| A Review of: International Date Line by W. P. KinsellaThis book could have been subtitled The Adventures of Airhead Anna.
Anna Woods could play the roles of both Dumb and Dumber. An immature
23-year-old, living in Toronto, she meets a sleazeball named Jack
who treats her badly, gives her the clap, and then disappears. But
she still loves him. Move ahead seven years and, approaching her
30th birthday, still thinking with her genitals, Anna reaches total
immaturity when she sells her condo, gives away her possessions,
including her cat, and flies to Budapest to meet Sleazeball Jack,
on the basis of only a few e-mails. He, of course, doesn't show
up when he's supposed to, and she meets a rather sweet Englishman
named Ian, who treats her well, which makes her suspicious of him.
Anna drinks like a fish, whines incessantly about quitting smoking,
usually while she's lighting up, and when she thinks she's pregnant
she is too stunned to read the results of the pregnancy test properly,
or do the unthinkable, take a second test. Ian is delighted she is
pregnant. She isn't delighted at all. She's still in love with
Sleazeball Jack, who eventually turns up, and there is a mild
confrontation between Ian and Jack. Oh, did I mention that Anna
of the kumquat-sized brain is not pregnant after all. There is
nothing wrong with the writing. I simply can't imagine anyone being
interested in a young woman so confoundedly stupid. Near the end
she gets all gooey about being Canadian, which has little to do
with anything. I'm sure some of these antics are supposed to be
humorous, but we never laugh with the pitiful Anna, and only
occasionally at her.
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