Pasternak, Anna

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Pasternak, Anna

PERSONAL:

Children: Daisy.

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, England.

CAREER:

Writer, novelist, biographer, and columnist.

WRITINGS:

Princess in Love (nonfiction), Dutton (New York, NY), 1994.

More Than Money Can Buy, Book Club Associates (London, England), 1998.

Daisy Dooley Does Divorce (novel), 5-Spot (New York, NY), 2007.

Author of column, "Daisy Dooley Does Divorce," Daily Mail, London, England, 2004—.

ADAPTATIONS:

Princess in Love was adapted as a television movie.

SIDELIGHTS:

Anna Pasternak is a novelist and columnist based in Great Britain. She is the author of the column "Daisy Dooley Does Divorce," which appears in the Daily Mail of London. She is the grandniece of author Boris Pasternak, author of the well-known novel Dr. Zhivago. She lives outside of London, England, with her daughter, Daisy.

Pasternak's newspaper column served as the foundation for her novel of the same title, Daisy Dooley Does Divorce. Protagonist Daisy Dooley is thoroughly soured on romance. Nearing forty years old and childless, Daisy is recently divorced, a devastating blow considering how long it took her to get married in the first place. She has moved back in with her indulgent mother and her amiable pack of alliteratively named dachshunds. Now, she finds herself again facing the travails of dating, this time as a divorcée. Her forays into the pool of available men, however, prove to be disappointing, as she consistently fails to find a suitable partner. Eager to offer relationship advice are her two best friends, married Lucy and commitment-shy Jess. Overshadowing all of Daisy's dating efforts is her unrequited passion for Julius, now a successful businessman and a person she has loved since she was a teenager. Though he is married to someone else, Daisy still harbors a not-so-secret hope that she will be able to get together with him for a happily-ever-after relationship. As her dating failures mount up, and her reunion with Julius seems more unlikely, Daisy must learn to make her own decisions about her life, love, and happiness.

"Pasternak's writing is light and breezy," and "the novel never takes itself too seriously," commented a reviewer on the LiteratureChick.com Web site. The reviewer concluded that the book is "simply a fun, entertaining read." Booklist critic Hillary Hatton observed that this "deceptively cheerful novel deals with serious topics rarely approached in the genre" of chick lit, while still managing to provide readers with a "crowd-pleasing, fairy-tale ending." MBR Bookwatch reviewer Leslie Granier stated that "readers will love the cat fights but will be touched by the support and friendship shared between the characters. From her obsession with self-help books to her insecurities about dating, the humor shines through magnificently."

Pasternak is also the author of a nonfiction work, Princess in Love, which recounts the relationship between Diana, Princess of Wales, and Major James Hewitt. Pasternak recounts Hewitt's story of his affair with the internationally beloved princess. He claims to have been her lover for five years, even as Prince Charles neglected Diana while engaged in his own notorious extramarital affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 1994, Ilene Cooper, review of Princess in Love, p. 634; October 15, 2007, Hillary Hatton, review of Daisy Dooley Does Divorce, p. 32.

Maclean's, October 17, 1994, Bruce Wallace, "Purple Prose: A Kiss-and-Tell Book Exposes a Royal Affair," review of Princess in Love, p. 26.

MBR Bookwatch, December, 2007, Leslie Granier, review of Daisy Dooley Does Divorce.

New York Times, May 15, 1996, Caryn James, review of television movie Princess in Love.

Publishers Weekly, August 6, 2007, review of Daisy Dooley Does Divorce, p. 170.

Times Literary Supplement, December 2, 1994, David Starkey, review of Princess in Love, p. 6.

Wall Street Journal, November 17, 1994, Paul Levy, review of Princess in Love, p. A22.