Synopsis
As A.M. Homes's incendiary novel unfolds, the Kodacolor hues of the good life become nearly hallucinogenic.Laying bare th foundations of a marriage, flash frozen in the anxious entropy of a suburban subdivision, Paul and Elaine spin the quit terors of family life into a fantastical frenzy that careens out of control. From a strange and hilarious encounter with a Stepford Wife neighbor to an ill-conceived plan for a tattoo, to a sexy cop who shows up at all the wrong moments, to a housecleaning team in space suits, a mistress calling on a cell phone, and a hostage situationat a school, A.M. Homes creates characters so outrageously flawed and deeply human that thery are entriely believable.
About A. M. Homes
See more books from this AuthorPaul and Elaine Weiss have a very bad ten days in this newest by Homes (The End of Alice, 1996, etc.), who takes her penchant for extreme situations and behavior to the suburbs.
| Read Full Review of Music for TorchingA child enters a suburban grammar school with a gun and explosives strapped to his body; a SWAT team moves in; a boy is shot at close range. This creepy and all too familiar scenario appears at a pivo
May 03 1999 | Read Full Review of Music for TorchingIn a nondescript Leave-it-to-Beaveresque Westchester neighborhood, Elaine and Paul find their marriage and their lives at a standstill: Paul commutes to a vaguely sinister corporate job (""how do you make people think fat is good?"" asks his boss at one point) and enjoys weekly trysts with a neig...
| Read Full Review of Music for TorchingIn ''Music for Torching,'' Paul Weiss has sex with Elaine (both are protagonists from Homes' 1990 collection, ''The Safety of Objects''), with the mother of his kid's friend, and with the whimsical girlfriend of a party guest.
Jun 09 1999 | Read Full Review of Music for TorchingWhen she takes him to a run-down walk-up in New York City where a gay tattooist plies his trade, Paul meekly submits to getting a groin tattoo, which she finds sexy, he finds painful, and Elaine finds suspicious.
Jun 11 1999 | Read Full Review of Music for TorchingPaul and Elaine have two boys and a beautiful home, yet they find themselves thoroughly, inexplicably stuck.
| Read Full Review of Music for TorchingPaul and Elaine have two boys and a beautiful home, yet they find themselves thoroughly, inexplicably stuck.
| Read Full Review of Music for TorchingAn aggregated and normalized score based on 111 user ratings from iDreamBooks & iTunes