Partners
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
When 24-year-old art student Mark Hollander discovers his lovely blond neighbor Holly McIvey stealing his morning newspaper, the petty larceny quickly blossoms into love, marriage and a baby even as Mark’s professional future runs only into stone walls. So off they go to Florida where his professional fortunes bloom, but his marriage slowly withers. As Holly exits, however, she decides she must leave 2 year-old Ben with Mark, who finds he learns as much from his toddler as the boy learns from him. The child may in fact provide the key to much that Mark discovers about how to love and how to become a genuine artist, as a host of quirky and endearing characters join them along their path.
This amiable novel from National Book Critics Circle Citation-finalist Andy Solomon provides a rich blend of zesty wit and deeply-felt emotion as it charts the subtle textures of both how we connect with those most deeply ingrained in our lives and how we struggle to bring to full ripeness the creative potential in our basic nature.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mark Hollander is a student and artist when he meets Holly McIvey. They fall for each other and soon marry, despite their youth and poverty. The couple struggles to succeed at work and college, and after the birth of their son, Ben, they move from Pittsburgh to Florida. Soon Holly who takes a job at a women's shelter begins to distance herself from Mark, eventually leaving and giving him custody of Ben. Mark tries to make it as a single parent, and in time comes to a startling realization about Holly's past. Solomon tells a meandering story of love, loss, growing up, and parenthood that suffers from slow pacing and a choppy structure. Unfortunately, this will take some out of a fascinating novel populated by well-developed, vivid characters.
