Sometimes Change is Good

On Wednesday, Quinn McKenzie changes her life. On Thursday, she tries to get somebody to notice. On Thursday night, somebody does.

Quinn McKenzie has always lived what she calls a "beige" life. She's dating the world's nicest guy, she has a good job as a high school art teacher, she's surrounded by family and friends who rely on her, and she's bored to the point of insanity. But when Quinn decides to change her life by adopting a stray dog over everyone's objections, everything begins to spiral out of control. Now she's coping with dog-napping, breaking and entering, seduction, sabotage, stalking, more secrets than she really wants to know, and two men who are suddenly crazy... for her.

Title: Crazy for You
Author: Jennifer Crusie
Start & Finished: 2/17/08
Published: 1999
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 325
Genre: Romance-Contemporary

Crazy for You by Jennifer Crusie is a novel about change and how other people react to someone’s personal change. Crusie based the book on her theory that“every time a woman changes, her community shifts with her, and the chances are good that the majority of the community is a little annoyed with her about that because they were comfortable where they were. I say "woman" in particular because women are so often seen as the wallpaper for other people's lives. "No matter what happens," people say, "I know I can count on my wife, my mother, my secretary, my daughter, to stand behind me because I know who she is. But the "behind every successful man" cliché changes radically when the woman behind the man stops gazing adoringly and begins to cha-cha.”

The thing that I love most about Crusie’s books is that you can’t really stick them in one specific genre. I guess the closest you’ll get is the term women’s fiction because there is romance, suspense, and even a inspirational feeling to every book I’ve read by her. The inspirational message of this book is that you don’t have to be stuck in a life you don’t want.

Quinn’s ex-boyfriend Bill, is one of those men that town’s love He’s a handsome football coach who wins (in other words, a God in a small town like this one) and he’s also bound and determined to get what he wants no matter what. He molded Quinn to fit his life and didn’t like it when she finally decided she had had enough after he took her dog to the pound. These kinds of abusive men (hardly ever physically, just mentally) usually won’t let go of their “possessions” easily and neither does Bill.

Crusie’s characters are wonderfully well-done. She could have easily made this into a depressing book because of the main topic being violence against women but with all of the side-plots going on (Quinn’s mother’s test run as a lesbian, her best friend Darla’s marriage in trouble because the local homewrecker is after he husband, and of course Quinn’s falling in love with her ex-brother-in-law) she manages to keep the humor that her books are so famous for.

Jennifer Crusie has some insight on this and quite a few of her other books on her official site. I took the quote in the first paragraph from an interview/essay that Crusie did for BarnesandNoble.com

My Other Posts on Crusie's Books:

Agnes and the Hitman (co-authored with Bob Mayer)