Seven Wives
A deliciously satirical postmodern romance

Seven Wives reimagines the search for an enduring passionate love. The too-much-loved narrator, Jack, an extension of the everyman hero of Baumbach’s novel Reruns marries seven women, including a childhood sweetheart, an older woman who turns out to be an unacceptably near relation, the loveliest woman in the world, a woman so fat that sex with her becomes impossibly difficult, and a woman who confuses violence and love. Jack’s quest for the perfect marriage is, of course, doomed to failure and ultimately leads him to the edge of madness, but it also produces seven bizarrely interesting near-misses along the way.

From his home in New York City, Jack tells his story after the fact, as a way of reclaiming himself. He obsesses not only about his search for the right woman but also about his quixotic pursuit of a version (or versions) of the American dream. Jack moves from cabdriver, to actor, to scriptwriter for pornographic movies, to entrepreneur, to Hollywood producer. Seven Wives treats marriage and career as inseparable pursuits on the same road to success. The two abiding issues of all of Baumbach’s fiction - the erratic workings of the imagination and the even more erratic workings of the human heart—appear in their purest form in his latest novel.
 
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Seven Wives
A deliciously satirical postmodern romance

Seven Wives reimagines the search for an enduring passionate love. The too-much-loved narrator, Jack, an extension of the everyman hero of Baumbach’s novel Reruns marries seven women, including a childhood sweetheart, an older woman who turns out to be an unacceptably near relation, the loveliest woman in the world, a woman so fat that sex with her becomes impossibly difficult, and a woman who confuses violence and love. Jack’s quest for the perfect marriage is, of course, doomed to failure and ultimately leads him to the edge of madness, but it also produces seven bizarrely interesting near-misses along the way.

From his home in New York City, Jack tells his story after the fact, as a way of reclaiming himself. He obsesses not only about his search for the right woman but also about his quixotic pursuit of a version (or versions) of the American dream. Jack moves from cabdriver, to actor, to scriptwriter for pornographic movies, to entrepreneur, to Hollywood producer. Seven Wives treats marriage and career as inseparable pursuits on the same road to success. The two abiding issues of all of Baumbach’s fiction - the erratic workings of the imagination and the even more erratic workings of the human heart—appear in their purest form in his latest novel.
 
18.95 In Stock
Seven Wives

Seven Wives

by Jonathan Baumbach
Seven Wives

Seven Wives

by Jonathan Baumbach

Paperback(First Edition)

$18.95 
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Overview

A deliciously satirical postmodern romance

Seven Wives reimagines the search for an enduring passionate love. The too-much-loved narrator, Jack, an extension of the everyman hero of Baumbach’s novel Reruns marries seven women, including a childhood sweetheart, an older woman who turns out to be an unacceptably near relation, the loveliest woman in the world, a woman so fat that sex with her becomes impossibly difficult, and a woman who confuses violence and love. Jack’s quest for the perfect marriage is, of course, doomed to failure and ultimately leads him to the edge of madness, but it also produces seven bizarrely interesting near-misses along the way.

From his home in New York City, Jack tells his story after the fact, as a way of reclaiming himself. He obsesses not only about his search for the right woman but also about his quixotic pursuit of a version (or versions) of the American dream. Jack moves from cabdriver, to actor, to scriptwriter for pornographic movies, to entrepreneur, to Hollywood producer. Seven Wives treats marriage and career as inseparable pursuits on the same road to success. The two abiding issues of all of Baumbach’s fiction - the erratic workings of the imagination and the even more erratic workings of the human heart—appear in their purest form in his latest novel.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780932511874
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Publication date: 01/01/1994
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 181
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Baumbach is the author of numerous books of fiction, including Babble, Chez Charlotte & Emily, Seperate Hours, The Life And Times Of Major Fiction, D-Tours, and B. Also a widely published and anthologized short story writer, he has appeared in O. Henry Prize Stores and Best American Short Stories. He has written about movies for Partisan Review and is a former chairman of the National Society of Film Critics.

What People are Saying About This

Walter Abish

"The narrator's playfull, peeving voice targets marriage and delivers far more gratification than a reader may have a right to expect. Seven wives is a sexual duo played out with an uncanny foreknowledge. Beware -- this novel will arouse your purient interest."

Hilma Bollitzer

"In 'Seven Wives', Jonathan Baumbach takes a domestic novel to its outer limits. This is a very witty and sad evocation of the madness of atrraction."

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