THE LIFE AND DEATH OF LAURA FRIDAY
David Murphy
HarperCollins, pbk, $27
Review by Ian Williams
David Murphy's The Life and Death of Laura Friday is engaging escapist fare aimed at readers who hang calendars featuring near-nude females and males in their lunchrooms, or would like to.
Narrated by, J. (Johnny) Fitz Kennedy who grows up in Bullock, a coastal New Zealand town straight out of County Mayo, it follows his and his Catholic family's fortunes as he goes through the usual teenage rites of passage before getting his big break in journalism: uncovering the story of an organ swap between identical twins, one who has chopped off his penis and the other who wants his removed.
From then on, fame and fortune follow as Fitz relocates to London, has a series of novels published that become international bestsellers and hit movies, while unwittingly marrying the daughter of a porn-movie maker who features in her dad's movies.
Where does Laura Friday come into all this? Not all that significantly.
Supposedly the heroine of Fitz's novels, with an Internet following numbering millions, she's simply a prop used by the author on which to wag his male tail.
Nothing wrong with that, of course, though the pages filled with Irish-sounding musings and gossip do get tedious at times.
Otherwise, full marks to an original first novel, with Damon Runyon-esque, fully-fleshed characters, authentic-sounding dialogue, and neat plot twists.
