Yoga teacher novel starts strong but fizzles
Nina is a yoga teacher whose studied calm on the job masks an
increasingly out-of-control domestic life. Her normally
sober-minded husband is laid off work in an outsourcing, and
proceeds to blunder into misadventures with a hard-nosed Homeland
Security agent and a lap-dancer named Xenon. Nina's son, seduced by
attending an opulent bat mitzvah, decides he wants a bar mitzvah,
taking advantage of the Jewish roots Nina had rejected in favor of
Unitarianism. And Nina's parents, including her overbearing and
suspicious mother, drop in for a visit.
The story unfolds in a series of scenes that rotate among the
main characters. It gets off to a promising start with some funny
situations and good one-liners.
A beginning yoga student, meekly entering a class during quiet
time, adopts "an exaggerated pretense of civility, or else her
interpretation of Marcel Marceau imitating a burglar." A wealthy
high school student who bought a souped-up iPod with her ton of bat
mitzvah money passes on her old one to a friend "like it was a
half-eaten tuna sandwich." A rabbi bears "a full beard with the
texture of a Brillo pad."
Just as enticing are Galant's takes on suburban life, such as
her descriptions of the women in Nina's yoga classes. And the
author deftly portrays the petty resentments that build up between
spouses.
As Nina's life unravels, it looks like the story is headed
toward an inventive, screwball climax. But then, somehow, the fizz
goes flat. Instead, toward the end of the book, loose ends are tied
up in a way that is, well, workmanlike.
Nonetheless, it's a breezy read, a beach book. If that's what
you're after, this will do the trick.