I'll Take It - Hardcover

Rudnick, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394579178 ISBN 13: 9780394579177

Publisher: Knopf, 1989

Synopsis

They came. They saw. They came and took what they saw.

The Esker sisters are shoppers. Loving, caring, driven, merciless shoppers. Ida never "passes a store without slipping in and buying something to give away." Pola, who only buys in bulk, would have been good in foreign affairs: "If a nation acted up, Aunt Pola would buy it." And Hedy, dearest of them all, proved the whole thing was genetic. Or maybe environmental. Either way, she passed the bug of galloping consumption onto her son.

Her son is Joe Reckler. Twenty-six. Yale grad. No job. No ties. Nothing to keep him from joining Mother and the aunts on a week-long shopping extravaganza disguised as a New England Autumn Leaves Tour that takes them everywhere from Bloomingdale's to L. L. Bean. But soon Joe notices a difference between himself and his mega-shopping mentors. You see, he figures you're supposed to pay.
From the Paperback edition.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Flat out hilarious ... Sort of like what I imagine P.G. Wodehouse would have written after spending some time in Bloomingdale's ... For sheer enjoyment, this book is a bargain. Buy two. You can freeze one. You never know." Jeff Danzinger, The Boston Globe

From Publishers Weekly:

From the double-edged title to its last line, Rudnick's new novel spotlights its author's comic gifts even more vividly than did his hilarious, cartoonish debut, Social Disease. Turning his attention from brainless club-hopping WASPs to a nice Jewish family from New York whose members have an unusual fondness for shopping, Rudnick uses his wicked ear for dialogue and sure sense of caricature to sustain a vengefully funny and deeply affectionate portrait. Hedy Reckler and her older sisters Ida and Pola have worked hard to pamper their husbands and children; now, with Hedy's layabout son Joe, they plan a small reward: a week-long trip through New England, ostensibly to see the autumn leaves, but actually a barely veiled excuse for a multi-state shopping spree. For all four, shopping is a spiritual, emotional and close to carnal pleasure, but unlike her sisters, Hedy doesn't always understand the phrase "I'll take it" to involve payment. Rudnick writes about shopping with the passion a master chef would bring to describing the perfect truffle, and some of his comic set-pieces provoke helpless laughter, but the heart of the novel is his depiction of Ida, Pola and Hedy: quarrelsome, nostalgic and completely true to life.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0394579178
• ISBN 13: 9780394579177
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 291