A compulsively page-turning novel. Blackmail! Back-stabbing! The Iowa Writers Workshop! Evans dips into painful realism, comedy, and nail-biting suspense. You will be as good as sleepless until you turn the last page.” —Julie Schumacher, author of DEAR COMMITTEE MEMBERS
“In brief strokes but with crystalline detail, Evans draws obsessive and seductive characters that make a passel of trouble for themselves—and for each other. First page, I'm hooked, and every page after that. An engrossing novel, simply superb.” —Ann Cummins, author of YELLOWCAKE
“The suspense in As Good As a Dead is of a special kind—we wait to see how much power old jealousies and defeats have and who will outlive them. A riveting story, beautifully written.” —Joan Silber, author of HOUSEHOLD WORDS and IDEAS OF HEAVEN
“As Good as Dead is as funny as it is sad, and gets to the heart of what reading is for—to change us and make us try harder at life. Elizabeth Evans is a true storyteller with a gorgeous and startling gift.” —Kate Bernheimer, author of HOW A MOTHER WEANED HER GIRL FROM FAIRY TALES
“As Good as Dead is like a seduction of the senses; no one can do this sort of subtlety as well as Elizabeth Evans—except perhaps the marvelous writer Ann Patchett. They both have the startling ability to reveal their stories with the mesmerizing art of Scheherazade during her thousand and one nights. I only wish Ms. Evans's books were numerous enough to sustain us over so long a time.” —Robb Forman Dew, author of BEING POLITE TO HITLER
“Elizabeth Evans is a masterful storyteller, and As Good As Dead, simultaneously funny, menacing, and wise, is her finest novel to date. Charlotte, the fearless and loveably flawed narrator, will find a permanent place in American literature. The plot takes suspenseful twists and turns, and comes to rest with a shocking, and very moving, disclosure.” —Bharati Mukherjee, author of JASMINE
“As Good as Dead is a portrait of the artist as a young woman, with all her passionate hopes and attachments, and then shows us the reckoning she must make with that self in later years. Elizabeth Evans is a graceful and intelligent writer who never makes a false step, as well as a first-rate explorer of secrets and secret lives.” —Jean Thompson, author of THE HUMANITY PROJECT
“Evans expertly captures the psychology of females who were both friends and rivals on every level, from writing to men. A suspenseful atmosphere and insightful writing are at the heart of this well-crafted novel.” —Booklist
“This intelligent and literary psychological novel from Evans (The Blue Hour; Suicide's Girlfriend) creatively explores what happens when secrets, betrayal, and trust issues arise in a friendship and in a marriage.” —Library Journal
“The tension builds in this nail-biting story of manipulation.” —Marie Claire
“A compelling story, told with delicacy and compassion . . . Evans' light, easy prose is like listening in on a conversation at the next table, where Charlotte is telling her secrets to a friend. Evans' deft writing makes you want to be that friend.” —Washington Independent Review of Books
“Main characters and frenemies Charlotte and Esmé compromise their honor, loyalty and fidelity in Evans' psychological high-wire act.” —Iowa City Press Citizen
“Carter Clay is brave and fascinating.” —Sandra Scofield, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, on CARTER CLAY
“Carter Clay is thrilling in its enormous ambition and intelligence. Elizabeth Evans is a fearless writer. After reading this novel, I'm convinced that there's nothing that she can't do.” —Ann Patchett on CARTER CLAY
“The Blue Hour is about the marketing and consumption of values and is very much a Great American Novel . . . one of those rare novels one finishes with the sense of having needed to read it.” —The Washington Post Book World on THE BLUE HOUR
“Elizabeth Evans's style is eloquent without posturing. Her dialogue anoints each character with striking individuality. Her scenes move crisply to revelation . . . a superb fictional debut.” —Newsday on THE BLUE HOUR
02/15/2015
Charlotte Price has everything going for her. She's married to amazing professor Will Ludlow, living her dream of being a published author, and teaching writing at a local university. Then her former best friend, Esmé Cole, shows up on her doorstep 20 years after their estrangement. Esmé carries secrets from their past; secrets that have haunted Charlotte since the two stopped speaking. Long ago, Charlotte betrayed Esmé and her current husband, Jeremy Fletcher. Will is not aware of these acts. In an attempt to rekindle their friendship, Esmé invites Charlotte and Will over for dinner. However, her ulterior motive quickly becomes clear when she offers Charlotte an ultimatum, causing her past and present to collide in a decision that could prove to be both professionally unethical and result in her marriage being destroyed. Evans tells the story in alternating chapters that move backward and forward in time, slowly bringing the reader up to the present and the final decisions the women make. VERDICT This intelligent and literary psychological novel from Evans (The Blue House; Suicide's Girlfriend) creatively explores what happens when secrets, betrayal, and trust issues arise in a friendship and in a marriage.—Erin Holt, Williamson Cty. P.L., Franklin, TN
2014-12-21
In Evans' latest (Suicide's Girlfriend, 2002, etc.), a friendship that has been dead for twenty years is suddenly exhumed.When Charlotte Price started at the famous Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1988, she was thrilled to fall easily into a friendship with the gorgeous and vibrant Esmé Cole. "Female friendships always had been so hard for me, fraught with relentless deconstructions of who liked who better, but this person seemed utterly available!" narrates the older Charlotte. The two women became roommates for a semester while Charlotte's boyfriend, Will, was away in Italy. Yet their relationship didn't continue. After Esmé became pregnant and left the workshop with her boyfriend and fellow writing student, Jeremy Fletcher, a disagreeable Southerner with a Confederate flag tattoo, Charlotte finished her degree, married Will, moved into a tenure-track job in Tucson and wrote four novels. Although she finds out later that Esmé also moved to Tucson with Jeremy, the two women's paths do not cross until Esmé unexpectedly drops in on Charlotte one morning 20 years after they last saw each other. The years have not been kind to Esmé: "A stout, red-faced woman stood on our front steps. Boxy, olive pantsuit. Cropped hair the color of Vaseline." Esmé's visit causes a crisis for Charlotte as she looks back on the end of their relationship, scarred by a secret betrayal that still haunts her. When Esmé's intentions turn out to be less than friendly, Charlotte has to reckon with the consequences of her past behavior and hope for forgiveness. What Esmé ultimately wants from Charlotte is intriguing and dangerous, but it comes too late in the story for it to infuse it with much-needed tension, and the most dynamic characters, Esmé and Jeremy, are pushed into the background through Charlotte's neurotic, self-indulgent narration. Because the stakes are never high enough, there is no sense of mourning for this dead relationship. A novel about friendship, betrayal and the Iowa Writers' Workshop could have been satisfying in any number of ways, but with a floundering plot and tiresome narration, there are too many missed opportunities here.
