Late Bloomer

Zusatztext “Hilarious. . . . Pritchard is a rambunctious! witty writer! devilishly attuned to details and pop culture.” — Chicago Tribune “Ravishing.” – Vanity Fair “Sharply written. . . . Offers cutting insight into the place of aging women in society! the definition of manliness and the dance of courtship itself.” – The Washington Post “Absolutely fresh. [Pritchard’s] language snaps with newness! sharp detail and goofy humor. . . . Prudence True Parker is a magnificent character.” – The Journal News “A brilliant mix of romance and satire. . . . Pritchard's quicksilver ability to blend biting social/political commentary with a rueful analysis of relationships makes this lesson in true romance an absolutely sage-scented delight.” – Publishers Weekly (starred) Informationen zum Autor Melissa Pritchard is the author of two short story collections, The Instinct for Bliss and Spirit Seizures , and two novels, Phoenix and Selene of the Spirits . Pritchard was awarded a Pushcart Prize for “Funktionslust,” which appeared in The Paris Review. Her story “Salve Regina” was included in Prize Stories 2000: The O. Henry Awards . Among numerous other awards, she has received the Flannery O’Connor Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and a Howard Foundation Fellowship from Brown University. She is Director of the M.F.A. Creative Writing Program at Arizona State University and is on the faculty of Spalding University. Klappentext Prudence True Parker teaches a course called Advanced Personal Journey at a community college in Arizona! but her own personal journey is not really advancing. She's divorced! debt-ridden! and starting to feel desperate! when she meets Digby Deeds (alias Mildred Crowley)! the author of the wildly successful Savage Passion romance series! at her local library. When the dying Deeds offers Prudence the final forty plots of his popular series! her financial needs trump her literary aspirations! and she accepts. To her astonishment! her own life soon begins to outpace Passion 's fevered tales! and she finds herself in the midst of a plot involving psychics! a sexy young Comanche lover! Native American activists! medicine men! and even a few wolves. Quick-witted and laugh-out-loud funny! Late Bloomer follows Prue on her madcap journey! as she finds her real life surpassing the wildest flights of her imagination. Tempe, Arizona Clad in boxers patterned with glow-in-the-dark pumpkins and a Garfield "Easy Rider" tank top, clothing belonging to her daughter Fiona, Prudence stood, two mornings later, before her open refrigerator, unable to fend off the realization that something in her life was off-kilter. Incontestable evidence presented itself in the one egg, two heels of twelve-grain bread, bag of rubbery carrots, and sad knob of old butter. Outside the icebox and inside her head (that overcrowded, bony box) lurked the reluctant awareness that (a) she did not have money to buy groceries, (b) she would not be paid for three more weeks, and (c) while she had been busy helping others, no one had thought to help her. Entrenched within Prudence's moral foundation was a certain unchecked generosity, a self-destructive impulse toward charity. Give, woman, give, to the headstrong, plunging world . . . At fourteen, Prudence Parker had copied down this anonymous quote in her diary, a virtue thereafter subscribed to and left unexamined, a virtue leaving her, decades later, feeding others while starving herself. Martyrdom, an incremental, dishonest way to die. Scrambling her solitary egg, toasting both grainy heels, Prudence mentally calculated the credit remaining on her card. Her penury, even to herself, was scarcely credible. She was a teacher at a community college, wasn't she? She lived in a reasonably attractive...

Product details

• Authors: Melissa Pritchard
• Publisher: Anchor Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 08.03.2005
• EAN: 9780385721929
• ISBN: 978-0-385-72192-9
• No. of pages: 384
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 202 mm x 17 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature