cover image The Daddy Clock

The Daddy Clock

Judy Markey. Bantam, $21.95 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-553-10783-8

In her offbeat, light first novel, Markey puts a reverse spin on common perceptions of gender. Single, 44-year-old Chicago sportswriter Charlie Feldman has everything he wants in life except a kid. Enter divorced advice-column assistant Lacy Gazaar, who, at 35, already has a daughter about to enter college and is looking forward to getting her own life back. As the two become friends, Charlie finds that Lacy will do anything in her power to help his cause--including helping him compose personal ads--except become the mother of his children. But then Lacy gets pregnant. Told in alternating first-person chapters, the novel is, surprisingly, more successful when Charlie does the talking. Markey's insights into the male ego are frequently spot-on, while the girl-talk of Lacy and her female cohorts rings false. Despite some snappy dialogue, the unabashedly silly concept works better in theory than in practice. Because of the novel's coy humor (and a plot that telegraphs its every turn), the only readers likely to be fully satisfied with this tale are those who haven't already seen the topic of fatherhood lust covered (with comparable depth) on gab-TV. (Jan.)