Sunday's at Tiffany's

By James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet

Jane is a rich little girl living in New York City with her Broadway-show-producer mother. Jane's parents are divorced and very busy so Jane is pretty lonely. To comfort herself she has an imaginary friend, a hunky man named Michael. Michael is always there with a good word, a friendly hug, a hand clasp; ready to laugh, joke, play and just be a real buddy to Jane. He is about the only friend she has. But guess what, when Jane turns nine, Michael tells her she is growing up and that it is time for the imaginary friend to go. He tells her that she will not remember him and so will not miss him.
But she does remember him and she does miss him and she never forgets him. In fact, she writes a hit play about their relationship and is approached to do a movie based on the play. Her boyfriend at the time is an actor who is doing his best to talk her into using him as the lead character based on Michael and her mother is heavily promoting him for the part too. So Jane is under a lot of pressure to knuckle under to their demands, but she just doesn't feel that he is right for the part.
Meanwhile, Michael has returned to New York City, apparently to be the imaginary friend for some lonely little kid. But instead he spies Jane, all grown up, and finds himself fascinated by her. Inevitably they met and Jane discovers her imaginary friend all over again. Michael brings sorely needed love and acceptance back into Jane's lonely life and it is true love from the first moment. But how can a adult woman find happiness in the arms of an imaginary friend?

This is the opening sentence of the book: "Michael was running as fast as he could, racing down thickly congested streets toward New York Hospital——Jane was dying there——when suddenly a scene from the past came back to him, a dizzying rush of overpowering memories that nearly knocked him out of his sneakers." So right off the bat, the reader is being led down the primrose path, told that the Jane character is dying in a hospital. This turns out to be a huge lie. Not only doesn't Jane die, she never even gets sick beyond a little food poisoning, which is presented in the story as a possible symptom of her impending health crisis which never materializes. I don't know, some readers may find this sort of misdirection charming and exciting but I didn't. I don't like being set up and I don't like being lied to. Also, I just could never buy into the whole imaginary friend plot. It just didn't appeal and seemed too silly.