The Good People Of New York
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
From a thrillingly talented 28-year-old newcomer - the Anne Tyler for a new generation, yet with a distinctive voice and quirky sensibility all of her own - comes a contemporary novel that brings to life a few of the 'good people of New York' and renders them in all their neurotic glory. When Roz Rosenzweig, self-described spitfire and loud n' proud New York Jew, meets Edwin Anderson at a party in the 1970s in her friend's Manhatten apartment, she has trouble believing that the earnest and soft-spoken Nebraskan is for real. But Roz is quickly attracted to Edwin and is more happy than stunned when their improbable courtship results in marriage. The unexpected good fortune of Roz and Edwin is punctuated with the birth of their daughter Miranda; and yet, as Miranda grows, it becomes clear that Roz's love for her is so fierce, so protective and so singularly focused that it might crowd out anything else in her life - including her marriage. The ties that bind Roz and her daughter together threaten to strangle Miranda as she enters her teenage years, and yet the eccentric group of friends they attract, their powerful love for one another, and the brilliant sense of humour that runs in the family, allow Roz and Miranda - along with Edwin, who remains in their lives - to somehow stay sane, even as they fight one another for room to grow. In this luminous first novel from the author of an acclaimed short story collection (Out Of the Girls' Room and Into the Night) Thisbe Nissen proves that hers is one of the most genuinely charming, witty and accomplished literary voices to emerge in quite some time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gracefully shifting her focus from short story to novel, Nissen John Simmons Short Fiction Award winner (Out of the Girls' Room and into the Night) weaves a charming tale with candid humor and a sharp eye for detail. Spirited and feisty Roz Rosenzweig and idealistic Nebraskan Edwin Anderson are as unlikely a couple as Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford in The Way We Were, but somehow they end up tying the knot in 1970s New York City. They have a daughter, Miranda, but the marriage falls apart by the time she is in fifth grade. Newly single Roz vows to "be the fabulous mom-who's-more-like-a-friend-than-a-mom mom" but has a hard time squelching her irrepressible Jewish-mother instincts. Miranda, a precociously sexy near-teenager, sometimes plays along with Roz and sometimes rebels she is particularly peeved when her mother starts dating her orthodontist. At school, Miranda proves to be a budding drama queen, and as she gets older, becomes entangled in a series of prickly relationships. She could sometimes use her mom's help as she fumbles audaciously through adolescence, but is too proud to admit it. Roz, concurrently coming of age, tentatively attempts to become the focus of her own life. Nissen's descriptions of life in New York in the '70s and '80s are spot-on, and she clearly loves the novel's characters even the least likable are sympathetic and forgiven their foibles. Astute characterizations and smart, snappy dialogue anchor an honest, funny portrayal of an inevitably heartbreaking but loving relationship. , a fetching subway-inspired jacket and an enticing title, this engaging debut work has a good chance of differentiating itself from countless similar New York coming-of-age novels.