Review: This One Is Mine

Maria Semple's novel tackles the flaws and fantasies of modern romance.

By Amy Strauss
Published: June 11th, 2010 | 2:30pm

As a novel perfectly staged in the glitzy Hollywood Hills, This One Is Mine delightfully ditches the cliches found all too often in fiction centering around high-rollers and their extravagant shopping sprees and multi-acre estates.

Yes, the protagonist of this addictive page-turner, Violet Parry, a former television writer turned stay-at-home-mother, lives a cushy lifestyle as she attempts to embrace her slightly dull day-to-day existence, while her husband, a successful music industry player, acts as the ambiguous breadwinner. However, author Maria Semple strays from annoyingly detailing the Parrys extravagant catalog of designer goods. Instead, she keeps luxury on the periphery while deliciously concentrating on a strong, singular woman with a hard-driven past who, quite frankly, is on a path of destruction.

Semple, who too escaped her lavish television writer gig (her resume boasts involvement with Arrested Development, Mad About You, and Ellen), tackles the age-old adage that, so obviously, money cannot buy everything, especially happiness. Violet, who left her day job to tend to her newborn who's pushed off onto hired help anyway, speeds into a hazy, lachrymose realm of no-good self-worth. When a scruffy, small-time jazz musician named Teddy Reyes pops into her imperfect picture, she's ready to sail off into the mushy sunsets.

Thankfully, the witty and smart Semple decides to keep her characters off Cloud Nine, graciously preparing readers for the fact that this affair will end quite badly. Even more interesting, is how the author slowly reveals the notion that Violet's husband may not be quite the dimwit she thought he was in the first place. Teddy—who comically spills words about his past addictions and tribulations all too often—ironically enchants the lovesick Violet.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the marital mountain is Violet's jealous sister-in-law, the always-pining Sally, who has her own disastrous stew-spewing. The saucy, shallow woman becomes as much a part of This One Is Mine as Violet and finds her biological clock constantly ticking. With a desire to live as well-off as her brother's family, she hooks her controlling claws into a sports writer on track to become TV news star. Semple aptly allows both female characters to tiptoe incredibly close to each of their own desired edges, without allowing either—because of realistic circumstances and consequences—to jump in.

The concept of This One Is Mine, which the author reveals came from a deeply passionate poem by Hafiz (printed in the front of bound book), tackles the extreme feelings many face when confusing love with possession. The first few lines of the poem say it all: “Someone put you on a slave block and the unreal bought you / Now I keep coming to your owner saying, 'This one is mine.”

Semple, through clearly flawed characters and rule-breaking attractions, gorgeously triumphs staying away from an unnecessarily sugar-coated sweet ending. Although ridiculous in the most laughable of ways, the book's multi-pronged love stories swiftly dodge chick lit's cozy comfort zones and prove that real life love isn't always about bouquets of daffodils and sparkly diamond rings.

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ABOUT THE BOOK

This One Is Mine: A Novel

By: Maria Semple

320 pages