The Shadow Man (A Signed First Edition)

Leslie Kovalsky, single, twenty-nine, and a little naive, searches for companionship, but only finds unsatisfying relationships with Geoff, Paul, and Kevin, rather shallow men

Shafquat's sparkling, tell-it-like-it-is debut exposes the prime hazards of dating today. Laden with pop psychology and fashion-magazine views of female-male interaction, it rings true nonetheless. Narrator Leslie Kovalsky, a sanguine 29-year-old Southern Californian, has an uncanny knack for choosing inauspicious liaisons. Among her misalliances is a lustful fling with a hang-gliding instructor named Geoff, which ends when Geoff admits he lives with another woman, German immigrant Cornelia. Leslie confronts Cornelia with the truth; Cornelia promptly dumps the swine to move in with Leslie. With her perceptive observations and imperfect English, Cornelia turns out to be a charming housemate, and it is she who introduces the title's "shadow" concept, based on the premise that men's attachments to women are insubstantial. Another engaging personality here is a prototypical beach bum called Unicorn, the Love Doctor, who quotes classic poetry while counseling Leslie on romance. This uncynical and diverting novel and its fresh heroine provide examples of the wit, emotional resilience and self-sufficiency necessary for successful single life. Shafquat is a former editor at Rodale .
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A wise and witty first novel detailing the lonely days and nights of a single California woman--a quiet, melancholy tale infused with surprising and delightful whimsy. At 29, Leslie Kovalksy is still a drifter, having driven cross-country from her New Jersey home to take up a sort of borderline existence on the California coastline. A former ballet dancer, she does work as a paralegal, snips magazine articles, makes love with whoever asks, and wanders the beach at all hours, but she still hasn't managed to identify the life--or the man--of her dreams. A brief, obsessive affair with a hang glider leads her into a quirky friendship with Cornelia, his German, live-in girlfriend whose funny English (American men are ``weert''--as unsubstantial as ``sheddos'') endears her to Leslie. Wanting earnestly to do the right thing, Leslie helps pry Cornelia from her unhealthy lover and even finds her a job, but both attempts end in disaster. So do Leslie's frequent if tentative attempts at finding love: a handsome truck driver propositions her but fails to perform; a cousin of her boss's behaves piggishly and drives a ``penismobile''; an older friend and running partner turns inexplicably surly when Leslie lends out his books on how to swim; and even her next-door-neighbor, a possible Mr. Right, starts ridiculing her for how little money she makes. Bewildered by the frequent emotional eruptions of friends she's just trying to please, comforted only by Cornelia's ``weert'' English and the poetic musings of Dr. Love, a beach bum she encounters near her house, Leslie begins to sense that the secret to life lies not in the storyline she longs to create for herself but in mysterious fragments that resist being--and should never be--forced together. A poetic, sweet, and memorable story--and a remarkably accomplished debut. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

"Life is episodic" are the words that flood Leslie Kovalsky's mind as she drives to Southern California, leaving her family back East. Always unsuspecting of human manipulation, Leslie is convinced that people will return her generosity even though she finds her friends and lovers to be less than reciprocal. Forewarned not to trust hang-gliding instructors, Leslie takes Geoff as her lover anyway. When she discovers that Geoff has a live-in, Cornelia, Leslie ditches him and lets Cornelia know what a two-timer he is. Cornelia leaves Geoff and moves in with Leslie, who is entangled in another doomed relationship. Leslie's most faithful friend is the Unicorn, a wandering 1960s sage whom she meets on the beach for heart-rending discussions. The eloquent voice of the Unicorn blends poetry written by past masters with his own philosophy on the importance of self-knowledge, leaving the reader with more than the plot to contemplate. In this first novel, Shafquat (acousin of Salman Rushdie) delivers the goods with panache.
- Mary Ellen Els bernd, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.