Synopses & Reviews
Roy, a psychotherapist, and his first wife, Bea, a caterer, are the characters around which this hilarious and unpredictable novel revolves. The other players include their four children, their assorted friends and lovers, as well as Roy's subsequent two wives, one of whom he steals from a patient. Not to mention Bea's lover--the Russian imigri superintendent--her lesbian artist sister, and her caustic mother, the landlady of the chaotic building. Throughout the novel, Bea and Roy struggle to redefine the idea of family without giving up the fantasy of endless self-gratification. Entanglements, betrayals, couplings, and uncouplings abound, as each person seeks love and happiness in the free-for-all '90s. Roy, a psychotherapist, and his first wife, Bea, a caterer, are the characters around which this hilarious and unpredictable novel revolves. The other players include their four children, their assorted friends and lovers, as well as Roy's subsequent two wives, one of whom he steals from a patient. Not to mention Bea's lover--the Russian imigri superintendent--her lesbian artist sister, and her caustic mother, the landlady of the chaotic building. Throughout the novel, Bea and Roy struggle to redefine the idea of family without giving up the fantasy of endless self-gratification. Entanglements, betrayals, couplings, and uncouplings abound, as each person seeks love and happiness in the free-for-all '90s.
About the Author
Lynne Sharon Schwartz is the author of eleven books, including the novels
The Fatigue Artist and
Leaving Brooklyn and two short story collections. Her work has been anthologized in
The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Essays, and many other places, and her reviews, essays, and satirical pieces have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers. Her books have been nominated for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. She lives in New York City.
Praise for Lynne Sharon Schwartz:
"Lynne Sharon Schwartz fixes upon the world an anthropologist's clear eye, as though the contemporary, familiar-seeming people she writes about were members of a lost tribe whose habits and ways she has documented." --Daphne Merkin, Los Angeles Times