You know when you think of the perfect retort for a heated situation after the event? Even decades after the event? That is the premise of The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs by Matthew Dicks. Although, it begins with shy, mild-tempered Caroline Jacobs telling the president of the PTA at her daughter’s school to fuck off. Excellent stuff.
“In the cafeteria of Benjamin Banneker High School, surrounded by crowded bulletin boards, scuffed linoleum, and the lingering smell of chicken nuggets, Caroline Jacobs had shouted a four-letter word.”
Within pages of ‘the scene’, Caroline is taking teenage daughter Polly on a road-trip, back to her home town to confront Emily Kaplan, her childhood best friend who unceremoniously dumped Caroline 25 years ago in the middle of the school cafeteria. It really is the stuff of dreams – who hasn’t had someone in their past that they would like to say “Hey, about that time when you did…” – and it often seems the more petty the crime, the greater the grievance. Continue reading