Synopses & Reviews
From the author of the highly acclaimed
In the Drink, a smart and sexy exploration of New York and its customs through the eyes of a disillusioned, yet secretly hopeful, gay man.
Jeremy Thrane is a thirty-five-year-old writer in love with a married man. For years, Jeremy has posed as "archivist" to Ted Masterson, a Hollywood action star. Jeremy maintains Ted's New York brownstone and guards the secret that could destroy his career. But when Ted and his movie-star wife, Giselle, adopt a child and become America's most-photographed family, Jeremy finds himself without a job and, more importantly, bereft of the love of his life.
With the same wit and authenticity that have made her a critical and popular favorite, Kate Christensen chronicles Jeremy's search for a new start as he ventures to every corner of the New York landscape, from watering holes where gossip columnists await an "item" to dives where waiters and busboys are eager to please patrons especially after their shifts are over. In his spare time, he struggles to finish a novel based on his father's peripatetic life as a fanatical Marxist and turns out sizzling pornography for a one-man enterprise run by an old high school acquaintance. His sister, an up-and-coming rock musician, and his thrice-married, former flower-child mother, who found her true calling as a poet late in life, provide the mixture of criticism and compassion Jeremy has known all his life and now, for the most unexpected reasons, finally learns to appreciate.
A fast-paced and funny social satire, Jeremy Thrane deftly captures the slippery chameleon quality of American identity, the power of youth and beauty, and the complexity of love.
Review
"Years from now, readers will speak of Kate Christensens New York the way they speak of Joyces Dublin or Dickenss London. Jeremy Thrane is a warm-blooded, clear-eyed portrait of a great city at the turn of the millenium, evoked through vivid characters, robust prose, and a confident eroticism. Best of all is Jeremy Thrane himself, old enough to know better, but young enough to keep trying, one of the most engaging narrators in recent memory. He is alternately witty and lyrical, judgmental and compassionate, smart-mouthed, and tender; a real, complicated guy, in other words. This lovely book could not ask for a better narrator, and New York could not ask for a better elegist that Kate Christensen." James Hynes, author of The Lecturers Tale and Publish and Perish
Review
"Two years after her well-received debut, Christensen (In the Drink) delivers a knockout sophomore effort, once again set against the backdrop of a glitteringly grungy downtown Manhattan....Chistensen's sumptuous prose is both wicked and wise, resulting in a smart, sassy urban tale. Her wit is as acerbic as ever, but the laugh-out-loud humor of her first novel has been exchanged for something darker and more provocative. Young, hip readers will be pleased by this stylish endeavor and will agree that Christensen is establishing herself as an edgy chronicler of the Naked City and its struggling inhabitants." Publishers Weekly
Review
"A spirited take on the oft-told tale of a life falling apart, then patching itself together again: witty, humane, romantic, and just gossipy enough to keep you flipping pages....Credible? Just barely. Fun? Immensely. As a chronicler of hip urban travails, Christensen...is first-rate." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Everybody knows a Jeremy Thrane, but only Kate Christensen has the explosive talent to put his hilarious, wry voice into a sparkling, witty, and smart prose that surprises on every page." Jenny McPhee, author of The Center of Things
Review
"Like a latter-day Evelyn Waugh, Kate Christensen skewers the landscape of todays New York City in her new novel, Jeremy Thrane, eviscerating gays and straights; movie stars, models, musicians, and artists; hangers-on and wannabes, all with equal opportunity strokes. Yet beneath the books sharp satiric surface lies a depth of compassion that raises it far above most contemporary novels. Christensens is an astonishing voice." Henry Flesh, Lambda Literary Awardwinning author of Michael and Massage
About the Author
KATE CHRISTENSEN is the author of the novel In the Drink. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.