Early choices mark the lives of the characters in this sensual narrative. At 40, Janet's nest is empty and her horizons wide.
|
Pleasure's Only Rule can be ordered from your favorite bookstore or from
www.barnesandnoble.com or
www.amazon.com.
|
Now that her son is grown and independent, Janet finds freedom exhilarating and terrifying. Her old friend Carlos, an enigmatic sculptor in Los Angeles, offers her his casual love and protection. But when Janet explains to Ben, a Harvard-educated attorney and naturalist, her plan to leave San Francisco and finish college, Ben blurts out that his wife has left him and taken their small daughter. Janet’s choices affect her son Tom, a biology major who has moved in with his girlfriend Elaine, and reverberate through her group of friends: the flamboyant Maria, once Carlos’ lover; her husband Rodger, an elegant Brit who is squandering his success and his luck in alcohol; Diamond, now too large to leave her apartment; and Larry who has buried many friends struck down by AIDS. With revolution fomenting in Eastern Europe and the Berlin wall being torn down stone by stone, the globe feels suddenly smaller and full of promise as well as pain. Do we choose, or are we chosen?
Janet is a complex and fascinating woman who invites readers to witness her unexpected choices and share her earthly pleasures. Janet’s circle of friends is richly drawn and compelling. Their sensuous life in San Francisco beckons us. Don’t miss this luscious first novel.
- Ashley Grisso, adjunct faculty member, University of New Mexico
Pleasure’s Only Rule is more than a love story. It is a novel in verse, a story about a poet told by a poet, a wonderful documentary of place. I read it very slowly, wanting to savor every word and enjoy its wonderful rhythm. The fund of vocabulary is so rich, and sensuously so. The love scenes are exquisite and so welcome amidst the base nature of the portrayal of sex these days.
- Jaqui Linder, artist and former English teacher, Versailles, Kentucky
|