Subtle Bodies - Paperback

by Norman Rush (Author)

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK - National Book Award-winning author of Mating - In a sophisticated romp through the tribulations and joys of marriage and friendship, a group of college friends reunites two decades after graduation.

"Rush is the best kind of comic novelist." --The New York Times Book Review

After the sudden death of Douglas, once the ringleader of a clique of self-styled wits, his four best friends are summoned to his Catskills estate to mourn his passing. Responding to a mysterious sense of emergency in the call, Ned flies in from San Francisco with his wife Nina in furious pursuit; they're at a critical point in their attempts to conceive and she won't let a funeral get in the way. It is Nina who gives us a pointed, irreverent commentary as the men reconvene, while Ned tries to understand what it was that made this clutch of souls his friends to begin with--before time, sex, work, and the brutal quirks of history reshaped them.

Filled with unexpected, funny, telling aperçus, Norman Rush's Subtle Bodies is also a deeply moving exploration of the meanings of life.

Author Biography

Norman Rush is the author of three previous works of fiction: Whites, a collection of stories, and two novels, Mating and Mortals. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Best American Short Stories. Mating was the recipient of the National Book Award. Rush and his wife live in Rockland County, New York.