Built in a Day: A Novel

Передня обкладинка
Doubleday, 2003 - 241 стор.
From the author of the much-praised short story collection, Kick in the Head, comes a darkly funny novel about an overeducated underachiever and his muddled attempts to become a responsible father in a house full of wounded misfits. The San Francisco Chronicle lauded Steven Rinehart's ''clean, unpretentious style, '' and Vanity Fair called Kick in the Head ''a head-snapping debut.'' Jennifer Ega, Francine Prose, and Matt Klam are among the many literary figures who quickly expressed their admiration for Rinehart. As Egan wrote, ''Rinehart is unafraid to tackle big, even shocking events, and he masters them through the use of sharp and quivering details.'' In his debut novel, Rinehart brings his strong, simple style and wry humor to the tale of a young man who is thrust, unready, into a position of fearful responsibility. At thirty-two, Andrew is a recovering alcoholic, a poetry workshop dropout, and a failed Starbucks barista. He has an on-again, off-again relationship with Isabel, the single mother of teenaged twin sons so protective that when Andrew begins to treat Isabel badly, they offer him $4,000 to end the relationship. But Andrew, lonely, at loose ends, and still unemployed after a brief, unsuccessful stint as a sign painter, manages to work his way back into Isabel's good graces and gain the tentative acceptance of her sons and the beautiful young orphan, Jule, who lives with them. Isabel and Andrew get married and, for the first time in a long time, things fall into place for Andrew. Isabel gets him a cushy, if slightly shady, job at Teen Seen, a local outreach center, and the teens in his own household come to appreciate his presence. When the unthinkable happens, Andrew findshimself the unlikely force trying to hold the survivors together. As Andrew struggles to cope with his unusual family and to make sense of his increasingly bizarre job, Rinehart proves himself to be a novelist of extraordinary power and insight, a writer reminiscent of such modern masters as Richard Ford and Raymond Carver.

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