Cleopatra and Frankenstein
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4.2 • 177 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The smash-hit national bestseller and Goodreads Choice Award finalist from the New York Times bestselling author of Blue Sisters. An addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage.
Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank's life is full of all the excesses Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could've predicted.
Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older. Whether it's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo's marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last.
As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this involving if strained debut, Mellors dissects the tumultuous relationship between two magnetic and damaged people. Frank, a successful ad executive with a worsening drinking problem, meets Cleo, an aspiring British painter 20 years his junior, on New Year's Eve in Manhattan, and they begin an affair. Six months later, they're married. Soon, resentment, carelessness, infidelity, and unresolved issues from their childhoods come between them (Frank's mother was an emotionally distant alcoholic and Cleo's died by suicide), but their intoxicating chemistry keeps them together. Mellors leavens this marital Sturm und Drang with a satirical portrait of present-day New York life. Some of it lands—one of Cleo's friends dismisses a man for having "shoe trees in all his shoes, even the sneakers. Like a psychopath"—but too often it reads like caricature. Zoe, Frank's younger half-sister, attends a "Climaxing to Consciousness" workshop; Santiago, a Peruvian chef, laments that he is "The fat friend. The sidekick. But I have feelings. I feel a lot." A notable exception is Eleanor, a screenwriter who takes a freelance job at Frank's firm and develops a flirtation with him. Her winning sections achieve the mix of wit, pathos, and romance the rest strives to attain. The tone and intrigue can feel a bit scattered, but an enticing aura glows at this work's heart. Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly named the Santiago character.
Customer Reviews
love!
This book felt very raw, and I became attached to the characters, their happiness and even their self destructive tendencies.
raw & heartbreakingly beautiful
I have been searching for a book like this since reading Normal People. The stillness of this book being threaded along with chaotic reality of life. The insecurities of each character and bad habits embedded into real, heart-wrenching moments that somehow become whole. What I loved so much about this book is its ability to you feel less alone in your own habits, that every single person has a thing, a darkness that dictates their own reality. This book hurts so good. Tears are still spilling as I write this review. Amazing.
Best book I read this year
This novel is written about people and situations that are all too real. The characters are so well developed that you can actually see them. I would recommend this book but with the warning that it is painful at times.