My Nemesis
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- 49,00 kr
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- 49,00 kr
Publisher Description
Tessa is a successful writer who develops a friendship, first by correspondence and then in person, with Charlie, a ruggedly handsome philosopher and scholar. Sparks fly as they exchange ideas about Camus and masculine desire, and their intellectual connection promises more - but there are obstacles to this burgeoning relationship.
While Tessa's husband Milton enjoys Charlie's company, Charlie's wife Wah is a different case, and she proves to be both adversary and conundrum to Tessa. Wah's traditional femininity and subservience to her husband strike Tessa as weaknesses, and she scoffs at the sacrifices Wah makes as adoptive mother to a Burmese girl, Htet. But Wah has a kind of power too, especially over Charlie, and the conflict between the two women leads to Tessa's martini-fueled declaration that Wah is 'an insult to womankind.' As Tessa is forced to deal with the consequences of her outburst, she wonders if Wah is really as weak as she has seemed, or if she might have a different kind of strength altogether.
An exercise in empathy, an exploration of betrayal and a charged story of the thrill of a shared connection - and the perils of feminine rivalry - My Nemesis is a brilliantly dramatic and captivating story from a hugely talented writer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Craig (Miss Burma) offers a swift and cutting examination of a rivalry between two women. Two middle-aged married couples meet for dinner in Los Angeles. On one side of the table is Wah, a mixed-race Asian woman who published a book about Htet, the 15-year-old Burmese girl she adopted with Charlie, her husband of 20 years. On the other is Tessa, a successful white memoirist from New York in her second marriage to Milton, who sees Wah as dependent and insecure and, believing herself to be a feminist, tells Wah she's "an insult to womankind." Tessa finds Charlie, on the other hand, intellectually and emotionally attractive, and later gets him to confide that he'd struggled to support Wah's decision to adopt Htet. Milton also enjoys Charlie's company, though Tessa's flirtation with Charlie exposes the cracks in her marriage. Later, the three discuss a failed film adaptation of Wah's book, which was scrapped after the studio couldn't find a South Asian woman to direct ("My point is that we're heading dangerously toward a kind of segregationism in the name of morality," says Charlie). The writing is biting and propulsive as allegiances shift and Tessa realizes she's misjudged Wah. This confident work is sure to spark conversations.
