Synopses & Reviews
Advance praise for Perfect Life
'Perfect Lifeis a vivid, fascinating snapshot of the way some of us live now. Jessica Shattuck"s engrossing, deceptively ambitious novel explores a wide range of subjects'"from the logistics of adultery and the complexities of friendship to the nuts and bolts of video game design and pharmaceutical marketing'"with a shrewd and sympathetic eye."Tom Perrotta, author of The Abstinence Teacher
'In graceful, lambent prose, Jessica Shattuck explores modern life, with all its moral ambiguity and complicated compromises, never judging, always illuminating. A beautiful book."Janice Y. K. Lee, author of The Piano Teacher
'Jessica Shattuck writes warmly and wryly of family, friendship, nature versus nurture, and the quest for the perfect life. This novel is smart, funny, and life-affirming in all its permutations."Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of The Scenic Route
Synopsis
Two years ago, Neil Banks walked into a bathroom in the Pacific Fertility Center to provide his former college girlfriend, Jenny Callahan, with the biological material needed to conceive a child. Becoming a father was not part of the deal: adrift in his postmodern Los Angeles lifestyle, he signed away all paternity rights. But on the day of the baby"s christening, Neil turns up at the church. His unexpected'"and unauthorized'"return to Jenny"s privileged East Coast world sends a shockwave through the families of Jenny and her two college roommates'"and sets off this keenly observed novel about fertility, biology, love, and American excess.
Elegantly written, Perfect Lifeasks the perennially daunting question: What is the perfect life? In her smart and timely new novel, Jessica Shattuck tells a story that is humorous and moving, enlightening and life-affirming.
Synopsis
"In this smart and engaging follow-up to her well-received debut, g, Shattuck focuses on three privileged Gen X college roommates who are now grown up, coupled up, and raising kids in pre-recession Boston. The cracks in their 'perfect lives' begin to show when the most precocious of the trio, a gorgeous striver named Jenny whose husband is infertile, makes the unconventional decision to have a baby with a sperm donation from Neil, her brainy, slacker ex-boyfriend from Harvard. . . . Stylish storytelling and sharp social commentary . . . make both topical and eminently readable."--
Synopsis
In Perfect Life, Jessica Shattuck once again displays her 'skewering gift for social commentary' (New York Times) in a uniquely modern chronicle of conception in the age of infinite possibility.
Synopsis
With her elegant prose, Shattuck manages to make her characters" stories feel both engrossing and utterly real.An excellent, resonant novel.A social commentary on rampant capitalism, unbridled science, love and fidelity.
Synopsis
"Jessica Shattuck's engrossing, deceptively ambitious novel explores a wide range of subjects . . . with a shrewd and sympathetic eye."--Tom Perrotta
About the Author
Jessica Shattuck is the author of The Hazards of Good Breeding (a New York Times Notable Book and a Winship/PEN Award finalist) and Perfect Life. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Believer, Wired, Mother Jones, and Glamour, among other publications. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.