Synopses & Reviews
Patricia Marx is one of the finest comic writers of her time, as readers of the
New Yorker and fans of
Saturday Night Live already know. Her fiction debut is an endlessly entertaining comic novel about one woman's romantic fixation on her first boyfriend.
Marx's unabashedly neurotic heroine falls for philosopher Eugene Obello during her graduate school days in Cambridge, England. Why would anyone fall for a man who receives a grant to pursue Ego Studies? Why would that person remain obsessed, even after this guy marries and becomes a father? By "obsessed," we mean, well...sex and lusting and longing and hoping and waiting for this cad who is spread too thin. Her friends loathe him. Why can't she drop him? Is it because she was the only virgin on campus before she bumped into Eugene (a man who was hardly a virgin)? Is it because he kept a copy of the Magna Carta in his pocket? "You know what I think it really was?" she reflects. "He was a narcissist. I love narcissists...you don't have to buoy them up." When things get unbearable, our girl gives up trying to write her thesis and tries to give up on Eugene. She says good-bye to her dormitory room, decorated in a color she calls veal, and becomes a TV writer in New York on the hit sketch-comedy show Taped But Proud. Coincidentally, Eugene moves to New York as well to teach a seminar called "Toward a Philosophy of the Number Two" ("And if that goes well," he says, "they might let me have a go at the number three"). More years of lusting and longing, hoping and waiting. Until a spectacular event changes everything.
Review
"Marx's novel made me laugh so hard that I kept trying to read lines aloud to my boyfriend....[T]here's much to like and admire here, and, no doubt, there are many romantically obsessed friends to whom it can be recommended." Bliss Broyard, New York Times
Review
"A sprawling but very funny tale; if insecurity is the source of great humor, Marx has hit the mother lode." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"This humorous novel, filled with wacky and slightly off-kilter characters, is recommended for hip, urban readers who enjoy comedies of manners." Library Journal
Review
"I laughed at its audacity, and cried that I didn't write it." Steve Martin, author of Shopgirl
Review
"Despite improbable plot twists, minor plot inconsistencies, and a definitively uncatchy title, there are some laugh-out-loud moments." Booklist
Synopsis
From a celebrated humor writer for the New Yorker comes a brilliantly observed debut novel about the neurosis of romance and one single woman's hilariously unhealthy obsession with her first boyfriend.
Synopsis
Patricia Marx is one of the finest comic writers of her time, as readers of The New Yorker and fans of Saturday Night Live already know. Her fiction debut is an endlessly entertaining comic novel about one woman’s romantic fixation on her first boyfriend.
About the Author
Marx is Saturday Night Live writer, screenwriter, TV writer, and author of many books. She teaches humor writing at the New School in New York City.