Description: Maybe Patty Jane Dobbin should know better than to marry a man as gorgeous as Thor Rolvaag. Soon, with a baby on the way, Thor is gone. It's a good thing Patty Jane has her irrepressible sister, Harriet, to rely on. Before long, the sisters have opened a beauty parlor, a place where women can come together when life threatens to tear them apart. National ads/media.
Review Quotes: "Fun and funny, spiked with tragedy and sad times."
--USA Today
--Houston Chronicle "Patty Jane's House of Curl has the emotional warmth of Lake Wobegon and the tender/tough female characters who populated Fried Green Tomatoes. . . . A unique story."
--St. Paul Pioneer Press "WARM, TENDER, ULTIMATELY INSPIRATIONAL."
--West Coast Review of Books "HOMESPUN WISDOM PEPPERS EVERY PAGE."
--Publishers Weekly "Lorna Landvik stands by her characters . . . embracing their eccentricities, delighting in their accomplishments, forgiving them their failings. She knows these people and loves them--and gives us their story with uncommon wit and charm and, best of all, a wonderful sense of mischief."
--STEVEN ZAILLIAN
Oscar-winning writer of
the screenplay for Schindler's List "Patty Jane's House of Curl is the story of women 'who were lucky enough to find a place where they could not only talk, but be heard.' Like Ione's famous coffee cakes, the frosting may be treacle-sweet, but underneath there's something substantial."
--The Dallas Morning News "This book is worth reading and rereading. . . . Landvik evokes female bonding and tragedy in a humorous way."
--The Register-Herald (West Virginia) "Funny and romantic . . . Peopled with characters so real, so warm, so funny, the book could be a Northern Exposure in print. . . . Readers will be reminded that this is what it is like to live."
--The Stuart News "A cast of characters funny, sad, and real. You can't help but laugh and shed a tear. Has been compared to Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, but for Midwesterners it holds a special appeal with a terrific sense of place."
--BookWomen (Minnesota) "Amazingly vivid . . . This novel breezes merrily along, but don't read it without a hankie. This is a winner for fans of Garrison Keillor and Danielle Steel."
--Library Journal