Cover the Butter, by Carrie Kabak is a spirited debut novel in the chick-lit genre. Set in the United Kingdom, it is very reminiscant of Meave Binchey’s Tara Road. The novel follows the life of Kate Fanshaw as she wallows through four decades of ill-fated romances, weight gain and loss, pop chart singles, changing fashions, and bad hair days. Dominated by her controlling, Irish mother, Kate struggles to make decisions for herself. She even marries Rodney, a man with a wealthy lineage and steady but somewhat arrogant qualities in an effort to win her mother’s approval. Rodney’s obsession with sports and bedroom-military-fantasies add an odd bit of British humor and even Kate’s mother, Biddy, offer’s her own take on Rodney’s family, “where there is muck there is money.”

    
Her Catholic School friends Moira and Ingrid as well as her endearing Welsh Grandparents and a lovable Irish Aunt, Oona, help Kate along the way. Despite these outside influences Kate can’t seem to get out of her own way and falls time and again into the pit of parental guilt and tremulous family dinners. Kate’s mother always serves full course meals that are enjoyed with little talking. The meals are always ended with the phrase, “cover the butter,“ which indicates that it is all right to smoke and that a life lecture or family dispute is eminent. There is nothing worse than tainted butter!

    
What makes this book interesting is how the passing of time and the changing of a culture can be both adaptable for Kate and unapparent for Biddy as she is clearly stuck in the 1950’s. Over time, Biddy alienates Kate from the world. Worn down by her parents, her husband, and her growing disconnect from her son, Kate is finally compelled to make her own choices. This book is a great study on decision-making and maternal influence. Kate’s perpetual self-doubt is at times frustrating for the reader but Carrie Kabak’s writing style is so interwoven with poetic morsels one can’t help but bite. This excerpt is a wonderful example of how Kabak uses poetry to portray Kate’s inner thoughts:

 

Readers who enjoyed books such as Laurie Graham’s Future Homemaker’s of America, Fannie Flagg’s, Standing in the Rainbow, or Marcia Willett The Children’s Hour are bound to love Cover the Butter. It is well written, truly capturing the lifelong struggles between a mother and daughter, and will leave the reader looking forward to the next Carrie Kabak novel.