FICTION

Dorothy Parker Drank Here

Putnam. Feb. 2015. 336p. ISBN 9780399166877. $26.95; ebk. ISBN 9780698137837. F
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Dorothy Parker doesn't want to go. Dead since the late 1960s, the late writer has refused to move on to the great beyond, preferring to pass the time drinking cocktails in the Blue Bar of the Algonquin Hotel and scaring the hotel staff. It gets lonely, however, seeing one comrade after another choose the white light, and she has decided she must convince someone to stay with her in purgatory. Enter Ted Shriver, a literary darling of the1970s-turned-recluse, who is himself about to shuffle off this mortal coil. But in Ted Dorothy meets her stubborn match, and it will require some help to convince him to sign the hotel bar's mystical guest book and stay with her once he dies. When young TV producer Norah Wolfe shows up looking for Ted, hoping to score the interview of a lifetime, Dorothy finds an unlikely coconspirator—and the two embark on a mission to help each other get the thing she so dearly wants.
VERDICT This sequel to Farewell, Dorothy Parker, is a quick, charming read that will delight Parker fans and stoke the curiosity of those unfamiliar with her great wit. A solid choice as well for those who enjoy light fiction set in New York.
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