Built in a Day

In acclaimed story writer Steven Rinehart’s darkly funny debut novel, an overeducated underachiever tries to become a responsible father to his twin teenage stepsons and a house full of wounded misfits.

At thirty-two, Andrew is a recovering alcoholic, a poetry workshop dropout, and a failed Starbucks barista. He has an on-again, off-again relationship with Isabel, the single mother of teenage twin sons so protective that when Andrew begins to treat Isabel badly, they offer him $4,000 to end the relationship. But Andrew, lonely, at loose ends, and still unemployed after a brief, unsuccessful stint as a sign painter, manages to work his way back into Isabel’s good graces and gain the tentative acceptance of her sons and the beautiful young orphan, Julie, who lives with them. Isabel and Andrew get married and, for the first time in a long time, things fall into place for Andrew. Isabel gets him a cushy, if slightly shady, job at Teen Scene, a local outreach center, and the teens in his own household come to appreciate his presence. When the unthinkable happens, Andrew finds himself the unlikely force trying to hold the survivors together.

Rinehart brings his strong, simple style and wry humor to the tale of a young man who is thrust, unready, into a position of fearful responsibility. As Andrew struggles to cope with his unusual family and to make sense of his increasingly bizarre job, Rinehart proves himself to be a novelist of extraordinary power and insight, a writer reminiscent of such modern masters as Richard Ford and Raymond Carver.

STEVEN RINEHART is the recipient of an NEA grant and a Michener fellowship. His collection of short stories, Kick in the Head, was published by Doubleday in 2000, and his work has appeared in a variety of magazines, including Harper’s and GQ. He lives in New York City.