Music for Torching
by A. M. Homes
2020-04-23 05:17:20
In a tale that unfolds over the course of one week, A. M. Homes lays bare the foundations of marriage and family life at the end of the century -- the American Dream gone dry. Flash frozen in the anxious entropy of a suburban subdivision, Paul and El...
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In a tale that unfolds over the course of one week, A. M. Homes lays bare the foundations of marriage and family life at the end of the century -- the American Dream gone dry. Flash frozen in the anxious entropy of a suburban subdivision, Paul and Elaine (the couple featured in Homes's acclaimed first collection of stories, The Safety of Objects) spin the quiet terrors of family life into a fantastical frenzy that careens out of control: a Stepford-wife neighbor, an ill-conceived plan for a tattoo, a sexy town cop who shows up at all the wrong moments, an allergy-relief cleanup team in space suits, a mistress calling on the cell phone, and a hostage situation at the boys' school. With characters so flawed and outrageous they are entirely believable, Music for Torching is a surreal vision of a most familiar landscape.
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