Honeymoon with Harry

Some books make better movies. Take this debut novel by screenwriter Baker%E2%80%94it's already been picked up by New Line Cinema/Warner Brothers%E2%80%94which no doubt will translate better to the big screen. Todd Cartwright, the wisecracking and churlish narrator whose womanizing and hard drinking have made him a legend in his own mind, falls hard for Tami Everett, a classy woman different from Todd in nearly every way. And her widower father, Harry, knows it and begins thinking up ways to scare Todd off. But Todd stands his ground. Before the couple can marry, however, a drunk driver kills Tami. Both Todd and Harry journey to a Caribbean island to spread the ashes of the woman they loved in vastly different ways%E2%80%94leading to unexpected hijinks and new depths of grief. Baker excels at creating memorable scenes, including one in a hospital morgue where Todd pummels the drunk driver's corpse and an adult encounter between Todd and a married woman in an island resort's linen closet. But the author also relies on melodrama, clich%C3%A9, and hyperbole, and Todd spends page after page wallowing in self-pity.