Strange Love
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
An American tourist finds himself obsessed with a young Costa Rican woman in this novel by the author of Searching for Bobby Fischer and Deep Water Blues.
Narrated by a man vacationing in a remote fishing village on the spectacular Pacific coast of Costa Rica, Strange Love tells a story of disappointments, unusual desires, and the things people will do when their dreams haven’t materialized in the ways they had hoped.
The man once imagined himself as a great novelist like his heroes Philip Roth and John Updike. Instead, he has spent thirty years working as an exterminator in filthy basements and elevator shafts. The young woman he meets in Costa Rica, Rachel, grew up in the shadow of poverty, loss, and trauma, yet she possesses an uncanny talent for storytelling, the very gift the man himself lacks. Now, along with her sister, she has pieced together a life running the Fragata Lounge, a ramshackle bar on the beach, where their aunt flirts with the American tourist and not-so-subtly reminds Rachel that her youthful appeal is fleeting, her chance to escape this place diminishing with each passing day.
As Rachel shares her story with the man, he is mesmerized—by her beauty, the details of her past, and the way she tells of them. Soon he finds himself hinting that he is in fact the wildly successful author he once dreamed of being—and that he has the power to change her life . . .
Praise for Fred Waitzkin
“Compelling.” —GQ on Mortal Games
“Vivid, passionate, and disquieting.” —Martin Amis, The Times Literary Supplement, on The Dream Merchant
“Sophisticated, literary, and intelligent.” —Kirkus Reviews on The Dream Merchant
“Engaging and affecting . . . The setting may draw the reader in as much as the characters do.” —James Blair, English Plus Language Blog, on Strange Love
“Strange Love is a hot, smart and irresistible read.” —Harvey Blume, literary critic
“One of the things I love most about Fred Waitzkin’s writing is his ability to transport me to other places. . . . His stories are immersive and masterfully woven. . . . Rachel’s story is heartbreaking. It will take its toll on you. It will find the deep places of your heart and rip at them.” —The Plucky Reader
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Waitzkin (Searching for Bobby Fischer) chronicles a one-sided relationship in this slim, underwhelming volume. An unnamed 65-year-old New Yorker meets Rachel, 30 years younger, in Fragata, Costa Rica. Visitors are charmed by the tiny village; one says it's "right out of a Marquez novel," and, indeed, the scenes there are the highlights. The narrator, who found fleeting success as a novelist 30 years earlier, recounts stories such as meeting Sammy Davis Jr., in a bar, and one about Miguel, a fisherman who is "king of the realm," and reels in a "monster cubera snapper" weighing 80 lbs. These episodes have more life than the dull romance between the narrator and Rachel, who resists his sexual advances. (The narrator's infatuation feels more desperate than strange.) When he returns to New York and takes a job as an exterminator, descriptions of killing mice, rats, and bugs are offered in vivid detail. Back in Fragata, Rachel copes with a terminally ill nephew, and the narrator returns still hoping to woo her. The ebb and flow of events gives this the feel of a draft of something that was never fully realized. Ruiz's illustrations are nice, but they cannot flesh out the undercooked novel.
