Her entry begins:
I tend to read several books at once, which confounds my friends who are more organized readers. Right now it happens to be:About Animal Instinct, from the publisher:
Lifesaving, a memoir by Judith Barrington published in 2000. I teach personal essay and memoir-writing, and I often use Barrington's writing about writing memoir, but it only recently occurred to me to read her actual memoir! This is a gorgeous and thoughtful book about the aftermath of her parents' sudden death when she was 19 -- she expatriated to Spain, had some adventures, and started to come to terms with her sexuality and queerness. It's every bit as good as...[read on]
The world has stopped. But Rachel is just getting started…Visit Amy Shearn's website.
It’s spring of 2020 and Rachel Bloomstein—mother of three, recent divorcée, and Brooklynite—is stuck inside. But her newly awakened sexual desire and lust for anew life refuse to be contained. Leaning on her best friend Lulu to show her the ropes, Rachel dips a toe in the online dating world, leading to park dates with younger men, flirtations with beautiful women, and actual, in-person sex. None of them, individually, are perfect . . . hence her rotation.
But what if one person could perfectly cater to all her emotional needs? Driven by this possibility, Rachel creates Frankie, the AI chatbot she programs with all the good parts of dating in middle age . . . and some of the bad. But as Rachel plays with her fantasy to her heart’s content, she begins to realize she can’t reprogram her ex-husband, her children, her friends, or the roster of paramours that’s grown unwieldy. Perhaps real life has more in store for Rachel than she could ever program for herself.
The Page 99 Test: How Far Is the Ocean from Here.
Writers Read: Amy Shearn (March 2013).
Q&A with Amy Shearn.
My Book, The Movie: Dear Edna Sloane.
The Page 69 Test: Dear Edna Sloane.
The Page 69 Test: Animal Instinct.
Writers Read: Amy Shearn.
--Marshal Zeringue
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