Passing Remarks by Helen Hodgman

When middle-aged, academic Rosemary meets twenty-seven-year-old Billie-a woman with a tough bike and even tougher attitude-she goes weak at the knees. Yet when Billie speeds off on a soul searching bender through the Australian outback, Rosemary is left to ponder love and longevity, and weather a few adventures of her own.

Cooped up for the summer with the eccentric Daphne-who is busy transforming her body into a tattooed biography of her mad mother's life-Rosemary unwittingly winds up with a leading role in a lesbian porn flick, loses her car to a shears-wielding murderer, and still finds time to compost her garden and miss Billie to no end. Yet as each woman's path twists through a hilarious comedy of manners and mishaps, one fact remains:relationships lie in the sometimes capable-sometimes careless-hands of coincidence.

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This is an extremely funny novel about the culture shock experienced by a 51-year old Australian lesbian who takes a motorcycle-riding lover nearly half her age. By the time she wins $30,000 in the lottery, Rosemary has spent more than a few years slightly bored with her life as an academic. With her new fortune, she leaves her job and looks forward to lazing in her garden. Her unexpected affair with the slim, boyish Billie somehow leads Rosemary to helping solve a string of car thefts and landing a role in a homemade S/M film. Hodgeman's novel will be a terrific read for anyone looking for witty dialogue, surprising plot, and lots of humor. --Rebecca Brown