Gert Hardcastle is thirty-something and unlucky in love. She is also estranged from her mother, Jean. As Crocodile Soup opens, she thinks she has found "the one" - the enigmatic Eva, who serves coffee in the cafeteria in the museum where Gert works as a curator cataloging Egyptian artifacts. As Gert embarks on here hilarious and poignant pursuit of Eva, she looks back on her eccentric childhood and her relationship with Jean through a series of vivid and surreal flashbacks.

As she revisits her past, Gert brings to life the bizarre and endearing members of her family: her obsessive twin, Frank, with whom she commuicates telepathically; her father, George, who vanishes to Africa to salvage the family crocodile farm; her vain, neglectful mother, Jean; and the family ghost - a Victorian poet who haunts the attic. Gert's story is punctuated by terse, intriguing letters from Jean to which she does not respond, and ambiguous encounters with Eva.

In her struggle to come to terms with her mother, Gert opens up to Eva, and begins to understand more about her past. Is Gert destined to remain the scaffolding for those around her or will she find her savior? In a lyrical narrative studded with relentless humor and giddy self-deprecation, Julia Darling introduces an irresistible cast of characters whose shared story is unforgettable.

This is a strange story. Very hard to read and understand. I kept trying to figure it out. I gave it a 1 only because I thought I should rate it. Maybe a 0 would be better.

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Including this book in the Morphing Romance Bookbox. On it's way to Aramena.............Happy Reading!

Taking out of Citychc's Morphing Romance Bookbox.

Check out this book cover! With a cover like that I had to take a chance on reading it. It looks interesting!

Mt. TBR is out of control, so I have decided to let this book go without reading it.

Putting into the 16th round of Bookstogive's General Literature VBB.

This book hasn't been chosen in a couple of rounds, so I'm taking it out of Bookstogive's General Literature VBB.

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Left in the Little Free Library on Noonday Creek Trail, near downtown Woodstock. Enjoy the book!