Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Fiction Tuesday - I am having so much fun here without you



In this reverse love story set in Paris and London, which Glamour hailed as one of the “10 Best Books to Add to Your Summer Reading List Right This Second,” a failed monogamist attempts to woo his wife back and to answer the question: Is it really possible to fall back in love with your spouse?

Despite the success of his first solo show in Paris and the support of his brilliant French wife and young daughter, thirty-four-year-old British artist Richard Haddon is too busy mourning the loss of his American mistress to a famous cutlery designer to appreciate his fortune.

But after Richard discovers that a painting he originally made for his wife, Anne—when they were first married and deeply in love—has sold, it shocks him back to reality and he resolves to reinvest wholeheartedly in his family life…just in time for his wife to learn the extent of his affair. Rudderless and remorseful, Richard embarks on a series of misguided attempts to win Anne back while focusing his creative energy on a provocative art piece to prove that he’s still the man she once loved.

Skillfully balancing biting wit with a deep emotional undercurrent, this “charming and engrossing portrait of one man’s midlife mess” (Elle) creates the perfect portrait of an imperfect family—and a heartfelt exploration of marriage, love, and fidelity.

It might be your favorite novel this summer.

Richard Haddon is an artist who has enjoyed some measure of success (as in people are purchasing his work) at age 34, but only from selling out to a more commercial idea. And in the same way he's let his authentic artistic self slip, he's stopped trying to make his marriage work. By the time the book starts, his affair is over, and this is more of the aftermath.

I would say this book was a fluffy summer read, which it is for the most part, except that it is also fairly insightful into marriage and all complexity (and difficulty.) Some of the characters and situations lack the depth needed to truly feel empathy towards them, but it kept me reading.-Jenny

A humor columnist, corporate namer and writer, "I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You" is my first novel to be published but I've got loads more in my desk drawer, held together with plastic coil bindings.-Courtney Maum

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