His entry begins:
I am a big re-reader. There are certain books I read regularly once a year. Some only once a decade. Two that I haven’t reread in more than twenty years are John Dos Passos’s USA trilogy and Anna Karenina.About Indiscretion, from the publisher:
When I first read Dos Passos it was more a matter of filling out a set. I’d read many of the American expat writers from ‘20s—Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Flanner, Barnes—even Stein’s Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, et al—but hadn’t yet tackled Dos Passos. Then, as now, he had fallen out of favor and was too often mentioned as a side note to the era but at the time he was writing he was bigger than either Hemingway or Fitzgerald, at least at the beginning. I realize I could have started with one of his shorter works but the fact of the matter was that I had access to USA, an old Modern Library edition of my mother’s from college and so that was what I went for. And boy, was I glad I did. You can admire the virility and purity of Hemingway, the beauty and wit of Fitzgerald but JDP was something altogether different. It was like reading electricity. Not only did his prose crackle but also the inventiveness with which he attempted to interact with the reader through devices like imitating how newsreels might sound on paper not only changed the dynamic between author and reader, it also...[read on]
"Every story has a narrator. Someone who writes it down after it's all over. Why am I the narrator of this story? I am because it is the story of my life—and of the people I love most...."Learn more about Indiscretion at the William Morrow website.
Harry and Madeleine Winslow have been blessed with talent, money, and charm. Harry is a National Book Award–winning author on the cusp of greatness. Madeleine is a woman of sublime beauty and grace whose elemental goodness and serenity belie a privileged upbringing. Bonded by deep devotion, they share a love that is both envied and admired. The Winslows play host to a coterie of close friends and acolytes eager to bask in their golden radiance, whether they are in their bucolic East Hampton cottage, abroad in Rome thanks to Harry's writing grant, or in their comfortable Manhattan brownstone.
One weekend at the start of the summer season, Harry and Maddy, who are in their early forties, meet Claire and cannot help but be enchanted by her winsome youth, quietintelligence, and disarming naivete. Drawn by the Winslows' inscrutable magnetism, Claire eagerly falls into their welcoming orbit. But over the course of the summer, her reverence transforms into a dangerous desire. By Labor Day, it is no longer enough to remain one of their hangers-on.
A story of love, lust, deception, and betrayal as seen through the omniscient eyes of Maddy's childhood friend Walter, a narrator akin to Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby, Indiscretion is a juicy, richly textured novel filled with fascinating, true-to-life characters—an irresistibly sensual page-turner that explores having it all and the consequences of wanting more.
Indiscretion also marks the debut of a remarkably gifted writer and storyteller whose unique voice bears all the hallmarks of an exciting new literary talent.
Writers Read: Charles Dubow.
--Marshal Zeringue
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