“I was born in New York,” writes Pamela Saraga. “My early life consisted of going into the Army, (my big sister was an Army recruiter), getting married, and having a son and realizing marriage is the third level of hell.”
Then “my son and I moved to my mother’s home in Oroville when she became legally blind. She helped us more than we helped her. I worked and went to Butte College until I got a job offer from the Post Office. A son is very expensive. Thirty seven years later I find myself retired with enough suppressed creativity to develop cold fusion, a space elevator and a nifty invention involving a reclining toilet seat, plus my book.”
The book is “Amazon Diet” ($13.95 in paperback from booklocker.com; also for Amazon Kindle) and though it’s on Amazon it’s sort of about that other Amazon (in South America) and it’s not really a diet book unless spending several weeks in the Suriname jungle being stalked by hired killers is one’s preferred way of shedding pounds.
It all starts with Stella’s mother, whose unkind comment about Stella’s weight goads her to cajole six friends into the “big adventure.” Stella “and her overweight friends would fly down to this primitive area and set up a wilderness camp with sparse provisions. Roughing it for four weeks, they would have to lose the weight.” Ann’s dog comes along, too. Otto is a “Chiweenie, part Dachshund and part Chihuahua.” Otto, says Ann, “is all I have left after the divorce except for the alimony and maintenance.”
It turns out Ann’s ex is not pleased at the expense, and he hires some ne’er-do-well guys to get rid of Ann and the rest, but (wouldn’t you know it) things don’t go so well for the men.
The women find themselves in a small village and soon the journey is underway to get back home. The villagers prove most helpful, and love is in the air. This fast-paced first novel is a fun read.
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