Good Goods

Martha Clement, wife, mother,and interior designer par excellence, is smart, charming, attractive,imaginative, ambitious, funny and feisty, caring and combative, stylishand stubborn. On the theory that (1) things of beauty are joys forever,(2) God created beauty and joy, and (3) therefore she is performing holy work, Martha dauntlessly fights a one-woman crusade to bring taste andgrace to the interior of American homes and offices. Her weapons arebarbs and bon mots, tact, wit, and an honesty that spares no one, leastof all herself. In Cheever country, upper middle-classConnecticut, she is well on her way to becoming the foremost decoratorif she can only juggle her housekeeping, child-rearing, andhusband-tending. It's not easy, particularly when the clients want toslap paint on priceless old woodwork, the children are reaching theperilous age of consent, and amid community crises her spouse seemsintent of keeping her "the little woman." And it doesn't get any easierwhen Martha finds herself drawn to the sensitive, high-powered, sexyexecutive who is the husband of one of her clients - an attraction thatproves mutual. By turns antic and frantic, divided bythe demands of loyalty, lucre, and love, Martha forges on, whether inbucolic Connecticut, at work in the manicured luxury of Palm Beachpalaces or at play in picturesque Nantucket. Ultimately she makes vitaldiscoveries about the unexpected capacity (and limitations) of her body, her brain, and her heart.