Come Together: A Novel - Hardcover

Rees, Emlyn; Lloyd, Josie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375502327 ISBN 13: 9780375502323

Publisher: Villard, 1999

Synopsis

Original, perceptive and very funny, Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees collaboration is the first romantic comedy to be told from both the mans and the woman's perspective -- in alternate chapters. Jack Rossiter,  a single guy who'd rather run a marathon than have a relationship, meets Amy Crosbie, a beautiful and earnest woman who is looking for The Man.   Its a disaster from the start.  Jacks vaguely interested, but then Amy tells him that she was really interested in his best friend.  She tells him this after sleeping with him. Then he doesn't call and she wonders why.

But for some reason, Jack eventually does call Amy.  And they go on a date.  And another one.  They like each other.  They acknowledge they like each other.  Amy begins to think that she may have finally found her man, but she may be very wrong.

As the two voices reveal their story, which involves dates, drink, shouting matches, misunderstandings, a romantic weekend get-away, best friends, true love and undisguised lust, we experience a true modern romance through this unlikely couples amazing affair.

Come Together is the story that proves that love is still possible even for the most improbable people.

Meet Jack. . .
Jack Rossiter.  I'm twenty-seven years old, single, and live with my best mate, Matt.  Matt and I started hanging out when we were eight.  Life was simpler then.  Our idea of fashion was polyester.  I told him that I wanted to be a spy and he asked me who Id marry.  I imagined falling in love with a girl so perfect I couldn't even guess her name.  Things have changed since then.  I did fall in love for a while but it didn't work out.  And single is good, single is fun.

Meet Amy. . .
I know this all sounds dramatic, but H (my best friend) knows my horrible secret. . . Oh, God, I cant even bring myself to think about it, but the truth is. . . .I haven't had sex for over six months. I guess this technically makes me a virgin...  Whatever it makes me, its not normal for a healthy twenty-five year old girl. SIX MONTHS!  I mean, I've got my own flat, I've got A levels -- so come on down Mr. Right.  At least it would get my mother off my back.

NOW FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY MEET EACH OTHER. . .

About this title

About the Author

Josie Lloyd is the author of IT COULD BE YOU published by Orion, UK.  She has worked in marketing for a computer company, has been a nanny, and has lived on a kibbutz. She now lives and writes in London.

Emlyn Rees is the author of THE BOOK OF DEAD AUTHORS published by Headline, UK.  He lives and writes in London.

From the Back Cover

"COME TOGETHER has a certain kind of zippy freshness, as twentysomethings Jack Rossiter and Amy Crosbie lurch between assorted emotional meltdowns in their search for love in contemporary London. . . deftly executed."
-- The Daily Telegraph

From the Inside Flap

rceptive and very funny, Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees collaboration is the first romantic comedy to be told from both the mans and the woman's perspective -- in alternate chapters. Jack Rossiter, a single guy who'd rather run a marathon than have a relationship, meets Amy Crosbie, a beautiful and earnest woman who is looking for The Man. Its a disaster from the start. Jacks vaguely interested, but then Amy tells him that she was really interested in his best friend. She tells him this after sleeping with him. Then he doesn't call and she wonders why.

But for some reason, Jack eventually does call Amy. And they go on a date. And another one. They like each other. They acknowledge they like each other. Amy begins to think that she may have finally found her man, but she may be very wrong.

As the two voices reveal their story, which involves dates, drink, shouting matches, misunde

Reviews

Collaborating as alternating male and female voices, Rees (The Book of Dead Authors) and Lloyd (It Could Be You) draw a slacker-love roadmap that allows readers of each gender to see what the other really thinks. Currently engaged to marry in real life, the writing couple have created West London Bridget Jones-wannabes Jack Rossiter and Amy Crosbie, who rival their precursor in list making and neurotic fretting, if not in charm: each has a sardonic, unapologetic edge that makes them less endearing than Bridget. At 25, chronic office temp Amy hasn't had sex for months. Struggling artist Jack, 27, sees his single life as "a state of siege" (his rule of thumb: don't give up complete no-strings-attached sexual freedom until your "Uberbabe" comes along). The two meet, talk all night, immediately go off to obsess about each other. Amy's judgment of Jack by "vital statistics" makes us wonder about the depth of the mutual attraction, but as one watches them endure every possible relationship pratfall and misunderstanding, the emotional ante rises for a happy-ever-after. Their biggest blowup is the most interesting, if only for its current-events echoes: does Jack's "accidental fellatio" count as infidelity? Gen-Xers will find all of their culture and conflict in these pages?honesty, jealousy, vacations from hell, condoms. Anyone over 35, however, will be as dismayed as they are entertained by the jadedness and naivete of the characters' concerns. Agents, Vivienne Shuster and Jonny Geller. Rights sold in Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Greece; film rights to Working Title Films; author tour.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Its he said/she said time in this jointly authored debut describing the rocky course of true love from the vastly differing perspectives of the man and the woman in question. Jack Rossiter is one of those struggling young artists who get down on their knees early every morning before they go to bed and thank God that He has spared them the torments of a real job. A painter living in London, Jack works a couple of days a week at a chichi Mayfair gallery but spends most of his time drinking with mates and picking up girls. He lives in an old pub owned by his best friend Matt (a lawyer), and he and Matt are able to make good use of the still-intact bar and pool table to throw some of the most raucous parties in West London. Somehow or other, Jack sleeps with Amy Crosbie one night, thereby setting in motion a chain of events he could never have imaginedrelated here in chapters that alternate between Jack's and Amy's first- person narratives. Amy is an aspiring fashion designer working as a temp, and once Jack gets around to giving her a morning after call a couple of weeks later, the two get together with a vengeance, and Jack actually falls in love. They go to Brighton together, learn how to hold hands in public, and everything is fine until Jack seduces an artists model and Amy finds out. Jack professes sorrow, but Amy is not so sure. Can she trust this character? Would you? Fortunately for the reader, the course of true love is crooked enough to keep the story moving in interesting directions, but not so tangled as to keep it from straightening out nicely in the end. Standard boy-meets-girl stuff, but told with real wit and flair. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Written in alternating he-said, she-said chapters, this postmodern love story was written by a London couple who met just a few weeks before beginning their manuscript. Their frantic, always self-absorbed narration charts the course of two falling-in-and-out-of-love characters, Jack and Amy. As the novel opens, Jack is a strugging artist and part-time gallery clerk, and Amy is a bored temp who wants to break into the London fashion business. Their romance involves plenty of passionate bed scenes, love triangles, romantic getaways, misunderstandings, and moments both perfect and cynical. Each one spends many hours trying to figure out the opposite sex. Depending on their age, readers will find Come Together wonderfully authentic and revealing or boring and predictable. Twentysomethings in search of true love who enjoyed Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary (LJ 5/15/98) have another good read in store.AKeddy Ann Outlaw, Harris Cty. P.L., Houston
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Villard
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0375502327
• ISBN 13: 9780375502323
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 289