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Cornelia Lord is a wealthy debutante, a modern fairytale princess locked in an ivory tower of family expectations. Kevin is a struggling art student and a doorman out of necessity, the contemporary equivalent of the princess’s humble shepherd loverboy. What could they possibly have in common? And how could they ever fall in love when her father, the King, and his heir apparent (a.k.a. Chester Lord and Tucker Fisk) have already decided that she should marry the heir? There’s villainy in the air, as someone wants to take advantage of Cornelia. Both Cornelia and Kevin have to survive persecution and escape their prisons before love conquers all.
Reading Crazy For Cornelia was a strangely dualistic “left brain, right brain” experience. The analytical, rational part of me kept pointing out all manner of illogicalities. The emotionally engaged part of me kept telling the little analyst to shut up because none of those things mattered.
When I was in the analytical mode I wasn’t satisfied with the way the actions of Chester, Tucker and the doctors were motivated and the heroine’s submissive reactions did not ring true to me. The villain had a cunning plan but its success depended on the unwitting co-operation of so many other people he’d have to be a bit psychic or to believe he’s an omnipotent manipulator to be sure he could carry it off. I found the obstacles Cornelia and Kevin faced a bit too extreme, hard to believe. Perhaps the author might successfully have used subtler methods to make his point about the control others exert over Cornelia and the resistance to their affair.
Rubbish, the emotional reader in me snorted. Just get into the spirit of things and enjoy the ride, it said. The book is not realistic, but so what? It is supposed to be surreal, a satire, a fantasy in a modern New York setting. It’s a classic fairytale struggle between good and evil, love and class differences, dreams and materialism, freedom and shackles. And in fairytales evil is always really evil and obstacles are always impossibly high.
Crazy for Cornelia operates on more than one level. Besides the love story, it’s a heavy- handed satire of the perceived greed in American healthcare system. In this novel, doctors diagnose patients according to the payer’s preferred end result rather than scientific criteria. Hospital policies are based more on money than sound therapeutic principles, and a hospital called Sanctuary could just as easily be called Prison With A Torture Chamber or One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. If you identify with the medical profession you might feel uncomfortable with this description. If you’re a patient you might become scared.
I enjoyed the way electricity runs through the book as a symbolic red thread – or should I say cord? Cornelia calls herself Electric Girl and electricity connects her greatest project, Kevin’s art, their mothers’ deaths, and so on. Another theme is sanity and insanity. The title takes on a double or triple meaning as the reader wonders just whose actions are crazy in the novel.
Gilson’s elegant writing style kept me riveted. The narrative seems simple and effortless,a joy to read. The bittersweet emotions and at times cruel satire are balanced with nicely understated humor and occasional laugh-out-loud moments. The best thing are the character caricatures Gilson creates. Minor characters who are sketched with just a few lines are often memorable and funny. But perhaps some members of the large cast could have been omitted since many of them were introduced interestingly but vanished without ever fulfilling their promises.
More than one reviewer has compared Crazy For Cornelia to Cinderella but I kept thinking of Jack and the Beanstalk. You need to be willing to suspend your disbelief in order to really get into it but read as a fairytale it’s got potential to be a classic. The rational part of me craves realism, especially in contemporary settings, and I had a tough time believing people would really react like they do in Crazy For Cornelia. But I enjoyed the book a lot, it made me laugh and care about the characters, and I closed it smiling and feeling satisfied. So the conflicting voices inside this reviewer’s head agreed on a grade of B.
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.