Just the Way You Are

The storyline of "Bells Are Ringing": an beautiful, warm-hearted but naive answering-service operator gets involved in the woes of her clientele, especially a dashing handsome man-about-town. After her unwitting participation in a shady business situation lands her in trouble with the police, her appreciative clients rally 'round and save the day. Sound familiar? "Just The Way You Are" is a novel from that story.

I have no problem with remakes, tributes and revivals -- some of the best movies have been from Broadway hits, and occasionally vice versa. The fifties-flavor of this novel becomes much more understandable. It's not really a "contemporary" in the twentyfirst century sense. This is a story, hearkening in some measure back to roots in the Cinderella fable, where the sweet sunny-hearted heroine meets her dream prince masquerading as a humble workingman. The heroine is whisked away into high society and lives happily ever after. Oops, did we overlook "Pretty Woman"'s storyline, as well? Themes from Cinderella (true love sees past humble circumstances) and Beauty And The Beast (true love redeems and transforms a man) are romantic staples forever because they satisfy our desire for virtue-triumphant and love-conquers-all.

Nonetheless, I've adored quite a few Christina Dodd historicals, starting with Candle In the Window as well as Castles In The Air, both from the early 1990's. Also, her later governess series ("Rules Of ...") are all much stronger than this novel.

This one is fine as a beach book, a pick-up-and-lay-down amusement, but don't let it color your impression of Dodd's other works. In fact, if you do find this novel amusing, take a look at the video of "Bells Are Ringing", or listen to the original Broadway cast album. Judy Holliday singing, "I'm Going Back", a lament about her misadventures with men and her plan to give up her answering-service job to return to her old job at the Bonjour Tristesse Brassiere Factory -- is a treasure in itself.

This book was wonderful. The characters, Zack Givens & Hope Prescott were people I would like to call my friends.

This is a case of mistaken identity, and the author asks us to accept some pretty far-fetched stretchs (a preacher's daughter giving herself to a man that she knew by only one name...within a week of meeting him...), but they all work. The secondary characters were wonderfully rich, themselves. You will not be disappointed in this story.

As far as I was aware, prior to this novel, Ms. Dodd only wrote historicals. This is a great jump into contemporary!

Please, keep them coming!

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   Written on November 24, 2003
   Summary: Christina Dodd can be great, but...
Hope Prescott has a problem...she's a terrible bigot. She decides immediately that Zach is an evil despot because of hearsay and (it seems) because he's _rich_...which we all know means he must be evil because he employs 100s of people and doesn't give all his money away. She never took the time to make up her own mind about him. Not only that; she bad-mouths him to someone she thinks is in his employ (like her). I don't know about you, but in my experience that's not professional behaviour and her intolerance made me dislike her. I don't blame him for not telling her who he is after she jumps in insulting him the first time they talk. As it turned out, he was kind of a jerk sometimes, but that's besides the point. I think it was supposed to be a funny misunderstanding, but it just made me read her as shallow.