A darkly comic novel from the author of Blonde and We Were the Mulvaneys
In Salthill-on-Hudson, a half-hour train ride from Manhattan, everyone is rich, beautiful, and -- though they look much younger -- middle-age. But when Adam Berendt, a charismatic, mysterious sculptor, dies suddenly in a brash act of heroism, shock waves rock the town.
But who was Adam Berendt? Was he in fact a hero, or someone more flawed and human? His loss and the rumor that surface of his possible lovers plunge his friends into grief, confusion, and self-reflection. The women who loved Adam find themselves engaging in life-altering romantic adventures. The men who were Adam's closest friends become utterly transformed in his absence. Adam's lawyer, Roger Cavenagh, who has broken the law for Adam's sake, becomes invlolve with an elusive and perhaps treacherous young woman. Marina Troy exiles herself to fullfill a wish Adam had made for her. Lionel Hoffman sets out, unwisely but with great hope, to recapture his lost youth after a lifetime of soulless financial success, even as his wife, Camille, discovers an unspeckable joy close to home. Augusta Cutler, a hitherto sensuous, unreflective woman defiantly endeavors to solve the mystery of Adam's origins, even if it means losing her marriage and family.
Middle Age: A Romance is an intimately drawn, richly sympathetic, yet unsparingly comic portrait of the affluent class at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Incisive, insightful, and never predictable, it's a uniquely American sage of self-determination and identity from one of our finest writers of contemporary fiction.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Medal of Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, and has been several times nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde, which was nominated for the National Book Award, and the New York Times bestseller The Falls, which won the 2005 Prix Femina. Her most recent novel is A Book of American Martyrs. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.
A romance? The hero dies in the opening pages, adolescents renounce their parents and the grownups aren't true to themselves, much less each other, because they have no idea what they are. In the Lexus-crowded town of Salthill-on-Hudson, husbands and wives share beds in which the linens meet more crisply than the bodies. "How eternal is a single night, and of what eternities are our long marriages composed!" And yet romance is deep in the bones of this soaring epic of renewal and redemption, an Easter of the flesh, a Viagra of the soul. Sculptor Adam Berendt goes into cardiac arrest while saving a child from drowning, and so redeems the 50-somethings of Salthill with his death; he confers the idea and the actuality of grace on their lives. It may be said of Oates's oeuvre that it is a long marriage between author and reader, composed of many eternities. Her sentences seem to contain more sentiment per word than anyone else's. She punishes us with terrible truths: Death lurks at every window and Eros is a demon, worshiped at awful cost. In marriages charged with such import, one must cheat in order to breathe, as Augusta Cutler discovers after Adam's death, when she leaves her husband, Owen, to ferret out the truth about Adam, and herself, and to find respite. Reminiscent of her powerful Black Water, but equipped with a happy ending, Oates's latest once more confirms her mastery of the form. (Sept. 10)Forecast: Of late, Oates can do no wrong. Deep in her career, she is pulling out the stops again. Since the success of Blonde, and Oprah's February 2001 selection of We Were the Mulvaneys, more readers than ever will be gravitating to her new work (and her backlist, too), and they should be thoroughly satisfied with her latest offering.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Shipping:
US$ 4.25
Within U.S.A.
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: Acceptable. Item in acceptable condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00072064291
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00073612200
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: More Than Words, Waltham, MA, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. . Former Library book. All orders guaranteed and ship within 24 hours. Before placing your order for please contact us for confirmation on the book's binding. Check out our other listings to add to your order for discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # BOS-X-15b-00826
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: BookHolders, Towson, MD, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. [ No Hassle 30 Day Returns ][ Ships Daily ] [ Underlining/Highlighting: NONE ] [ Writing: NONE ] [ Edition: first ] Publisher: Ecco Pub Date: 9/4/2001 Binding: Hardcover Pages: 480 first edition. Seller Inventory # 6160195
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 2.05. Seller Inventory # G0066209463I4N00
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Former library book; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 2.05. Seller Inventory # G0066209463I4N10
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Missing dust jacket; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 2.05. Seller Inventory # G0066209463I4N01
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Half Price Books Inc., Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_348803977
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Condition: Very Good. 1st ed. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects. Seller Inventory # 9127787-6
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Bookmarc's, Houston, TX, U.S.A.
Trade Paperback. Condition: Very Good. BX4 - A trade paperback book in very good- condition. A tight, clean, sound copy in color wraps with very minor overall shelf wear primarily in the form of a crease on the front cover at the bottom right corner. A novel set in Salthill-on-Hudson, an enclave a half-hour train ride from Manhattan. Everyone there is rich, beautiful, and middle-aged. A charismatic, mysterious sculptor lifing there dies suddenly in an act of heroism which shock waves through the community. People are torn between seeing him as a hero or more realistically, flawed and human. By the author of "We Were the Mulvaneys," "First Love," "Angel of Light," "Bellefleur," "Unholy Loves," "Cybele," "Son of the Morning," "Childwold," and "The Assassins." 464p. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Seller Inventory # SCW09025
Quantity: 1 available