Darkly comedic twist on feminism

BEST LAID PLANS Kathy Lette Loot.co.za (R292) Penguin Random House

REVIEWER: JENNIFER CROCKER

WHAT if you were a middle-aged mom who was arrested for trying to engage the services of a prostitute in a rundown part of London? Kathy Lette begins her latest novel with Lucy, a bright, feminist library teacher finding herself in a spot of bother when she is arrested by an undercover policewoman.

It’s a bit of shock to her, especially as she is trying to do a deal so that her son, Merlin, can get rid of his bothersome virginity.

So far, so appalling an idea. Except that there are extenuating circumstances. Merlin is about to turn 21 and his virginity is a great burden to him.

He is a high-functioning autistic who can’t really read social cues that well.

He is also beyond depressed and when we meet Lucy, she is desperately scared that his depression will spiral out of control. In a darkly comedic scene, we see her taking to the streets to procure a girl for her son.

I can only think of a handful of writers who could pull this novel off, and Lette is certainly one of them. With her staccato and merciless humour and puns, she is an excellent writer. She’s been doing it since she her first book Puberty Blues – she was 17 at the time.

Best Laid Plans is her 15th novel, and is a cracker of a story.

She’s intimately knowledgeable about the spectrum of autism as her son, Julius, was diagnosed with Asperger’s when he was 3.

When she writes about Merlin, she is able to bring the speech and realities of a young man on the autism spectrum realistically to the page.

Lette knows about bullying, a theme in the novel, because her child has been bullied.

Lucy has a sister who is her rock. Phoebe is an air hostess with a fierce love for Lucy and Merlin.

She’s also dealing with her own issues, mostly about her ex-husband being about to marry one of her best friends – who happens to be a man.

And then there is the ghastly Jeremy, Lucy’s ex-husband, who has not paid his son any attention, or his son’s mother any maintenance basically ever.

Lucy has a similar issue in communicating with her overspill of information when put on the spot.

She narrowly misses getting off for her solicitation when she tells almost everything about the incident and what led her to becoming a sort of pimp for Merlin.

As one races through Lette’s racy, and very funny humour, one is so drawn into the story that one is tempted to reach into the book and pluck Lucy away from her own diatribe. You can see it is going to end in tears.

Merlin is her life, she can’t go to jail; she’s a library teacher who will lose her job if she is convicted.

And Merlin still needs to meet a girl who will fall in love with him. Because he deserves one, or as he says, “… Do you think any woman will ever throw me a lifeline of love?”

The escapades in Best Laid Plans are the icing on top of a far deeper story.

Lucy is going to have to stretch herself to accept the horror of the girl who Merlin does fall for when he goes to work at Oxfam as a volunteer.

Kayleigh is cut from a different cloth to the mother and her son.

And this is one of the themes where Lette goes to the heart of the contradictions in Lucy’s life. She’s a feminist, as is her creator, but feminism for her is rather a polite and staid thing (certainly nothing like Lette’s which is pretty hard core).

In this book, Lucy is about to find out that feminism is not only one thing; that the collusion of women from different worlds can provide very unusual alliances and friendships.

Kayleigh explodes all over Lucy’s neat, ordered life. The passionate liaison between her smitten son and his skanky paramour brings another issue to light – how do differently abled young people form relationships? What if the world doesn’t see the boy you see as wonderful and splendid? How do you navigate the world with your child when he only ever tells the truth, when he asks questions that are brilliant – too brilliant for the average young women of his age?

Through her hilarious trials and tribulations, Lucy and her cohort of mismatched new friends, her sister, his vile father, and her son, spring to life before the reader’s eyes.

Perhaps this is one of Lette’s greatest strengths as a novelist as she could easily slip into farce – she uses her teetering on the brink of exhausting words to wield social commentary.

I first fell in love with Lette when I read her book Foetal Attraction and I have remained a fan of how she uses her work to remind us that there are things we might need to think about a little more deeply.

Some years ago, when she was in Cape Town, I was fortunate enough to spend time with on her book tour.

I watched as she worked a somewhat tough crowd while wearing a designer suit.

She had them screeching with mirth. It was as if as she pelted her audience with words and people forgot their designer clothes and warmed to people they didn’t know.

I have no idea how long that impression lasted for others, but for me I still rather stupidly think of her as someone I could be friends with.

After the posh lunch, we went to look at cheetahs. She’d changed into jeans and trainers and insisted my children come along.

They loved her and her generosity.

What more can one want in an author?

The escapades in

are the icing on top of a far deeper story