The garden party: a novel
Description
A rehearsal dinner brings together two disparate families in this sparkling, witty novel "This vital novel offers delicious echoes of Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster, and a touch of A Midsummer Night's Dream --but its magic is unique. The Garden Party is beautiful and full of life."--Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl and The Woman Upstairs The Cohens are wildly impractical intellectuals--academics, activists, and artists. The Barlows are Wall Street Journal -reading lawyers steeped in trusts and copyrights, golf and tennis. The two families are reserved with and wary of each other, but tonight, the evening before the wedding that is supposed to unite them in marriage, they will attempt to set aside their differences over dinner in the garden. As Celia Cohen, the eminent literary critic, sets the table, her husband, Pindar, would much rather be translating ancient recipes for his Babylonian cookbook than hosting this rehearsal dinner. Meanwhile, their son, Adam, the poet (and nervous groom), wonders if there is still time to simply elope. One of Adam's sisters, Naomi, a passionate but fragile social activist, refuses to leave her room, while Sara, scorpion biologist turned folklore writer, sits up on the roof mourning an imminent breakup. And Pindar's elderly mother, Leah, witnesses everything, weaving old memories into the present. The lawyers are early: patriarch Stephen Barlow and his bespangled wife, Philippa, who specializes in estates, along with Philippa's father, Nathan, hobbled by age and Lyme disease. Then come the Barlow sons William (war crimes), Cameron (intellectual property), and Barnes (the prosecutor), each with desperate wife and precocious offspring. How could their younger siblings--Eliza, the bride, an aspiring veterinarian, and her twin brother, Harry, recently expelled from divinity school--have issued from such a family? Up and down the dinner table, with its twenty-four (or is it twenty-five?) guests, unions are forming and dissolving while Pindar is trying to figure out whether time is really shaped like baklava, and off in the surrounding forest with its ancient pond different sorts of mischief will lead to a complicated series of fiascoes and miracles before the party is over. Set over the course of a single day and night, Grace Dane Mazur's brilliantly observed novel weaves an irresistible portrayal of miscommunication, secrets, and the power of love.
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ISBN:
9780399179723
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Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | de36e75a-1365-e0b5-aa48-9c0a18597a1a |
---|---|
Grouping Title | garden party |
Grouping Author | grace dane mazur |
Grouping Category | book |
Grouping Language | English (eng) |
Last Grouping Update | 2024-04-25 17:16:46PM |
Last Indexed | 2024-04-30 22:45:23PM |
Solr Fields
accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
author
Mazur, Grace Dane
author_display
Mazur, Grace Dane
display_description
A rehearsal dinner brings together two disparate families in this sparkling, witty novel "This vital novel offers delicious echoes of Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster, and a touch of A Midsummer Night's Dream --but its magic is unique. The Garden Party is beautiful and full of life."--Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl and The Woman Upstairs The Cohens are wildly impractical intellectuals--academics, activists, and artists. The Barlows are Wall Street Journal -reading lawyers steeped in trusts and copyrights, golf and tennis. The two families are reserved with and wary of each other, but tonight, the evening before the wedding that is supposed to unite them in marriage, they will attempt to set aside their differences over dinner in the garden. As Celia Cohen, the eminent literary critic, sets the table, her husband, Pindar, would much rather be translating ancient recipes for his Babylonian cookbook than hosting this rehearsal dinner. Meanwhile, their son, Adam, the poet (and nervous groom), wonders if there is still time to simply elope. One of Adam's sisters, Naomi, a passionate but fragile social activist, refuses to leave her room, while Sara, scorpion biologist turned folklore writer, sits up on the roof mourning an imminent breakup. And Pindar's elderly mother, Leah, witnesses everything, weaving old memories into the present. The lawyers are early: patriarch Stephen Barlow and his bespangled wife, Philippa, who specializes in estates, along with Philippa's father, Nathan, hobbled by age and Lyme disease. Then come the Barlow sons William (war crimes), Cameron (intellectual property), and Barnes (the prosecutor), each with desperate wife and precocious offspring. How could their younger siblings--Eliza, the bride, an aspiring veterinarian, and her twin brother, Harry, recently expelled from divinity school--have issued from such a family? Up and down the dinner table, with its twenty-four (or is it twenty-five?) guests, unions are forming and dissolving while Pindar is trying to figure out whether time is really shaped like baklava, and off in the surrounding forest with its ancient pond different sorts of mischief will lead to a complicated series of fiascoes and miracles before the party is over. Set over the course of a single day and night, Grace Dane Mazur's brilliantly observed novel weaves an irresistible portrayal of miscommunication, secrets, and the power of love.
format_category_eh
Books
format_eh
Book
id
de36e75a-1365-e0b5-aa48-9c0a18597a1a
isbn
9780399179723
itype_eh
ADULT BOOK
last_indexed
2024-05-01T04:45:23.746Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Fiction
literary_form_full
Fiction
primary_isbn
9780399179723
publishDate
2018
publisher
Random House
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Domestic fiction
Families -- Fiction
Interpersonal relations -- Fiction
Families -- Fiction
Interpersonal relations -- Fiction
title_display
The garden party : a novel
title_full
The garden party : a novel / Grace Dane Mazur
title_short
The garden party
title_sub
a novel
topic_facet
Families
Interpersonal relations
Interpersonal relations
Solr Details Tables
item_details
Bib Id | Item Id | Shelf Loc | Call Num | Format | Format Category | Num Copies | Is Order Item | Is eContent | eContent Source | eContent URL | Detailed Status | Last Checkin | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ils:.b25816391 | .i61497459 | Old Lyme A Fiction | FIC MAZUR | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | olaf | |||||
ils:.b25816391 | .i61562087 | Old Saybrook/Acton Adult Fiction | F MAZUR | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | osaf | |||||
ils:.b25816391 | .i61472724 | Stony Creek/Willoughby Wallace Adult Fiction | FIC MAZ | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | staf | |||||
ils:.b25816391 | .i61537597 | North Haven Adult Fiction | Fiction Mazur, Grace Dane | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | nhaf | |||||
ils:.b25816391 | .i61571957 | Ledyard/Bill Adult Fiction | F Mazur | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | lbaf | |||||
ils:.b25816391 | .i61739868 | Essex Adult Fiction | MAZUR | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | exaf | |||||
ils:.b25816391 | .i6151231x | East Lyme Public Adult Fiction | Mazur, Grace (Garden) | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | elaf | |||||
ils:.b25816391 | .i61592134 | Wallingford Adult Fiction | MAZUR | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | waaf | |||||
ils:.b25816391 | .i61484246 | Branford/Blackstone Adult Fiction | FIC. | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | braf | |||||
ils:.b25816391 | .i61818318 | Hamden/Miller Adult Fiction | FIC/MAZUR | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | hmaf | |||||
ils:.b25816391 | .i61539375 | Guilford Adult Fiction | FIC MAZUR | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | guaf |
record_details
Bib Id | Format | Format Category | Edition | Language | Publisher | Publication Date | Physical Description | Abridged |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ils:.b25816391 | Book | Books | English | Random House | [2018] | 216 pages ; 25 cm |
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ils:.b25816391 | .i61592134 | On Shelf | On Shelf | false | true | true | false | false | false | 9999 | ||
ils:.b25816391 | .i61484246 | On Shelf | On Shelf | false | true | true | false | false | false | 9999 | ||
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