Soapsuds

by: Finola Hughes and Digby Diehl

Published by: Ballantine

Reviewed by Andrea Sisco

Who better than Finola Hughes to write the definitive satire of soaps? Hughes has won four Daytime Emmys between 1990 and 2002 and many Soap Opera Digest awards for her roles in General Hospital (1990-2002) and All My Children (1999-2003). She is currently the host of "How Do I Look?" on the Style Network.

Kate McPhee flees London and a betrayal by her lover and best friend, to work on a soap opera in Los Angeles. Her character on Live for Tomorrow is Devon Merrick, and she is a cop. The scriptwriters want her played in an edgy, hard way, with the possibility that she may be gay.

The book is a bit confusing at times with literary asides from Alice in Wonderland, script excerpts, and odd bits of dialogue, but you get used to the pace, which mimics the pace of Kate's insanely busy life.

Kate's inability to relate to the bitchy, matriarchal "star" of the soap, and the pneumatic California "Barbies" who are sprinkled through the cast, make it difficult for her. She finds friends among the make-up artists and crew, and eventually finds time to make friends in the "real" world.

You will enjoy Kate's growing fame, and her crazy situations, such as showing up at the Daytime Emmy award show in the same dress as her soap's star, who demands she go back to the hotel and change. This causes Kate to miss accepting her award when she wins!

One aside: I did dislike Kate's constant self-image problems when comparing herself to the tall, thin, and stacked young female colleagues. She imagines herself huge, with various rather gross attributes getting worse by the minute. This fades as the story progresses and as Kate realizes she has talents that the others do not possess.

Armchair Interviews says: Fun summer "beach read."