Slicker
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Even life in the greatest city in the world can sometimes feel like a little too much. For this New Yorker, running away to the Heartland may be just the antidote.
When New York City native Desirée Christian-Cohen flees her sometime-boyfriend, unhappy mother, Nina (who's recently learned her soon-to-be ex-husband Patrick is gay), and failing grandfather, she picks the flight plan by randomly dropping her finger on a map and hitting: Honey Creek, Kansas, population 1,623. And if being a "tourist" in Honey Creek weren't noticeable enough, try hanging out in the Sweet Tooth luncheonette, where you're referred to as "half a Jew." Wary of , but wanting to, fit in with the local populace, Desirée is forced to defend herself and define herself in a world that feels vastly different from her own. Her Yale boyfriends were never like Bobby McVicar, the son of two ageing hippies, who finds all he needs in his pinprick of a hometown. And never—even as an only child of typically doting Manhattan parents—has anyone paid so much attention to Desirée.
Over one surprising, transformative and sometimes very funny summer, Desirée Christian-Cohen, member-in-good-standing of the Self Esteem Generation, discovers how an impulsive escape from home and family turns out to be much more than that.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pampered Manhattan girl Desire e runs away from her privileged life to Kansas, only to find it meaner and more mixed up than the urban jungle she abandoned in the pseudonymous Jackson's light romp through the land of corn, cows, and "small-minded, Bible-thumping, selfrighteous, Jew-hating John Birchers." Or so Desire e sees it when confronted by a gun-toting thief, the hilarious highlight of this oddball tale of young and middleaged love. "Mostly everyone here's good people," the outraged thief replies. "Or good enough, anyway." Jackson (Posh) puts a sunny spin on Desire e's foray into waves of grain, where she discovers love worth leaving New York City for, and forgiveness for a dad who clumsily burst out of the closet. The companion story of mom Nina, ailing granddad Marvin, and caretaker Porsha tells the quieter but more compelling tale of trust and acceptance back in New York. A crew of country bumpkins and cagey city slickers reinforce all the cliche s, but they're still charming enough to merit spending a few hours with.
Customer Reviews
Slicker
I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for anything more than airplane reading. The plot is improbable and far fetched. And I hated the ending!