White Bikini Panties is a novel tracking the life of Katrina “Trina” Elder of Chicago, 28 years of age, over the better part of a year while she goes through a series of life events, involving work, family, friends and romance, leading to a major decision by the heroine at the novel’s end. Trina can perhaps best be described as middle- the middle daughter of three sisters, middle management (if reluctantly so) at work, often middle of the road in her approach to life. She’s a good and recognizable person, fully modern yet generally and self-admittedly conventional in her goals, and importantly almost always open minded. The reader can relate in varying degrees to her family and friends as well.
Kelly James-Enger writes so well, with the familiar yet magical talent and feel that she has, to create true to life and fully believable people, and has a great ear for dialogue. In her fiction, even the more over the top personalities, like Trina’s friends Jane and Bobby, feel real and never like caricatures. Like Jane Austen’s timeless novels 200 years ago, this book focuses on its female characters, who are drawn with great depth and care. The author does not portray men with the same nuance and level of detail as she does her female characters, but those individuals too are portrayed as real people with real issues. We come to care about the people in the story, especially Trina.
The novel is framed by Trina’s relationship with her boyfriend Rick, who does two things, one early and one late in the novel, each with major impact on the heroine. The first one has Trina catching Rick on the verge of infidelity, the second one I will not disclose to avoid spoilers. Between those two events, the plot moves along at a seemingly relaxed pace throughout the course of the book, though several scenes towards the novel’s end bring things into focus for Trina and for us, in advance of the conclusion. Trina is never isolated, even though she lives alone, as she has a strong family and good friends to support her. The issues Trina deals with are normal issues of life, with a few more unusual things occasionally thrown into the plot, keeping things interesting.
Kelly James-Enger is also an excellent humorous writer, though the book’s approach is straightforward and not satirical. White Bikini Panties is the author’s second novel, and the author does a good job with the first person narrative, with her deft hand always non-intrusively in control. The narrative never feels rushed, and is kept interesting by useful techniques such as mid-chapter retrospective flashbacks, and different decisions about when to begin the action in any particular chapter. And yet when the novel ends, other than the disappointment of such a perfect story ending (what happens to our Trina after the novel concludes we will never know for certain, though we can count on her continuing to watch True Hollywood Story!), the reader is left feeling touched and hopeful. Above all, it is a fun book to read and enjoy from start to finish. What a terrific writer Kelly James-Enger is. I wish she wrote more fiction, and in the meantime that more people will discover her existing work. Five stars
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