Love and Other Impossible Pursuits

ISBN: 073932411X

Author: Waldman, Ayelet

Condition: New

Review A romantic, shocking . . . page-turner [that] actually says something new and interesting about women, families and love. -The New York Times Book ReviewAbsorbing. . . . Compelling and artfully drawn. . . . The novel is beautifully paced and unfolds seamlessly. -The Washington PostA smart and finally affecting portrayal of a woman working her way out of her own grandiose self-image into something like real love. -New YorkThe emotions Waldman instills in her protagonist are visceral and convincing. . . . [Emilias] always sharp, wickedly funny, opinionated and cheerfully bitter, lending depth and energy to this wise, entertaining book. -San Francisco ChronicleFrom the Trade Paperback edition. Product Description With wry candor and tender humor, acclaimed novelist Ayelet Waldman has crafted a strikingly beautiful novel for our time, tackling the absurdities of modern life and reminding us why we love some people no matter what.For Emilia Greenleaf, life is by turns a comedy of errors and an emotional minefield. Yes, shes a Harvard Law grad who married her soul mate. Yes, they live in elegant comfort on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. But with her one-and-only, Jack, came a stepson-a know-it-all preschooler named William who has become her number one responsibility every Wednesday afternoon. With William, Emilia encounters a number of impossible pursuits-such as the pursuit of cab drivers who speed away when they see Williams industrial-strength car seat and the pursuit of lactose-free, strawberry-flavored, patisserie-quality cupcakes, despite the fact that Williams allergy is a figment of his over-protective mothers imagination.As much as Emilia wants to find common ground with William, she becomes completely preoccupied when she loses her newborn daughter. After this, the sight of any child brings her to tears, and Wednesdays with William are almost impossible. When his unceasing questions turn to the babys death, Emilia is at a total loss. Doesnt anyone understand that self-pity is a full-time job? Ironically, it is only through her blundering attempts to bond with William that she finally heals herself and learns what family really means About the Author Ayelet Waldman is the author of Daughters Keeper and of the Mommy-Track mystery series. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Believer, Child magazine, and other publications, and she has a regular column on Salon.com. She and her husband, the novelist Michael Chabon, live in Berkeley, California, with their four children. Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter 1Usually, if I duck my head and walk briskly, I can make it past the playground at West Eighty-first Street. I start preparing in the elevator, my eyes on the long brass arrow as it ticks down from the seventh, sixth, fifth, fourth floor. Sometimes the elevator stops and one of my neighbors gets on, and I have no choice but to crack the carapace of my solitude, and pretend civility. If it's one of the younger ones, the guitar player with the brush of red hair and the peeling skin, say, or the movie executive in the rumpled jeans and the buttery leather coat, it's enough to muster a polite nod of the head. The older ones require more. The steel-haired women in the self-consciously bohemian dresses, folds of purple peeping from under the hems of black wool capes, demand conversation about the weather, or the spot of wear on the Oriental carpet runner in the lobby, or the front page of the arts section. That is quite nearly too much to bear, because don't they see that I am busy? Don't they realize that obsessive self-pity is an all-consuming activity that leaves no room for conversation? Don't they know that the entrance to the park lies right next to the Eighty-first Street playground and that if I am not completely prepared, if I do not clear my mind, stop my ears to all sounds other than my own breathing, it is entirely