Comfort Me with Apples
A Novel
Peter De Vries
- A
- laugh-out-loud
- novel
- about
- teenage
- pretensions
- and
- adult
- delusions
- from
- an
- author
- whom
- the
- New
- York
- Times
- has
- called
- “a
- Balzac
- of
- the
- station
- wagon
- set”Chick
- Swallow
- and
- his
- best
- friend,
- Nickie
- Sherman,
- are
- teenage
- boulevardiers
- of
- Decency,
- Connecticut,
- devotees
- of
- Oscar
- Wilde
- who
- spend
- their
- evenings
- crafting
- perverse
- aphorisms
- in
- an
- ice-cream
- parlor.
- “There
- is
- only
- one
- thing
- worse
- than
- not
- having
- children,”
- opines
- Chick,
- “and
- that
- is
- having
- them.”
- Unrepentant
- aesthetes,
- someday
- soon
- they
- will
- be
- in
- Paris
- or
- New
- York,
- far
- removed
- from
- the
- mainstream.Then
- the
- unthinkable
- happens.
- Marriage.
- Family.
- Dinner
- parties.
- For
- Chick,
- a
- job
- at
- the
- local
- newspaper
- writing
- an
- advice
- column
- punctuated
- by
- blandly
- inspirational
- Pepigrams:
- “To
- turn
- stumbling
- blocks
- into
- stepping
- stones—pick
- up
- your
- feet.”
- For
- Nickie,
- an
- unlikely
- career
- in
- law
- enforcement.
- But
- just
- when
- it
- seems
- that
- their
- lives
- have
- settled
- down
- before
- they
- could
- even
- begin,
- Chick
- begins
- an
- affair
- with
- Mrs.
- Thicknesse,
- a
- newspaper
- music
- critic
- of
- ample
- girth
- and
- means,
- and
- a
- whole
- brouhaha
- breaks
- loose:
- blackmail,
- forgery,
- secret
- sleuthing,
- lawsuits.
- There
- is
- drama
- in
- suburbia
- after
- all,
- and
- Chick
- and
- Nickie
- are
- up
- to
- their
- necks
- in
- it.A
- wild,
- witty
- tale
- of
- friendship,
- marriage,
- and
- infidelity,
- Comfort
- Me
- with
- Apples
- is
- full
- of
- the
- brilliant
- wordplay
- and
- delicious
- ironies
- that
- made
- Peter
- de
- Vries
- “one
- of
- the
- best
- comic
- novelists
- that
- America
- has
- ever
- produced” (Commentary).
pro-mbooks3 : libris
