Misconduct of the Heart
A Novel
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Toronto Book Award Winner Cordelia Strube is back with another caustic, subversive, and darkly humorous book
Stevie, a recovering alcoholic and kitchen manager of Chappy’s, a small chain restaurant, is frantically trying to prevent the people around her from going supernova: her PTSD-suffering veteran son, her uproariously demented parents, the polyglot eccentrics who work in her kitchen, the blind geriatric dog she inherits, and a damaged five-year-old who landed on her doorstep and might just be her granddaughter.
In the tight grip of new corporate owners, Stevie battles corporate’s “restructuring” to save her kitchen, while trying to learn to forgive herself and maybe allow some love back into her life. Stevie’s biting, hilarious take on her own and others’ foibles will make you cheer and will have you loving Misconduct of the Heart (in the immortal words of Stevie’s best line cook) “like never tomorrow.”
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The plot of Cordelia Strube’s darkly comic novel reads like your grandmother’s most trusted recipe. Take one woman with a demoralizing job at a local chain restaurant. Add a veteran with PTSD; an old, blind Labrador retriever; and two hilarious geriatric parents. Drop in an abandoned five-year-old child and you’ve got the ingredients of Stevie Tree’s complicated life. We fell in love with Strube’s heroine, the kitchen manager/mother/recovering alcoholic/sexual-assault survivor at the heart of this quirky and deeply affectionate novel. She’s tough and funny and inspiring, especially when she’s dealing with her endearing and problematic kitchen staff. Told with searing wit and full of priceless supporting characters (like the restaurant regular who only wears nighties), Misconduct of the Heart effortlessly oscillates between absolute absurdity and heartfelt drama, tackling some very serious subject matter with grace and compassion. This sweet and entertaining read turns one woman’s ordinary life into an extraordinary tale of love, loss, and redemption.
