Tuesday, May 20, 2014

The Adults - by Alison Espach


This satire follows the story of  Emily, who within the course of a year watches a neighbor commit suicide; experiences the divorce of her parents; becomes a sister to her father's love child; and embarks on an affair with one of her high school teachers. The on-again-off-again relationship with "Mr. Basketball" (a.k.a. Johannes, Jonathan, and Jack) continues over about a dozen years.

Emily's only two mentions of libraries are in stark contrast to each other. The first time demonstrates a certain naivety; the second shows an especially daring sexual side. In describing her grandmother's death, when Emily was 10, she (Emily) recounts her mother suggesting that the family get out of the hospital room for a little while to get some coffee. Emily reminds her mother
I am only ten, my legs are barely covered in peach fuzz, I just found out there are two r's in "library," this whole time it had never been "ly-bary" and how embarrassing, I'm so so embarrassed, Mom, can I have a ginger ale instead?
Much later in the book Emily, while having sex in a public restroom during one of her reunions with Jonathan thinks about going "somewhere else"
off to the basement stacks of the public library, where sex was a dark art and we were just students. Where I had to keep on my wool dress for decorum's sake and he just unzipped his pleated khaki's and out he tumbled like a waterfall.
This is a good summer read - pure escape.

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