This lighthearted, witty confection of a novel is at once a captivating romance and an uproarious satire on sex and creativity
An editor at a small Manhattan publishing house, Frances Girard is plagued with the curse of self-awareness. She knows she will never write a book and is resigned to living a dull, sensible life in which people like her “are not allowed to have a nervous breakdown.” But she secretly envies those with creative aspirations.
When she meets Paul Treat—the man fated to change her life—the avant-garde theater director is clad only in a towel. Frances is instantly attracted to his unpredictable, larger-than-life persona. They act out scenes from plays and embark on an erotic relationship like nothing Frances has ever known. Eventually, she moves into Paul’s loft. But bit by bit, Frances starts giving up pieces of herself until very little of the woman she knew—or thought she knew—is left. Clearly, something’s got to give.
The story of one woman’s transformation—and unexpected liberation— Group Sex is an effervescent romantic comedy that sparkles with wit and insight.
**
From Publishers Weekly
A blonde, beautiful, bright, kind and giving young editor, Frances Girard becomes lover, handmaiden and fall-girl to Paul Treat, a hypochondriac and moody director of plays. PW compared Group Sex to "Laurie Colwin's best work."
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Arensberg, whose Sister Wolf ( LJ 9/15/80) won the American Book Award for Best First Novel in 1981, has written a second novela "romantic comedy"part of which first appeared as a short story in the O. Henry Prize Collection of 1980. Her heroine, Frances Girard, is unqualifiedly a downtrodden doormat. Everyone takes advantage of Frances, not least her lover, Paul Treat, avant-garde theater director. Arensberg details their affair with humor and insight, but they remain essentially types: the unfailingly giving woman, the blindly taking man. It is not Paul's violation of her personality that finally makes Frances rebel but his sexual infidelity. Like all romantic comedies this one ends happily. For all its sophisticated wit and telling detail, the novel remains only clever, and like a conversation that drones on long after the point is made, becomes slightly boring. Marcia Tager, Tenafly, N.J.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
This lighthearted, witty confection of a novel is at once a captivating romance and an uproarious satire on sex and creativity
An editor at a small Manhattan publishing house, Frances Girard is plagued with the curse of self-awareness. She knows she will never write a book and is resigned to living a dull, sensible life in which people like her “are not allowed to have a nervous breakdown.” But she secretly envies those with creative aspirations.
When she meets Paul Treat—the man fated to change her life—the avant-garde theater director is clad only in a towel. Frances is instantly attracted to his unpredictable, larger-than-life persona. They act out scenes from plays and embark on an erotic relationship like nothing Frances has ever known. Eventually, she moves into Paul’s loft. But bit by bit, Frances starts giving up pieces of herself until very little of the woman she knew—or thought she knew—is left. Clearly, something’s got to give.
The story of one woman’s transformation—and unexpected liberation— Group Sex is an effervescent romantic comedy that sparkles with wit and insight. **
From Publishers Weekly
A blonde, beautiful, bright, kind and giving young editor, Frances Girard becomes lover, handmaiden and fall-girl to Paul Treat, a hypochondriac and moody director of plays. PW compared Group Sex to "Laurie Colwin's best work."
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Arensberg, whose Sister Wolf ( LJ 9/15/80) won the American Book Award for Best First Novel in 1981, has written a second novela "romantic comedy"part of which first appeared as a short story in the O. Henry Prize Collection of 1980. Her heroine, Frances Girard, is unqualifiedly a downtrodden doormat. Everyone takes advantage of Frances, not least her lover, Paul Treat, avant-garde theater director. Arensberg details their affair with humor and insight, but they remain essentially types: the unfailingly giving woman, the blindly taking man. It is not Paul's violation of her personality that finally makes Frances rebel but his sexual infidelity. Like all romantic comedies this one ends happily. For all its sophisticated wit and telling detail, the novel remains only clever, and like a conversation that drones on long after the point is made, becomes slightly boring. Marcia Tager, Tenafly, N.J.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.