Necklace of Kisses by Francesca Lia Block
#49 in my 50 book challenge for the year, Necklace of Kisses revisits Block’s most famous character Weetzie Bat at 40. A kind friend lent me an advance reader’s edition, as this book has not yet been released. “Where were the kisses, Weetzie Bat wondered”, as she considers her failing relationship with My Secret Agent Lover Man. In the wake of 9/11 he has shut her out, and now goes by Max. Weetzie escapes to a pink hotel. We are treated to tantalizing and too-brief chapters on the supporting characters, including Max, Witch Baby (who now goes by Lily), and Cherokee Bat. Most of the book concerns Weetzie’s magical adventures at the hotel as she encounters a surgically altered mermaid, a satyr, a sweet transvestite, fairies on the run, and more. Some of the encounters are charming, some are menacing, and all are underscored by Weetzie’s desire to meet with Zane Starling, a boy from her youth that she didn’t kiss and now wishes that she had.
Block’s prose is lyrical and well suited to her story of magical realism. Both the story and the characters are more grounded than many of Block’s previous works. It was a bold and interesting move to take the ethereal character of Weetzie and to bring her forward from 80’s LA to situate her more squarely in the harsh light of modern time. I suspect that the increased realism is informed by Block’s own relatively recent motherhood, since many of Weetzie’s meditations concern raising Witch Baby and Cherokee. There is a touching scene in which the daughters admonish Weetzie to dress her age, grow up and go home. “And now they had looked at her so coolly, as if she were only monstrous in her orange sneakers.”
Necklace of Kisses is a sequel to a well-loved and critically acclaimed teen-fiction series (collected as Dangerous Angels), yet I believe it will be marketed by publisher HarperCollins as adult fiction, or more accurately a crossover book, one that will be shelved in adult sections in libraries and bookstores, but purchased by both adults and teens.
I am hesitant to critique the book because I have such affection for the characters and their author. While I was thrilled to revisit some of my favorite characters, I’m not sure I liked them as well as I did their 80’s selves. One of the things I love about Block’s books is how she writes about food. Here, though, Weetzie is a lactose-intolerant, sugar-eschewing, teetotalling vegetarian. The descriptions of food were still good, but I found the numerous dietary restrictions distracting, and the food in this book didn’t sound as delicious as in previous books. Also, there were a few too many awkward brand name mentions. What discomfited me most, though, is the dreadful cover featuring a photo-realistic sparkly pink suitcase. (Weetzie’s suitcase in the novel is covered with tiny pink rosebuds.) I was embarrassed to be seen reading a book with that cover. I wished for a cover that was more impressionistic and ethereal, yet I wished that for the characters and the book as well. I wanted more balance between the magic and the realism, and instead Block veered too sharply between their extremes.