Memories of a Marriage
A Novel
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- R$ 34,90
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- R$ 34,90
Descrição da editora
By the author of the beloved Schmidt series, Memories of a Marriage is a penetrating look at class and privilege, shifting from Paris to Manhattan, Long Island to Newport. Mourning his wife and daughter, and on the edge of old age, Philip reencounters an astonishing woman from his past: Lucy De Bourgh, an heiress who was once a passionate debutante and the intimate of many men, including Philip himself. As she reveals the startling details of her failed marriage to Thomas Snow—a townie turned powerful international banker, liked by many but to her a loathsome monster—Philip discovers a story that will challenge his assumptions about those he has known, admired, and desired. A triumph by an author expert in revealing the good breeding and bad behavior of the moneyed elite, Memories of a Marriage is an eloquent and irresistible book that explores all the varieties of love and the very concept of truth.
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Praise for Memories of a Marriage
“Among contemporary novelists, [Begley] may be the wryest, most devastating critic of class in American society.”—The Washington Post
“Engrossing . . . Louis Begley gives us a chance to see into . . . the most private recesses of another couple’s marriage.”—The New York Times Book Review
“This delicious, dazzling novel about the rise and fall of a great American debutante kept me up all night.”—Susan Cheever
“A consummately constructed monument to human imperfection.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“[Begley is] an elegant stylist with a dry wit and a merciless eye.”—The Wall Street Journal
“A fiendishly clever, Fitzgeraldesque tale about marriage, friendship, gossip, and self-justification.”—Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this compact, voyeuristic novel, Begley (About Schmidt) creates his latest larger-than-life character in the beguiling but sharp-tongued socialite Lucy De Bourgh. During the spring of 2003, elderly narrator Phillip, a successful literary novelist, is attending the New York City Ballet when he bumps into Lucy, an old friend and occasional lover from his carefree days in 1950s Paris. A striking beauty and wealthy Rhode Island blueblood, Lucy charmed with her personality and humor and disregarded Eisenhower-era mores with her easy sexuality. Lucy now seems bitter, however, and shocks Phillip by calling her late ex, Thomas Snow, a "monster." Although coming from blue-collar roots, Thomas attended Harvard, made his fortune as a savvy investment banker, and after the divorce, died in a boating accident. A lonely widower, Phillip becomes fascinated with Lucy and Thomas's divorce, perhaps seeing a future novel in their breakup. Possibly, though, he just finds titillation in Lucy's sensational past. Begley's effortless storytelling will have readers equally fascinated by Lucy and Phillips's complex, tangled relationship.
