Fiction: “Don’t Make a Scene” by Valerie Block

Diane Kurasik, 40 years old, single, manager of the Beford Street cinema, finds herself in a summer of unexpected change. Evicted as her building is bought, romantically uninvolved but searching, searching, searching, expanding her theater… She continually compares her life to the movies and finds it lacking (who doesn’t, right?). And then the last third of the book unexpectedly (to me) turns into a May-September story (is that what you call it? a younger/ older romance?).

I really enjoyed this but I wasn’t very interested in the character of Vladimir and found it hard to believe Diane was either. Javier, on the other hand, I could understand.

Loved the movie references and the bits of history (wow, I will never look at Cary Grant the same way ever again). It’s referential the way the “Special Topics in Calamity Physics” was…except this is both better written and better edited. (Completely different type of plot, however.)