Perfect Life: A Novel
In Perfect Life, Jessica Shattuck once again displays her “skewering gift for social commentary” (New York Times) in a uniquely modern chronicle of conception in the age of infinite possibility.Two years ago, Neil Banks walked into a bathroom in the Pacific Fertility Center to provide his former...
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In Perfect Life, Jessica Shattuck once again displays her “skewering gift for social commentary” (New York Times) in a uniquely modern chronicle of conception in the age of infinite possibility.Two years ago, Neil Banks walked into a bathroom in the Pacific Fertility Center to provide his former college girlfriend, Jenny Callahan, with the biological material needed to conceive a child. Becoming a father was not part of the deal: adrift in his postmodern Los Angeles lifestyle, he signed away all paternity rights. But on the day of the baby’s christening, Neil turns up at the church. His unexpected—and unauthorized—return to Jenny’s privileged East Coast world sends a shockwave through the families of Jenny and her two college roommates—and sets off this keenly observed novel about fertility, biology, love, and American excess.Elegantly written, Perfect Life asks the perennially daunting question: What is the perfect life? In her smart and timely new novel, Jessica Shattuck tells a story that is humorous and moving, enlightening and life-affirming.
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Format: Textbook
ISBN:
9780393069501 (0393069508)
ASIN: 9780393069501
Publish date: 03-08-2009
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Edition language: English
There are times when I read a really good book but sort of wish I'd never picked it up. Reading Jessica Shattuck's Perfect Life was one of those times.::: The Plot :::Four friends who attended Harvard together have hit their mid-thirties, most of them still in touch with each other regularly. Elise ...
I keep making these forays into what I guess you might call "Literary Fiction" in an attempt to broaden my horizons, or make myself better at Reader's Advisory, or something. I read a few reviews of Perfect Life, by Jessica Shattuck, while I was doing collection development at work and impulsively p...
No one's life is perfect, no matter how hard they try to make it so, although some do succeed in making their lives look perfect from the outside. Former college roommates and long-time friends Jenny, Laura, and Elise all seem to be doing quite well. Laura has a successful husband and is a stay-at-h...