Odd Mom Out

March 13th, 2008 by Poise Daily Staff Member in She’s a Lit Chic

This paperback landed on my desk early one Saturday morning, an advanced copy of Odd Mom Out, just a couple of hours before my morning flight. By this being titled Odd Mom Out-Having not taken the roller coaster of motherhood so far I was a bit skeptical whether I would relish this one but Jane Porter had me devouring her pages in no time at all. Man! The protagonist Martha Zinser is a woman after my own heart.

She was raised in prosaic Seattle in a neighborhood that was drop dead boring, when finally she decided to pack in her trunks and head to where all the action was- Manhattan, New York.

Martha Zinster is out to prove that she doesn’t need men come what may (and neither do half of us honey). No offense men but, with a Jane Porter novel you can either go and curl in your blue blankies or with your gun. They say that a woman attains fulfillment to the brim when she attains motherhood. Martha spurns procreation the au naturale way with a vengeance and opts to count on the sperm bank- where there are better options in choosing your offshoot rather than winding up with some dude that’s going to blame you for the rest of the chapters in your life.

That’s when Eva pops in. This bubbly spirited girl and her mom rock famously in and out of the usual fantastic relationship that a mother-daughter duo would normally share.

Then we have a twist, Martha’s mom falls seriously ill and it dawns on Martha that this could perhaps be the last chance that Eva gets to know someone else in her blood line. The next scene takes you back to the lore that Martha ran away from Seattle. Yup, The world sure is round.

Martha just can’t believe that she has to coexist with the staid nouveau rich that populates the neighborhood. She takes on snooty vile with aplomb. This advertising executive could care less, while the high town ladies prefer to look the other way when this willful woman jets across the town on her Harley hog.

And these pretentious homemakers who do nothing but flaunt their Mercedes SUV and their husband’s wealth are determined not to admit this heathen into their fold. Martha struts across the town in her Manalos as she opens her new advertising agency and sticks out as polar bear in Sahara among other coquettish ladies who are dressed to kill even in their homes.

Martha enrolls Eva in a local school and this tender young ten year old gets taken by moms who appear so feminine and gentle that she longs for her mom to be one rather than the regular Maddona. And try Martha does when she takes on school chaperoning and other board duties, which ends in nothing but a total disaster.

To top it all off she just had to trip on her heartstrings over the luscious billionaire Luke Flyn. The ever scheming cats prowling about the town in the guise of la-di-dah damsels lends the extra character to the novel as the plot thickens.

Our superwoman is caught in quandary whether she has let love in or uphold her high and mighty loud image and maintain love where it should be- at arms length.

This is a triumph of a book. Every beat, character and nuance of a plot complements each other perfectly. Single mom Martha’s love for her daughter is portrayed so purely and vice versa. And that no matter how prickly the relationship, its foundation is steeply founded in love.

It gives great insight into a woman who is caught up in building her tough as nails image she loses sight at times of what her heart really aches for. The masquerade that her jeans and boots pulls fails to hide, she realizes all this time she was actually running away from one of the most permanent things in life-Change.

This is a great read if you believe in woman power and especially in living on your dictum’s when everything else screams out CONSERVATIVE with a capital C.

Will she or won’t she be able to carve an alcove for herself and Eva in this forsaken place? All this and much more remains to be seen as Jane porter unfurls her Odd mom out; “Flirting with Forty” (Jane Porter)

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