The Clasp
A Novel
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3.5 • 31 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Part comedy of manners, part treasure hunt, the first novel from the writer whom David Sedaris calls "perfectly, relentlessly funny"
Kezia, Nathaniel, and Victor are reunited for the extravagant wedding of a college friend. Now at the tail end of their twenties, they arrive completely absorbed in their own lives—Kezia the second-in-command to a madwoman jewelry designer in Manhattan; Nathaniel the former literary cool kid, selling his wares in Hollywood; and the Eeyore-esque Victor, just fired from a middling search engine. They soon slip back into old roles: Victor loves Kezia. Kezia loves Nathaniel. Nathaniel loves Nathaniel.
In the midst of all this semi-merriment, Victor passes out in the mother of the groom's bedroom. He wakes to her jovially slapping him across the face. Instead of a scolding, she offers Victor a story she's never even told her son, about a valuable necklace that disappeared during the Nazi occupation of France.
And so a madcap adventure is set into motion, one that leads Victor, Kezia, and Nathaniel from Miami to New York and L.A. to Paris and across France, until they converge at the estate of Guy de Maupassant, author of the classic short story "The Necklace."
Heartfelt, suspenseful, and told with Sloane Crosley's inimitable spark and wit, The Clasp is a story of friends struggling to fit together now that their lives haven't gone as planned, of how to separate the real from the fake. Such a task might be possible when it comes to precious stones, but is far more difficult to pull off with humans.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If The Clasp were a food, it'd be a really amazing piece of cheesecake. Dense, richly satisfying, and just sweet enough, essayist Sloane Crosley’s first foray into fiction is a masterfully constructed slam-dunk that shows off her wicked sense of humor. The novel follows three college friends disillusioned by adult life a decade after graduation. Crosley’s book is a painfully astute character study, a spot-on bit of social commentary, a smart and prickly comedy, and a madcap mystery all in one.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Taking a page from her essay collections (I Was Told There'd Be Cake and How Did You Get This Number), Crosley once again brandishes a mix of smarts and sarcasm to commemorate some of life's more mortifying moments in her first work of fiction. The novel begins at a luxe wedding as once-close friends Victor, a recently fired misanthropic data analyst at an Internet start-up; Kezia, the tightly wound second in command to an eccentric New York jeweler; and Nathaniel, a foppish, struggling TV writer in L.A. rehash old sexual tensions and lament their stagnant existences since the carefree days of college a decade prior. A third of the way through the book, the narrative shifts from oft-explored late-20-something territory into a ridiculous yet entertaining comedy-of-errors adventure caper with doddering Victor at the helm. When the ailing mother of the groom discovers him drunkenly passed out on her bed the night of the wedding, she inexplicably reveals the whereabouts of a secret stash of jewels to him before dying including a sketch of the long-lost 114-karat necklace featured in Guy de Maupassant's famed short story "The Necklace" and clues to its supposed whereabouts. Victor's harebrained attempts at tracking the necklace down, culminating in a French chateau break-in with a mildly concerned Kezia and Nathaniel in hot pursuit, make not only for fun reading but hint at the surprisingly poignant extent of just how far old acquaintances will go to save one another's hides.
Customer Reviews
The Clasp
Loved this book. Great characters, very witty dialogue and an interesting plot. Definitely recommend it and I am looking forward to more books by this author.