Bad Housekeeping - Hardcover

Edelson, Julie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1880909316 ISBN 13: 9781880909317

Publisher: Baskerville Pub, 1995

Synopsis

A timely novel about single-mothering teens (and their friends) that follows the friendship of two women who stick by each other through thin and thinner.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Carol Krasnow, self-involved artist and restorer of old houses, a divorced Brooklynite transplanted to North Carolina, is at once street-smart and out of touch with her children. In Edelson's fast, funny and irreverent look at single parenting, Carol ("Cee") discovers that her teenage daughter Ariel is an alcoholic and a shoplifter only when Ariel's tattletale friend Fawne tells her so. Dash, Cee's son, is on the verge of being suspended from school, where he fights bullies who shake him down for small change. Cee doesn't get much sympathy or understanding from her toy-boy, rock-guitarist lover Eric, nor from her disapproving, old-fashioned Jewish parents, who live in a nearby retirement home. And a mural project with Fawne, a rebellious, racist, suicidal kid who hates her abusive stepfather, turns into a disaster. Only a near-fatal accident propels Cee into full awareness and a new level of communication as a parent. Then her old Brooklyn friend and idol, Elspeth, shows up, and this onetime hipster painter, now a sassy botanist and pit-bull breeder with tattoos all over her body, dispenses pat advice against which Cee gauges her own shortcomings as a mother. Edelson (No News Is Good) writes with sympathy and insight into her characters lives, but what most distinguishes this book is the furious alertness of Cee's urgent and observant voice.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review:

For a memorably realistic account of life in today's middle-class South, check out Julie Edelson's latest novel, Bad Housekeeping. The story concerns a divorced mother whose artistic frustration carries her into midlife, blind to effective communication with her loved ones. The past and present intermingle in this tale of hungry souls searching for acceptance in a spiritually empty world. The novel's delight lies in its masterful use of metaphoric language to describe a diverse - if somewhat stereotypical - cast of characters. But the author's greatest success stems from her ability to balance the commonplace with the fantastic. Fluent in theme and guaranteed to tickle your funny bone, this poignant book places Edelson among our region's finest contemporary fiction writers. -- The Southern Register

Rip-roaring style...A hoot to read. -- The Greensboro (NC) News & Record

About this edition

• Publisher: Baskerville Pub
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1880909316
• ISBN 13: 9781880909317
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1