The Seductive Lady Vanessa of Manhattanshire

In this clever if one-note homage to Don Quixote from Kaufman (The King of Pain), a present-day Manhattan woman believes she is now Lady Vanessa of Manhattanshire. Maxine More’s horrified adult daughter, Emma, realizes that Maxine’s delusion has been brought on by her intense love of romance novels. To ensure Maxine’s safety, Emma hires a young woman to be Maxine’s Sancho Panza. After repurposing a discarded birdcage as a hoop skirt, Lady Vanessa sets about romancing the available men who fall into her orbit: a plumber who comes to fix her pipes, a gay neighbor, a homeless drunk on the street, and more. It turns out that Lady Vanessa’s and Maxine’s story is a manuscript written by Egyptian author Aisha Benengeli and translated from the Arabic by Oona Noor. As Oona nears the end of her translation, she comes across a “veritable literary SOS” from Benengeli, the wife of an arms dealer, and sets out to uncover Benengeli’s fate. Kaufman’s satiric targets are easy ones—romance novels and upper-crust manners—and the story-within-a-story contrivance adds little more than frosting. But fans of Cervantes, Jane Austen, and even E.L. James will enjoy the humorous nods to these literary forebears. (May)