Sundays at Tiffany's
James Patterson & Gabrielle Charbonnet, 2008
Grand Central Publishing
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780446536318
Summary
As a little girl, Jane has no one. Her mother Vivienne Margaux, the powerful head of a major New York theater company has no time for her. But she does have one friend—Michael—and no one can see him but her. But Michael can't stay with Jane forever, and on her eighth birthday, her imaginary friend must leave her.
When Jane is in her thirties, working for her mother's company, she is just as alone as she was as a child. Her boyfriend hardly knows she's there and is more interested in what Vivienne can do for his career. Her mother practically treats her as a slave in the office, despite the great success of Jane's first play, Thank Heaven. Then she finds Michael—handsome, and just the same as she remembers him, only now he's not imaginary. For once in her life, Jane is happy—and has someone who loves her back. But not even Michael knows the reason behind why they've really been reunited. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—March 22, 1947
• Where—Newburgh, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Manhattan College; M.A., Vanderbilt Univ.
• Awards—Edgar Award, Best First Mystery Novel, 1977
• Currently—lives in Palm Beach, Florida
James Patterson had been working as a very successful advertising copywriter when he decided to put his Masters degree in English to a somewhat different use. Inspired by bestselling hair-raising thrillers like The Day of the Jackal and The Exorcist, Patterson went to work on his first novel. Published in 1976, The Thomas Berryman Number established him as a writer of tightly constructed mysteries that move forward with the velocity of a bullet. For his startling debut, Patterson was awarded the prestigious Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel—an auspicious beginning to one of the most successful careers in publishing.
A string of gripping standalone mysteries followed, but it was the 1992 release of Along Came a Spider that elevated Patterson to superstar status. Introducing Alex Cross, a brilliant black police detective/forensic psychologist, the novel was the first installment in a series of bestselling thrillers that has proved to be a cash cow for the author and his publisher.
Examining Patterson's track record, it's obvious that he believes one good series deserves another...maybe even a third! In 2001, he debuted the Women's Murder Club with 1st to Die, a fast-paced thriller featuring four female crime fighters living in San Francisco — a homicide detective, a medical examiner, an assistant D.A., and a cub reporter. The successful series has continued with other numerically titled installments. Then, spinning off a set of characters from a previous novel (1998's When the Wind Blows), in 2005 he published Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. Featuring a "flock" of genetically engineered flying children, the novel was a huge hit, especially with teen readers, and spawned a series of vastly popular fantasy adventures.
In addition to continuing his bestselling literary franchises, Patterson has also found time to co-author thrillers with other writers — including Peter de Jonge, Andrew Gross, Maxine Paetro, and Howard Roughan — and has even ventured into romance (Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, Sam's Letters to Jennifer) and children's literature (santaKid). Writing at an astonishing pace, this prolific author has turned himself into a one-man publishing juggernaut, fulfilling his clearly stated ambition to become "the king of the page-turners."
Extras
From a Barnes & Noble interview:
• Patterson's Suzanne's Diary For Nicholas was inspired by a diary his wife kept that tracked the development of their toddler son.
• Two of Patterson's Alex Cross mysteries (Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls) have been turned into films starring Morgan Freeman; in 2007, a weekly television series premiered, based on the bestselling Women's Murder Club novels.
• When asked what book most influenced his life, here is is response:
Probably the novel that most influenced me as a young writer is A Hundred Years of Solitude—simply because as I read it, I realized that I could never do anything half as good. So why not try mysteries? Gabriel García Márquez's magical mystery tour begins with one of the most engaging lines in fiction: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." What follows is an exhilarating recounting of a century in the imaginary Colombian town of Macondo—the comedies and tragedies, joy and suffering, sublime and ridiculous. An entire town, for example, is affected with insomnia at one point in the novel. A woman literally rises to heaven while drying her laundry. And eventually, the firing squad, fires. Some have called this the great American novel—only it was written by a South American. (Author bio and interview from Barnes & Noble.)
Book Reviews
What do women want? At this point in his career Mr. Patterson probably has a better answer than Freud did.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
Entertaining.... Readers looking for a romantic escape will enjoy [this book].
Midwest Book Review
A love story with an irresistible twist.
Woodstock Sentinel-Review (Canada)
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Sunday's at Tiffany's:
1. Patterson's novel merges the boundaries of the natural and supernatural worlds. Many individuals...and many cultures believe those two worlds are actually more closely integrated than everyday reality and science suggests. Where do you fall in this? Guardian angels...yes or no?
2. A number of authors penetrate the boundaries between the natural and supernatural? Can you think of any; if so, how are their works similar to or different from Sundays at Tiffany's?
3. Talk about the root causes of Jane's feelings of loneliness, both as a child and adult? Is a mother's withholding of love and affection cause enough for a life-long sense of emptiness?
4. Discuss Patterson's characters—particuarly Jane and her mother. Are they are fully developed, emotionally complex individuals...or one-dimensional caricatures?
5. Some readers felt the ending was too pat, that it held no surprises. What about you?
6. Early on there are hints that Jane suffers from a serious but undisclosed medical condition. Is this condition ever revealed?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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