The value of valuing yourself (Universal Studios, LA, over one week present-day): Ann Garvin knows what women want and don’t want. Meaning she knows what readers want.
Armed with her literary toolbox, her trademark comedic voice covers up a fifty-year-old Midwesterner’s heartache (from Madison, Wisconsin where the bestselling author of the feel-good genre hails from), Garvin cleverly casts her new starring female character – Poppy Lively – in a make-or-break costume assistant job in the Wardrobe Department of Universal Studios demanding a different type of toolkit.
Poppy may not have the remarkable tools of creative genius Edith Head, iconic fashion designer for much of the 20th century, but she’s infused with the same witty, warm, candid, wish-we-were-friends traits as her creator. So you’ll be rooting for Poppy the moment you meet her.
On page 1, line 3, a word is repeated three times when Poppy’s world, on the brink of collapsing, must do what Garvin has excelled at, coaching herself: “You are good at pivoting. You are the pivot. Be the pivot.” Garvin pivoted from thirty years as a registered nurse with a doctorate in exercise physiology. Wellness fitting the image of someone who turned from comforting patients to comforting readers, also founding the women’s writing group Tall Poppies, called “a unique force in the publishing industry.”
What Poppy lacks, notably, is confidence. Desperately, she needs to muster up enough when thrust into a world far removed from her comfort zone that’s not what it seems, whereas Poppy wears her heart for everyone to see. A pleaser, not a wanter. A survival mechanism self-taught when you’ve navigated your world doing what you were told to do and doing what you think others want, not “wanting” for yourself.
Borne from significant others treating Poppy as valueless, “dispensable”: her unhappy-in-marriage mother who left her; belittling father; biological dad leaving her to singlehandedly raise her attached-at-the-hip daughter Robyn, now seventeen, headed to college after the summer plot time ends; and the ex- she thought was “the one who got away,” nicknamed Three.
That’s a lot of abandonment. Something Poppy can’t bear to do to Robyn, who’s given her a breather to fix what may be unfixable, working over the summer as a nanny for a Manhattan family before she heads to train to become a nurse. Like Garvin was. Like Poppy’s best friend Chelsea is.
The victim of an IRS crime that wiped out her entire bank account, Poppy trusted the wrong person. Stings, when you’ve “adapted” but “never let your guard down.” Knowing whom to trust is still a huge problem for Poppy when she lands in a fake, fantasy world where nothing is what it seems to be.
Expect Pecking Order Treatment. False Assumptions. Favoritism. Miscommunications. Bullying. Accusations. Schemers. Crooks. Malcontents. An intimidating task masker among the beautiful people. Hard to know if Poppy is beautiful on the outside being so self-deprecating. What we come to know is how beautiful she’s on the inside.
If you’ve read one or more of Garvin’s four other novels (see her last: https://enchantedprose.com/i-thought-you-said-this-would-work/), or subscribe to her lively newsletter, you’ll recognize that no matter how zany, unreal “There’s No Coming Back From This” is Garvin is after joy. Poppy so deserves that.
In Garvin’s July 10, 2023 newsletter about her new novel she lists three good-hearted goals she wants readers to take away – and achieves:
- “I hope I make you smile.
- feel good about being a messy human.
- sometimes I hope you feel seen.”
As if the theft of her finances isn’t enough, Poppy couldn’t/didn’t predict that taking over her father’s Coupons by Mail business would become irrelevant when people pivoted to online shopping, eliminating the need for paper coupons. Ironic, since these days Poppy knows her way around the Internet and social media: that in a moment’s notice she could be “Deleted,” “Erased,” in a “must hire,” “below-the-line” job that’s more important than you might think. Like Poppy.
Prejudice thrives even in dreamy La La Land. Poppy’s “Midwest Hello” is treated like a “cartoon” character.
Poppy wins over our hearts and minds as she’s so good-natured, maternal, caring even when others don’t seem to care or treat her with respect. How long can she keep up the “stress-joking” when so much is unfair, unequal, at stake?
Beneath the smiles and laughs, there’s life lessons when Three pops up years later and offers Poppy a lifeline, he now a Hollywood producer for Universal Studios. Set over one week that Poppy and the reader feel takes place over months as so much goes wrong. Ludicrously and realistically.
No wonder Poppy’s racing around all hours of the day and night panicked she won’t measure up. Berated, intimated, mocked, watched, put-on-notice. Gavin, always relatable, shapes Poppy as a woman “saying yes when you don’t know how to say no.” In this alien, whacky landscape how can she assert herself when no means you’re out?
Garvin’s toolbox is deep and wide, so there’s room for a few good souls to be fixtures on Universal’s lot. Not only humans, but dogs. In 2020, she wrote in her newsletter on the “wonder of dogs” and how her dog Peanuts was like “a person,” like a member of your family. Again, hallmark Garvin, who includes dogs in her novels since they’re unconditional sources of comfort and companionship.
Kevin, a soothing tiny dog no one wants, ends up with Poppy, clinging to her chest as she runs around in circles. Kevin like everything else in this on-the-surface glittering world isn’t whom you think he is. The movie-in-the-making stars three dogs Poppy is also accountable for. More than Poppy should be asked to do. Like women – Garvin’s mantra.
Room too for a legendary movie star, the human star in the movie being filmed, living in one of the trailers at Universal who’s not what the rumors say he is. A revengeful young lady who carries a grudge who isn’t as she appears to be either, and a Teamsters Union member, tough on the outside, grieving inside.
Poignancy threads throughout. It’s the sadness of Poppy believing, “Nobody wants me” (except Robyn and Chelsea; family and friendships matter profoundly.) Poppy yearning to be appreciated. Valued.
Garvin’s message transcends Poppy. It’s always about women: “It didn’t matter how far you’d come in the world of competency; women were always judged by their outward appearance.” Poppy doesn’t dress for the kill; she barely can find the time or money to dress at all.
An LA memory haunts her: the sight of looking into the eyes of a homeless woman in a city with so many unfathomably rich people yet homelessness is staggering (over 75,000). If you’ve been there, you’ve seen it. If not, Garvin makes us see what Poppy does: Life is fragile. We too could one day, out-of-the-blue, find ourselves on the “struggle bus.”
It’s not just about watching your back. It’s about watching someone else’s back. Not letting allure blind you. Value more than beauty and money. Work to stay true to yourself. Follow a moral compass. Respect the dignity of all. Kindness goes a long way.
As for making readers happy, Garvin has mastered the art.
Lorraine