My Best Man

A Betrothed Couple's Hilarious Mutual Search For Happiness, Wealth...And Mr. Right! Meet Harry Ford...One of the esteemed Kansas Fords, he's traded a BMW and an Ivy League education for a beat-up Volkswagen and a flight attendant's wings. Now this disinherited blue blood is determined to land a red-blooded man who can make him forget about the millions he'd inherit if he brought home a bride before his next birthday. Enter Amity Stone...Harry never expected his soul mate to come packaged as a sassy, irreverent, ravishing blond...woman! With a bravado bigger than her beauty queen hair and a Texas drawl as thick as her mascara, Harry's new roommate has him captivated...if not converted. Why not marry, the willing, wonderful Amity, and collect his fortune? But now that Harry's just about to march down the aisle, temptation arrives in the tall, dark and handsome Nicolo Feragamo, and lust quickly turns to love. Now as the Big Day - and the Big Bucks - loom before him, Harry discovers that the road to happily-ever-after is anything but straight and narrow!From Publishers WeeklyHapless protagonist Harry Ford told his blue-blooded Kansas family he was gay when he was a teenager; his angry father changed his will to state that Harry must marry a woman by the time he's 24 or lose a multimillion-dollar inheritance. Schell's well-meaning, goofy debut novel focuses on the year--1984--that Harry, now a 23-year-old airline steward, oscillates between his gay identity and the possibility of marrying a woman. The devoted love he feels for his beautiful best friend, Amity Stone, may just be enough, he imagines, to turn him into a happy, heterosexual husband and nab him the family fortune to boot. Harry had thought he'd already foregone being rich, having turned up his nose at Ivy League colleges, law school and fancy cars, and choosing instead the freedom to be himself, date men and travel the world. And he falls hard for Argentine waiter Nicolo. But on the other hand, Harry's older brother, Winston, a closeted gay man, is licking his chops at the prospect of collecting his brother's inheritance, which annoys Harry. And then there's Amity, a Dallas wild child whose lust for wealth and luxury is equaled by her true feelings for Harry. The plot twists and turns, pitching money against emotional values and friendship against romantic love, but it and the promising premise escape the grasp of debut author Schell. The question of whether homosexuality can be chosen, changed or willed away is a hot topic, one that hopefully will be explored in fiction not so impeded by smug, unlikable characters and a self-consciously outr? narrative style. This book is light fare for those who like their gay fiction glossy, glib and giggly. Agent, Alison Picard. 8-city author tour. (May) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistSchell explores the many facets of friendship and love in this fast-paced page-turner interlaced with spiritual longing and possessed of an overall sweetness that's hard to resist. Harry Ford drives a beat up VW and works as an airline flight attendant despite the fact that he's from a wealthy midwestern family that has disdained him since his admission of being gay at age 17. His hated brother Winston will inherit everything from their recently dead father if Harry fails to marry at age 24 and remain married for 10 years. Though the stakes are multimillions high, he remains undaunted until he is dumped by Matthew. He then meets fellow attendant Amity Stone, a Fort Worth girl who's down-home and authentic, and they quickly become best friends. They'll marry, and continue with their various men, but who and what exactly is Amity Stone, who consumes increasing amounts of cocaine and whose life seems to be spinning out of control? Whitney Scott