Who's Sorry Now?: A Novel - Softcover

Jacobson, Howard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1608196860 ISBN 13: 9781608196869

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2013

Synopsis

Marvin Kreitman, the luggage baron of South London, lives for sex. Or at least he lives for women. At present he loves four women--his mother, his wife Hazel, and his two daughters--and is in love with five more. Charlie Merriweather, on the other hand, nice Charlie, loves just the one woman, also called Charlie, the wife with whom he has been writing children's books and having nice sex for twenty years. Once a week the two friends meet for lunch, contriving never quite to have the conversation they would like to have--about fidelity and womanizing, and which makes you happier. Until today. It is Charlie who takes the dangerous step of asking for a piece of Marvin's disordered life, but what follows embroils them all, the wives no less than the husbands. And none of them will ever be the same again.

About this title

About the Author

Howard Jacobson was born in Manchester, England. His novels include The Mighty Walzer (winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize), No More Mr. Nice Guy, Kalooki Nights (longlisted for the Man Booker Prize), The Finkler Question (winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize), and most recently, Zoo Time. Jacobson lives in London.

From Publishers Weekly

In Man Booker Prize–winner (for The Finkler Question) Jacobson's 2002 novel, only now being released in the U.S., Marvin Kreitman and Charlie Merriweather, friends for 20 years, meet once a week for dim sum. Kreitman, the luggage baron of South London, is married, has two teenage daughters, and any number of lovers. Charlie has always been faithful to his wife, also named Charlie, with whom he shares two children and a career—the two are coauthors of highly successful children's books. One day Charlie shocks Kreitman by suggesting a bit of wife swapping. Kreitman doesn't take his friend seriously until a random accident precipitates a series of farcical circumstances ending with a paradigm shift in the two couples' relationships. Friends, lovers, and relatives are thrown into chaos as Jacobson hilariously chronicles what happens when Kreitman and Charlie look at life from new perspectives. This kind of schematic plotting might seem like the stuff of which Hollywood high-concept comedies are made. But Jacobson writes in a much looser vein and uses his situation to humorously examine various aspects of how we live now. Although the reader eventually grows weary of these solipsistic characters, Jacobson has a reliable penchant for garnering rude laughs at their expense. (July)

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1608196860
• ISBN 13: 9781608196869
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336