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Bruce Kohler is still sober, a rather astonishing fact given his history. He owes his sobriety (as much as it can be owed to anyone other than one's own self) to his friends Jimmy and Barbara. It's therefore very difficult to refuse to help Barbara when she asks him to help prove that her Al-Anon sponsor Luz did not murder Frankie Iacone, Luz's abusive rug-dealing married boyfriend. Can it get better than this? Of course it can. Bruce starts getting calls from Laura, his bipolar ex-wife. It seems her new boyfriend is also abusive. It's one thing to stay sober, it's a whole nother story to stop being an enabler, as Bruce finds out the hard way. He knows Laura is bad for him, and for his sobriety, but he still can't seem to stay away from her. As in DEATH WILL GET YOU SOBER, Bruce's friends are there for him. They help him as he tries to solve the crime, they try to help him deal with Laura, they serve as his sounding board and his wailing wall. This isn't always a good thing, but that's the reality of friends. Zelvin's characters continue to grow, as one would expect from people really working a 12-Step Program. It's not a smooth growth, and again that's the reality of working a program. The tangled web of relationships that Bruce steps into reads like some of the stories one hears at the beauty parlor or while working out: convoluted, full of angst, and all too real. Zelvin excels at this. What is lacking in LEAVE that was so wonderful in SOBER is Zelvin's acutely funny and spot-on take on 12-Step programs. The inside jokes that made SOBER a fun read don't seem to be in LEAVE, which is too bad.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, January 2010
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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