Bitter Lake: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A book to be savored
Review: This is a novel of many pleasures! Ann Harleman writes
intensely sensual prose. At the same time she is a witty,
astute and unsentimental observer of the human comedy. In
this novel, she switches deftly between the voice of a
teenage girl angry and anguished over her father's disappearance
and a mother dazed and eventually awakened by the same loss.
Along the way, Harleman writes with equal intensity about
first-time sex and first-time-in-a-long-time sex, about teen
angst and middle-age muddle. She illuminates not only the
high drama here but also the small actions that make up
our lives: folding sheets; breaking bones; building, figuratively
and literally, a home. This is a book to be savored for
its many flavors, from the bitter to the sweet. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: A book to be savored
Review: This is a novel of many pleasures! Ann Harleman writes
intensely sensual prose. At the same time she is a witty,
astute and unsentimental observer of the human comedy. In
this novel, she switches deftly between the voice of a
teenage girl angry and anguished over her father's disappearance
and a mother dazed and eventually awakened by the same loss.
Along the way, Harleman writes with equal intensity about
first-time sex and first-time-in-a-long-time sex, about teen
angst and middle-age muddle. She illuminates not only the
high drama here but also the small actions that make up
our lives: folding sheets; breaking bones; building, figuratively
and literally, a home. This is a book to be savored for
its many flavors, from the bitter to the sweet. Enjoy!