Disappearing Ingenue

Zusatztext “There is so much in Pritchard’s talent that amazes: her dazzling language! the constant surprise of her details! the keen eye for dishonesty and disappointment.” — The Chicago Tribune “Pritchard’s writing is precise and lucid . . . sharp and funny.” — The New York Times Book Review “Wildly imaginative. . . . Endearingly quirky.” — Glamour “Delightfully odd.” — Entertainment Weekly Informationen zum Autor Melissa Pritchard Klappentext This wildly imaginative collection presents the misadventures of unlikely heroine Eleanor Stoddard as she tries to lead an exemplary life but finds that things just keep going awry. In the summer after sixth grade! she dreams of being as courageous as Anne Frank. As a teenager! her sudden devotion to Catholicism coincides with her crush on a nun. As a suburban housewife who suspects her husband of having an affair! she imitates Nancy Drew to try to solve her own personal mystery. And as a middle-aged woman! she embarks on a trek through Central America accompanied by a rescued laboratory gorilla. While Eleanor makes her way through a whirlwind of adventures with life and love in which she is constantly reinventing her identity and rethinking her priorities! she manages to become a first-rate student! a published poet! and a loyal mother. Each story offers a glimpse into her familiar and charmingly odd journey! and she comes hilariously to life in these disarming tales. The Case of the Disappearing Ingenue "My, I'm glad you came, Nancy!" Bess exclaimed. "George has been frightfully worried that something might have happened to you." "To me! What an idea!" Nancy laughed it off. "I worry every minute that you'll get into real danger,"George confessed. "Why, I've been so good lately, it hurts," Nancy replied. --from The Clue of the Velvet Mask : A Nancy Drew Mystery by Carolyn Keene Eleanor Luther, once known to her Isabella Street neighbors as "Kit" (for "Kitten"), and to the various small children of Isabella and Thayer Streets as "Moo" or "Mooser," happened, while dusting her husband's nightstand, upon a terrible clue. Like the miniature key given by Bluebeard to his newest and most naive wife--My palace is yours, dearest, but for one small door"--Eleanor plonked down on the just-stripped bed to read lyrics dashed out in Neil's spidery, introverted hand: Your smile is like sunlight Your love is all mine Your eyes blue magic Your blonde hair divine … Oh fudge, thought Eleanor. Oh rot. She tried to squeeze herself, like a long, ugly foot, into the glass slipper of those soppy lyrics, but catching her woesome reflection in the full-length mirror, conceded not, surely not. Neil’s other symptoms--the custom-made Italian suit, his morning isometrics, Friday's rock 'n' roll night (when she was deliberately kept in the dark as to his whereabouts until he returned at 2 A.M.), the sexual lethargy governing their bed--these could be overlooked, excuses could be made, but wasn't a love song evidence hard and undismissable as a rock? Eleanor jabbed the note back into the paperback book it had dropped out of ( The Milagro Beanfield War ), and resumed cleaning, switching on the vacuum that had once belonged to Neil's grandmother, heavy as a torpedo, roaring like hell's oven, and, for all its sound and fury, picking up very little. Neil's miserly streak was another of the many things they argued over subliminally. As a housekeeper, Eleanor balked and no doubt this was why--you risked uncovering something. If Neil was having an affair, why ever should she know? Eleanor Stoddard met Neil Luther eight years before, when she was a Congregational minister's secretary, and he had loped into the church office to ask directions. She had never met anyone so handsome (people regularly mistook him for Clint Eastwood), so reckless, so p...

Product details

• Authors: Melissa Pritchard
• Publisher: Anchor Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 10.06.2003
• EAN: 9780385721899
• ISBN: 978-0-385-72189-9
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 132 mm x 203 mm x 15 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature