Mimi
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
By the author of Ducks, Newburyport, shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize, Goldsmiths Prize and Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award
Bach, sculpture, plastic surgery, public speaking and a New York love story like no other - this is Lucy Ellmann's most extraordinary work of art to date
'Bolshy, life-affirming, feminist and energetic. It makes you long to chuck your job, gulp oysters and run naked through the surf' Sunday Times
'A wildly hilarious, modern film noir in fiction form' Sunday Telegraph
It's Christmas Eve in Manhattan.
Harrison Hanafan, noted plastic surgeon, falls on his ass. So far, so good. 'Ya can't sit there all day, buddy, looking up people's skirts!' chides a weird gal in a coat like a duvet - Mimi! She kindly conjures for him the miracle of a taxi.
Recuperating in his apartment with Schubert, Bette Davis, and a foundling cat, Harrison adds items to his life's work, a List of Melancholy Things (Walmart, puppetry, Velcro, whale eyes, shrimp-eating contests...). But when he receives a dreaded invitation to address his old school, Mimi reappears, with all her curves and chaos. She and Harrison fall emphatically in love.
And, as their love-making reaches a whole new kind of climax, the sweet smell of revolution is in the air.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A curmudgeonly New Yorker discovers his inner feminist in Ellmann's incisive, witty sixth novel (after Doctors & Nurses). When noted plastic surgeon Harrison Hanafan slips on an icy patch of Madison Avenue sidewalk and sprains his ankle, he is aided by a "wacko broad" who puts him in a cab and then disappears. Harrison convalesces by listening to classical music, caring for a rescued stray cat, and panicking over the speech he's been asked to give for his high school alma mater when, suddenly, he encounters his mysterious savior and a quirky romance blooms. Mimi, his new love, proves a catalyst for discovering how much of his world revolves around the women in his life. He finds excitement and challenge with Mimi, a chief confidant in his older sister, Bee, and an adversary in his high-maintenance ex-girlfriend, Gertrude. Even his cat turns out to be female. When tragedy strikes, Harrison's ideas on women, culture, and society evolve even faster, and his conclusions crystallize into the speech of a lifetime. Ellmann's biting, absurd wit drives the oddball plot forward, and despite the tale's slow pace and Harrison's occasionally ponderous ramblings, at its heart is a memorable character with a unique voice and a provocative message.
