes from her grandmother, a former
Follies girl. Working as a legal secretary is no picnic as Alice soon
finds, as job after job ends in disaster. Her bosses almost always turn
out to be female and absolute shrews, and her fiery Irish temperament
always gets the better of her.
During all this,
Alice also manages to regularly fall for handsome, charming men who
never fail to break her heart. Between jobs and men, she still grabs an
audition here, do a crowd scene there. To console and aid her are her
two good friends and her unflagging grandmother whose zest for life is
infectious. Are striving to be your own person and having a career (or
at least trying to) such incompatible goals, Alice wonders. Will this
spunky and caring actress ever find her niche in life?
Drawing from her
own experiences as an actress, author Leslie Carroll brings a high level
of authenticity to the life and doings of protagonist Alice Finnegan, as
she struggles to strike a balance between love, acting career, personal
life and honesty. Her experiences in the work place are simultaneously
hilarious, sober and authentic. An absorbing saga of the ups and downs
in life, especially that of an aspiring actor, this story gives the
readers an unbiased behind-the-cameras look at the hard work, crazy
hours and other details, whether it be a play, a movie or a television
serial. Interesting side characters represent the various viewpoints of
the struggling-actor scenario, while Alice’s nonagenarian grandmother is
a breath of fresh air with her oddities and encouraging words. Ms.
Carroll’s story has the power to draw the readers deep into
Alice’s
world and hold them there under until the last page is turned.
Funny, charming and
yet serious, “Temporary Insanity” will live long in the readers’
memories.
Reviewed By
Rashmi Srinivas for The Road to Romance
April 14, 2004 |
