The Most
A wickedly sharp, tensely coiled portrait of a 1950s suburban marriage
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3,5 • 2 Bewertungen
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- 8,99 €
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- 8,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
From 'one of our most thrilling and singular innovators on the page' (Laura Van Den Berg), a tightly wound, consuming tale about a 1950s American housewife, for fans of Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Franzen and Taffy Brodesser-Akner
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2024
A Barnes & Noble BEST BOOK of 2024
'Clever, moving and unexpected. A brilliantly deft and subtle story.' - Emma Healey, author of Elizabeth is Missing
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A warm Sunday in November 1957. As Sputnik 2 orbits the earth, carrying Laika, the doomed Soviet dog, a couple begin their day.
Virgil Beckett, an insurance salesman, isn’t particularly happy in his job but he fulfils the role, playing golf with the partners, drinking in the bar, chasing the women. Kathleen Beckett, once a promising tennis champion, with a key shot up her sleeve called ‘The Most’, is now a mother and homemaker.
Somehow these two, who have been together since college, have fallen into the roles expected of them – the prescribed suburban dream they have been sold as something to covet, something that will fulfil their lives. But on this unseasonably warm, early November Sunday, Kathleen wakes up and decides that she will not be accompanying her family to church.
No, she feels like a swim.
She unearths her old, red bathing suit and descends into the apartment complex pool no other resident uses. And she doesn’t want to come out…
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Praise for Jessica Anthony's ENTER THE AARDVARK
'A truly fresh piece of art' Percival Everett
'Fresh, witty, smart' Kate Atkinson
'Highly inventive' Joshua Ferris
'A writer possessed of mind-bending talents' Heidi Julavits
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Anthony (Enter the Aardvark) examines a fraying marriage in her sensational latest. Kathleen Beckett, a former college tennis champion, lives with her husband, Virgil, and two children in the suburbs of 1950s Newark, Del. One Sunday, Kathleen tells Virgil to take the children to church without her. The narrative spans the rest of the day and alternates between Kathleen's and Virgil's points of view, gradually revealing the sources of their tension. It turns out Virgil recently ended an affair with a woman named Imogene Monson, and, as the day progresses, Kathleen pieces together the truth while Virgil contends with Imogene's attempt to win him back. Meanwhile, Virgil's father digs up dirt on Kathleen, and hints to her that he knows about her affair with her high school tennis instructor. More juicy revelations and surprising twists ensue as Anthony unspools each spouse's side of the story, and suspense mounts as the clock ticks toward their reunion at home. What makes this exceptional, however, are the distinctive details, such as a tennis strategy called "the most," inspired by the bombing of a bridge in Czechoslovakia during WWI, in which a player lures their opponent toward the net and then hits a devastating passing shot. Readers won't want to put this down.
