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Hysterical Love: a novel

door Lorraine Devon Wilke

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Dan McDowell, a thirty-three-year-old portrait photographer happily set to marry his beloved Jane, is stunned when a slip of the tongue about an ??ex-girlfriend overlap? of years earlier throws their pending marriage into doubt and him onto the street. Or at least into the second bedroom of their next-door neighbor, Bob, where Dan is sure it won't be long. It's long. His sister, Lucy, further confuses matters with her ??soul mate theory? and its suggestion that Jane might not be his... soul mate, that is. But the tipping point comes when his father is struck ill, sparking a chain of events in which Dan discovers a story written by this man he doesn??t readily understand, but who, it seems, has long harbored an unrequited love from decades earlier. Incapable of fixing his own romantic dilemma, Dan becomes fixated on finding this woman of his father??s dreams and sets off for Oakland, California, on a mission fraught with detours and semi-hilarious peril. Along the way he meets the beautiful Fiona, herbalist and flower child, who assists in his quest while quietly and erotically shaking up his world. When, against all odds, he finds the elusive woman from the past, the ultimate discovery of how she truly fit into his father's life leaves him staggered, as does the reality of what??s been stirred up with Fiona. But it??s when he returns home to yet another set of unexpected truths that he??s shaken to the core, ultimately forced to face who he is and just whom he might be able to love. Lorraine Devon Wilke, author of the acclaimed debut novel, AFTER THE SUCKER PUNCH, brings her deft mix of humor and drama to a whip-smart narrative told from the point of view of its male protagonist. HYSTERICAL LOVE explores themes of family, commitment, balancing creativity, facing adulthood, and digging deep to understand the… (meer)
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Toon 2 van 2
Dan McDowell is a thirty-three-year-old commercial photographer three years into a comfortable relationship with Jane. They both are, if not ambitious, gainfully employed, well-mannered and appropriate. Dan seems quite content to continue to take pictures of school children, Jane to crunch numbers at a real estate firm, both seem satisfied with routine monogamous sex and enjoy Jane’s homemade pie afterwards. They neither have the will nor inclination to do anything about the boring middle-class trap that’s about to ensnare them.

Indeed, that very evening they’re discussing the inevitable – marriage – when Dan lets slip that three years ago, he had sex with his former girlfriend during the transitional period before he and Jane were “exclusive”.

Jane freaks and throws him out of their cozy two-bedroom bungalow where he conveniently crosses the lawn and becomes ensconced in the spare bedroom of his good friend and neighbour, Bob.

What’s with Jane, Dan wonders, and true to his even-tempered, considerate personality gives her some space and time until she accepts that his transgression is nothing compared to the mundane existence they can share moving forward.

Five weeks later Jane is still intransigent, and Dan is becoming a tad impatient. Surprisingly, so are his parents. His reply to their inquiries about his relationship provokes a grumpy response from his father, Big Jim, “You’re dealt a hand and you play it. End of story.”, which has enough subliminal meaning to upset his mother, Esther.

When Dan tells his sister, Lucy, she divulges that the subtext of that conversation has to do with a manuscript she and her mother discovered of a heartbreaking story Big Jim wrote about being dumped by his “soul mate” Barbara from Oakland right after he finished college and eight years before he married their mom.

Perhaps it’s the precarious state of Dan's own relationship or maybe it’s just that he’s such a sensitive guy, but this romantic illusion resonates, and unimaginative Dan begins to imagine he and Jane maybe aren’t cosmically bonded and what does that mean for their future?

This flight of adolescent flakiness takes a dramatic turn when Big Jim suffers a stroke and in that interim period when brain synapses are scrambled, and recovery is still in question he utters a strangled plea for someone to “caa…baaa…baaa”.

For some reason, Dan assumes his father, who’s been as happily married to Esther as one can reasonably hope to be after forty years, is calling out for Barbara from Oakland.

This sets the stage for Dan’s frantic week-long quest in the other city by the bay for his father’s enigmatic soul mate. What he hopes to achieve if he finds her is never clear, but he has “to do something that might actually have some impact”. The resulting impact of this misadventure is more bizarre than meaningful.

If you think this preamble into Hysterical Love, by Lorraine Devon Wilke, is complicated then you have some idea of how convoluted the story is. Though cohesive, the narrative is rambling and impeded by long passages of moralizing dialogue and redundant reflection most of which is self-evident to any mature adult.

Major plot points such as Jane’s reason for ejecting her fiancé from their relationship and their domicile, the discovery and significance that Big Jim had his young heart broken eight years before he married Esther, the motive behind the search for Barbara from Oakland, and the improbable hookup with a love goddess named Fiona, really stretched this reader’s suspension of disbelief.

Perhaps most unconvincing is the protagonist who is immature, hypersensitive, prone to histrionics, bitchy (compared to his assertive sister) and, one would imagine, almost devoid of testosterone. At one point, when he is turning down a zipless encounter with the unimaginably attractive, sexy, and oh so willing Fiona, the virtuous Dan declares “…tonight, I want to be sure we’re honestly in synch with each other”, then doubles down by affirming “Yep, I’d become the girl. The girl who didn’t want to get down to it until she knew it “meant something.”

Was it the author’s intention to convey feminine sensibilities in a male character or is she just having a difficult time writing from a male perspective?

Considering a protagonist like Dan, you might think character growth and development would be easy and extensive. But no, he’s the same milquetoast at the end as he was at the beginning. It’s as if Wilke considered him fully formed with no need to change or improve.

Sometimes pushing the boundaries of genre works, like writing chick lit from a male perspective, but in the case of Hysterical Love, it’s still chick lit only without the chick. ( )
  RodRaglin | Apr 11, 2022 |
This is aptly named! This novel is HYSTERICAL! Fair warning....do not read this in public. There are places you will laugh out loud!
Dan's father, Big Jim, has had a stroke. Dan "thinks" he has discovered that Big Jim has a soul mate from his past. Big Jim keeps repeating a phrase which sounds like "Call Barbara." Well! Dan is determined to find Barbara for his father.
Dan goes above and beyond...however misguided, to find this Barbara, even when his own love life is falling apart. He has separated from his fiancé and is living with his best friend, Bob. Bob needs his own novel. His escapades and his own love life kept me in stitches.
The characters in this tale are a hoot! I love the interaction between Dan and his sister, Lucy. True sibling interactions! And his mother....always wanting her dish back! 😂. But, my all time favorite is the tow truck driver! You have to read this to find out.
The only issue I had with this book is it is a little long. It could have been shortened by a few pages or three. But, it is so dang cute! This is a story about love. All kinds of love! Family, friendship, and soul-mate love...it's all in here. It is told with such creativity and uniqueness. Perfect read for a trip.
I received this novel from Lorraine Devon Wilke and IndieBRAG for a honest review ( )
  fredreeca | Feb 26, 2018 |
Toon 2 van 2
“Wilke is a skilled writer, able to plausibly inhabit Dan’s young male perspective… A well-written, engaging, sometimes-frustrating tale of reaching adulthood a little late.”
 
“The narrative is effectively told through first person, with Daniel candidly confiding his fears and confusion to the reader. Devon Wilke manages to convey the male psyche with a good-natured humor that seems eminently believable. Hysterical Love is a deftly told tale about not only the search for love in the 21st century, but about seeking a greater understanding of the intricacies of the human heart, about love in all its various forms and disguises: puppy love, lost love, emerging love, enduring love, and of course, hysterical love.”
 
“Oh my, oh my! I just finished reading Hysterical Love, the newest novel by Lorraine Devon Wilke, and I must say, I simply adored it! Lorraine Devon Wilke’s writing style is witty, pointed and funny, even hilarious at times.”
 
“I never found a writer who was as good as DH Lawrence, but who could also get into a man’s head and tell that story. Until now…Wilke combines humor, terrific writing, and some none-too-gently acquired truths into a different kind of relationship story.”
 
“This is one of those books which exceeded all my expectations. I was expecting a romance with a couple of twists to the tale but what I got was something far deeper and more satisfying…If you want a book with many layers and to be thoroughly entertained by a cracking story then this one is for you.”
 
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Dan McDowell, a thirty-three-year-old portrait photographer happily set to marry his beloved Jane, is stunned when a slip of the tongue about an ??ex-girlfriend overlap? of years earlier throws their pending marriage into doubt and him onto the street. Or at least into the second bedroom of their next-door neighbor, Bob, where Dan is sure it won't be long. It's long. His sister, Lucy, further confuses matters with her ??soul mate theory? and its suggestion that Jane might not be his... soul mate, that is. But the tipping point comes when his father is struck ill, sparking a chain of events in which Dan discovers a story written by this man he doesn??t readily understand, but who, it seems, has long harbored an unrequited love from decades earlier. Incapable of fixing his own romantic dilemma, Dan becomes fixated on finding this woman of his father??s dreams and sets off for Oakland, California, on a mission fraught with detours and semi-hilarious peril. Along the way he meets the beautiful Fiona, herbalist and flower child, who assists in his quest while quietly and erotically shaking up his world. When, against all odds, he finds the elusive woman from the past, the ultimate discovery of how she truly fit into his father's life leaves him staggered, as does the reality of what??s been stirred up with Fiona. But it??s when he returns home to yet another set of unexpected truths that he??s shaken to the core, ultimately forced to face who he is and just whom he might be able to love. Lorraine Devon Wilke, author of the acclaimed debut novel, AFTER THE SUCKER PUNCH, brings her deft mix of humor and drama to a whip-smart narrative told from the point of view of its male protagonist. HYSTERICAL LOVE explores themes of family, commitment, balancing creativity, facing adulthood, and digging deep to understand the

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