Items related to Preston Falls
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Jernigan introduced David Gates as a novelist of the highest order. "Full of dark truths and biting humor," wrote Frederick Exley, "a brilliant novel [that] will be read for a long time."
After that blackly comic handbook of self-destruction--whose antihero shoulders up to such crucial American figures as Bellow's Herzog, Updike's Harry Angstrom, Heller's Bob Slocum, Percy's Binx Bolling and Irving's Garp--Gates's new novel investigates the essential truths of a marriage à la mode. Doug and Jean Willis fit the newly classic, recognizable and seemingly normal variety: struggling against a riptide of the daily commute, the mortgages, the latchkey child-rearing and the country house, as well as the hopes and desires from which all of this grew.
In accordance with their long-standing agreement, Doug embarks from their Westchester home on a leave of absence from the PR job that had ineluctably become his life, while Jean contends with both her own job and their two children. Over a two-month period he'll spruce up the family's alternative universe up north in rural Preston Falls; she'll deal with her end of the bargain, and her worries about the survival of the family. But then domesticity hits the brick wall of private longings and nightmarish twists of fate.
A surprising, comic, horrifying and always engrossing novel, charged with the responsibilities of middle age and with the abiding power of love, however disappointed--told with great artistry, pitch-perfect understanding and fierce compassion.
"A novel that's the funniest, sharpest, most strangely exciting book about men and women in a long time."
--Tom Prince, Maxim
After that blackly comic handbook of self-destruction--whose antihero shoulders up to such crucial American figures as Bellow's Herzog, Updike's Harry Angstrom, Heller's Bob Slocum, Percy's Binx Bolling and Irving's Garp--Gates's new novel investigates the essential truths of a marriage à la mode. Doug and Jean Willis fit the newly classic, recognizable and seemingly normal variety: struggling against a riptide of the daily commute, the mortgages, the latchkey child-rearing and the country house, as well as the hopes and desires from which all of this grew.
In accordance with their long-standing agreement, Doug embarks from their Westchester home on a leave of absence from the PR job that had ineluctably become his life, while Jean contends with both her own job and their two children. Over a two-month period he'll spruce up the family's alternative universe up north in rural Preston Falls; she'll deal with her end of the bargain, and her worries about the survival of the family. But then domesticity hits the brick wall of private longings and nightmarish twists of fate.
A surprising, comic, horrifying and always engrossing novel, charged with the responsibilities of middle age and with the abiding power of love, however disappointed--told with great artistry, pitch-perfect understanding and fierce compassion.
"A novel that's the funniest, sharpest, most strangely exciting book about men and women in a long time."
--Tom Prince, Maxim
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
From the Publisher:
"David Gates has a superb reporter's precision, an analyst's ear, a teenager's glee in exposing deception and a moralist's eye that is as unforgiving as Evelyn Waugh's."--New York Times Book Review
From the Back Cover:
"A blistering marriage in free fall, Preston Falls is full of black humor."--Newsweek
"David Gates has produced the funniest, sharpest, most strangely exciting novel about men and women in a long time."--Maxim
"[Preston Falls] abounds with excellent peripheral characters, engaging imagery, deft style, skilled detail and humorous interludes."--The Rocky Mountain News
"It's very well done, with dialogue that rings true and all the accumulated nastiness that erupts as families disintegrate."--The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Preston Falls is mesmerizing, disturbing, a brilliantly overheard monologue--the nada of a man who has been there, done that, and is out of places to go."--The Boston Globe
"Gates is a masterful chronicler of the dynamics of a family meltdown."--Publisher's Weekly
"A brilliantly written portrait of a man and a family in distress."--National Public Radio
"Preston Falls is mesmerizing, disturbing, a brilliantly overheard monologue --the nada of a man who's been there, done that, and is out of places to go."-- The Boston Globe
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherVictor Gollancz
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 057506823X
- ISBN 13 9780575068230
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages352
- Rating
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Preston Falls This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. . Seller Inventory # 7719-9780575068230
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Preston Falls
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The answer to Doug Willis' mid-life crisis is a sabbatical at his rural retreat in Preston Falls, two months spent restoring the faded splendour of the farmhouse, reading Dickens in the evening and watching summer gently fade to autumn. But following a marathon whiskey drinking session, a disastrous attempt to tear out the living room ceiling and an incident with a sheriff at a local campsite, Willis ends his first weekend away in jail, and it's clear the wired, burned-out New York copy-writer within is still very much to the fore. And while Willis' wife Jean struggles to pay the bills and raise their sullen, sceptical kids, Willis' 'break' crumbles into Dewars- and Cocaine-fuelled disarray, and embarks on another kind of journey altogether. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR003113207
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Preston Falls
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ISBN 13: 9780575068230
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Shipped within 24 hours from our UK warehouse. Clean, undamaged book with no damage to pages and minimal wear to the cover. Spine still tight, in very good condition. Remember if you are not happy, you are covered by our 100% money back guarantee. Seller Inventory # 6545-9780575068230
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Preston Falls : A Novel
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Orion Publishing Group, Limited
(2000)
ISBN 10: 057506823X
ISBN 13: 9780575068230
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Book Description Condition: Good. Ships from the UK. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # GRP9022035
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Preston Falls
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Victor Gollancz, US
(2000)
ISBN 10: 057506823X
ISBN 13: 9780575068230
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. The answer to Doug Willis' mid-life crisis is a sabbatical at his rural retreat in Preston Falls, two months spent restoring the faded splendour of the farmhouse, reading Dickens in the evening and watching summer gently fade to autumn. But following a marathon whiskey drinking session, a disastrous attempt to tear out the living room ceiling and an incident with a sheriff at a local campsite, Willis ends his first weekend away in jail, and it's clear the wired, burned-out New York copy-writer within is still very much to the fore. And while Willis' wife Jean struggles to pay the bills and raise their sullen, sceptical kids, Willis' 'break' crumbles into Dewars- and Cocaine-fuelled disarray, and embarks on another kind of journey altogether. Seller Inventory # RWARE0000052907
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