From the acclaimed writer and “one of our preeminent humorists” (The New York Times) Paul Rudnick, a riotously funny, perceptive, and life-affirming novel following the decades-long, rule-breaking romance between the son of one of American’s wealthiest families and a middle-class aspiring author.
Devastatingly handsome and insanely rich, Farrell Covington is capable of anything and impossible to resist. He’s a clear-eyed romantic, an aesthete but not a snob, self-indulgent yet wildly generous. As the son of one of the country’s most powerful and deeply conservative families, the world could be his. But when he falls for Nate Reminger, an aspiring writer from a nice Jewish family in Piscataway, New Jersey, the results are passionate and catastrophic.
Together, the two embark on a uniquely managed romance that spans half a century. They are inseparable—except for the many years when they are apart. Moving from the ivy-covered bastion of Yale to New York City, Los Angeles, and eventually all over the world, Farrell and Nate experience the tremendous upheaval and social change of the last fifty years. From the freedom of gay life in 1970s Manhattan to the Hollywood closet, the AIDS epidemic, and the profound strides of the LGBTQ+ movement, this witty and moving novel shows how the world changes around us while we’re busy doing other things. A story of chances lost and found (and sometimes just temporarily misplaced), with an epic reach, it reminds us that there is always the possibility of undiluted, unbridled, unstoppable happiness, if, as Farrell says, “You know where to look.” Style has its limits, love does not.
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“Each page is loaded with quippy dialogue and winning character work. This is a roaring good time.”
— Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“Tugs at the heart…Rudnick delivers [a] multiple-laughs-per-paragraph pace.”
— New York Times“A hot contender for best banter in a beach read…Prepare to be delighted.”
— Washington Post“No funnier, wiser or more charming book will come out this year, I guarantee.”
— Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning authorBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Paul Rudnick is a novelist, playwright, essayist, and screenwriter, whom the New York Times has called “one of our preeminent humorists.” His plays have been produced both on and off Broadway and around the world. His novels include Social Disease and I’ll Take It, both from Knopf. He is a regular contributor to the New Yorker, and his articles and essays have also appeared in the New York Times, Esquire, Vogue, and Vanity Fair.