Playdate: A Novel - Softcover

Adams, Thelma

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1250003881 ISBN 13: 9781250003881

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2012

Synopsis

"Adams is that rare writer who sends out every laugh with a sting in its tail. Most novels fade from the memory. This one sticks."―Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Inside their picture-perfect homes, the residents of this quiet California suburb are not at all what they seem.

Lance is a former weatherman, now a buff yogi, stay-athome dad, and manager of his daughter's Girl Scout troop's cookie distribution. Belle is his precocious and quick-witted daughter. Darlene is a classic Type A work-a-holic, she has little time or patience for the needs of her husband and daughter

And just down the street are Alec and Wren. Alec, a womanizing businessman, is also the financial backer―and sometimes more―behind Darlene's burgeoning empire. Meanwhile, Wren is a doting mother and talented yogi, ready to lay down the mat for a quick session with Lance.

As looming Santa Ana winds threaten to turn brushfires into catastrophe; Playdate proves that relationships are complicated and the bonds between families, spouses and children are never quite what they seem. What happens next door, beyond the hedges, in the romper room and executive office―it's all as combustible as a quick brushfire on a windy day.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

More Praise for Thelma Adams's Playdate:
 
"Thelma Adams ably tracks the psychological nuances and foibles of her characters in this engaging, up-to-the-minute and quietly disturbing novel, which says a lot about the way we live (and screw up our lives) now."
-- Phillip Lopate, author of Two Marriages
"For anyone who's ever been in a relationship or screwed one up . . . Playdate is a funny, touching, and vital debut. . . . Adams is that rare writer who sends out every laugh with a sting in its tail. Most novels fade from the memory. This one sticks." --Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"Thelma Adams has a wicked take on the difference between being a grown up, and being an adult with grown up aspirations.  Playdate is wry, insightful, dirty, and very funny. I learned a thing or two."
--Jenny Lumet, award-winning screenwriter of Rachel Getting Married
 
"The characters are good company and the story engaging, and the climactic denouement is a blast. Lance and Darlene manage to fumble their way back into love as Belle rediscovers her moxie. This Playdate makes learning fun."--Chronogram Magazine
"Absolutely high-larious. Playdate totally captures the zeitgeist; boredom, yoga, marital infidelity. The characters are typically American, yet their story is French farce at its best. You will howl, and cringe with recognition."--Martha Frankel, author of Hats & Eyeglasses
"A smart, fast-paced novel about family relationships in an era of endlessly mutating parental roles.  A stay-at-home dad and adulterous sex on a yoga mat are some of the ingredients in Adams's affectionate and affecting portrait of modern marriage.  In lightly skewering prose, her protagonists ruminate on the conflict between openness and privacy, and long to conjoin the roles of lover and parent, under the penetrating eyes of a precocious child."--Molly Haskell, author of Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited
"Thelma Adams' brushfire wit crackles through her smart, sexy, sassy new novel, a worthy companion to "Little Children" hip to the secrets of plugged-in, charged-up and hilariously tangled married life in an upscale enclave where the Playdate of the title can be a very grownup kind of recreation. As her characters grapple with sexual tension, business dreams and the intricacies of planning a nine-year-old's birthday party, you'll laugh with recognition and maybe understand a little better the workings of this complicated machine called living."
--Kyle Smith, author of Love Monkey
 
 "Playdate is a poignant, engaging, sharp-edged domestic drama that puts Desperate Housewives to shame."
--Susan Shapiro, author of Speed Shrinking and Overexposed
 
"So funny, so sharp, so honest! Like Sex and the City transplanted to the California suburbs -- but wittier -- this comedy of marriage, parenthood and spouses gone wild will grab readers far beyond suburbia."
--Caryn James, Marie Claire movie critic

From the Back Cover:

A smart and witty debut, Playdate is a family drama set against looming Santa Ana winds, which threaten a utopian Southern California community. Inside a well-manicured home, Belle is a sharp-tongued tween, who is mortified by her dad, Lance, a former weatherman turned stay-at-home dad who practices yoga. Darlene is a classic workaholic, but with her hours neatly penciled in, she has little patience for the needs of her husband and daughter.
Managing their own suburban paradise are Alec, a womanizing businessman and financial backer--and sometimes more--behind Darlene's burgeoning empire. His wife, Wren, an eager yogi, ready to lay down the mat for a quick session with Lance. When the fires reach the confines of this seemingly blissful neighborhood, passions and true desires are brought to the surface. What happens next door, beyond the hedges, in the romper room and executive office--it's all as combustible as a quick brushfire on a windy day.
Praise for Playdate:
 
"Like a chick-lit version of Tom Perrotta's "Little Children," Ms. Adams's debut novel chronicles the action among stay-at-home types. In the end, she even saves them from their bored, lame selves."--New York Times Book Review
 
"This witty debut novel features bed-hopping parents who get into more trouble (and have more fun) than their kids."--O, The Oprah Magazine
 
"This gimlet-eyed take on modern marriage lets no one off the hook.  As two suburban California couples trade partners and dance, the illusions they live by are firmly--and often hilariously--skewered."--Parade Magazine, Book Pick

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1250003881
• ISBN 13: 9781250003881
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304