Leonard Schiller, an Upper West Side writer of some repute and a relic of The New York Intellectual scene, is courted in the twilight of his life by Heather, a young, ambitious, graduate student from Brown who wants to writer her master's thesis on Schiller's novels. Meanwhile, Schiller's daughter, Ariel, an aerobics instructor, who Heather views as another boring forty-year-old obsessed with her biological clock, is looking for love and a father for a much-longed-for child. In this finely tuned serious novel, the lives of ...
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Leonard Schiller, an Upper West Side writer of some repute and a relic of The New York Intellectual scene, is courted in the twilight of his life by Heather, a young, ambitious, graduate student from Brown who wants to writer her master's thesis on Schiller's novels. Meanwhile, Schiller's daughter, Ariel, an aerobics instructor, who Heather views as another boring forty-year-old obsessed with her biological clock, is looking for love and a father for a much-longed-for child. In this finely tuned serious novel, the lives of these disparate people converge.
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This would be a hard book to recommend to someone. A statement in the book by one of the charactesr in the book seems to sum up my recommendation.. He makes a statement referring to one of the main character's (an author) books, "He finished it in one sitting--it was pretty light--and getting up he tossed it on the table and thought, 'Four people bothering each other. Who cares?"
Having said that, I have to admit it did impact me in some ways. The author subtly portrays the transitions into the characters lives and how they deal with/accept them. Unfortunately it took the last few chapters to really hammer this message home. Sadly, I can see many abandoning the book before getting to this point.
