Libaire, Jardine 1973(?)-

PERSONAL: Born c. 1973. Education: University of Michigan, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES: Home—Brooklyn, NY. Agent—c/o Marlena Bittner, Little, Brown, and Company, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER: Writer.

WRITINGS:

Here Kitty Kitty (novel), Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to anthology Chick Lit, edited by Cris Mazza; also contributor to periodicals, including Fiction and New York magazine. Columnist, Nerve.com.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A second novel tentatively titled Seven Minutes in Heaven.

SIDELIGHTS: Jardine Libaire has been writing since she was child. In an online interview with Charlene McConnell for the Romance Reader's Connection, Libaire noted, "I've always somewhere pretty deep inside, wanted to write not just as a career but as a way of living, of being. That's melodramatic but true."

Libaire's first novel, Here Kitty Kitty, tells the story of Lee, an artist who has essentially abandoned her work and toils as a restaurant manager in the Tribeca section of New York City. The beautiful Lee is also a party girl who drinks too much and takes drugs. To further complicate her life, she spends money beyond her means and has become mired in debt. Some of her behavior can be traced to her continuing struggle with her mother's death two years earlier, but it also stems from Lee's selfishness and immaturity. She has been dating a wealthy, older man who asks her to marry him, but she finds herself falling for the younger Kelly, a man she hired as a bartender at the restaurant where she works. As Lee struggles to decide whether she will choose security or Kelly, she begins to mature and put the pieces of her life back together.

A Publishers Weekly contributor called Libaire's first book a "gorgeously written debut novel" that includes "deftly rendered scenes and flashbacks." Nevertheless, the reviewer viewed the novel as "more of an extended character study than a plot-focused narrative." In the New York Times Book Review, Suzy Hansen commented that "there are no easy epiphanies in this dark, tender book." Writing in Booklist, Joanne Wilkinson noted of Libaire's prose that "Some readers will be put off by her distinctive style, but quite a few others will be seduced by her cinematic writing and her vulnerable hipsters."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 2004, Joanne Wilkinson, review of Here Kitty Kitty, p. 1545.

Entertainment Weekly, May 3, 2004, Alynda Wheat, review of Here Kitty Kitty, p. 132.

Los Angeles Times, June 13, 2004, Mark Rozzo, review of Here Kitty Kitty, p. R10.

New York Times Book Review, June 20, 2004, Suzy Hansen, review of Here Kitty Kitty, p. 16.

Publishers Weekly, May 3, 2004, review of Here Kitty Kitty, p. 171.

ONLINE

Bookhaven Web site, http://thebookhaven.homstead.com/ (December 15, 2004), Amy Coffin, review of Here Kitty Kitty.

BookLoons.com, http://www.bookloons.com/ (December 15, 2004), Hilary Williamson, review of Here Kitty Kitty.

Gawker.com, http://www.gawker.com/ (December 15, 2004), interview with Libaire.

Romance Reader's Connection Online, http://www.theromancereadersconnection.com/ (December 15, 2004), Charlene McConnell, interview with Libaire.

RoundTableReviews.com, http://www.roundtablereviews.com/ (May, 2004), Tracy Farnsworth, review of Here Kitty Kitty.