The book of 2001 is Kissing in Manhattan: a twisted series of intertwining New York fairytales by an outstandingly original, funny and talented new writer. It features the Pre-emption, a fantastically grand and old-fashioned apartment building in New York, and some extraordinary recurring characters: Patrick, the charismatic and satanic millionaire with a penchant for nude restraint; Rally, the travel writer lying tied up in Patrick's bedroom during an Breakfast at Tiffany's-style party; Jacob and Rachel, whose secret nightly bath is suddenly headline news; Hannah, the nymphomaniac perfume heiress; and Douglas, the teacher who is invited to dinner by his star pupil's parents, and propositioned.
With its extraordinary combination of old-world glamour and new world deviance, Kissing in Manhattan is a breathtaking and unimaginably stylish debut.
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The mood turns dark, however, with the introduction of Patrick, a 30ish Wall Street trader who collects women and spends his evenings tying them up in his room. In short order the book's easy comedy torques into something more dramatic by Patrick's descent into violence. That Schickler doesn't play to his strengths is not necessarily a bad thing: one admires a writer who reaches beyond facility to something more difficult. But the transition from light-hearted sexual commentary to dirty realism is a bit bumpy. On the other hand, the novel's picture of a dark, desire-ridden Manhattan is an attractively seductive slice of escapism. The linked-stories format gives rise to a feeling of multiplicity, which is just the right tone for a book about a city crowded with pleasures. Describing James, a lovestruck young accountant, Schickler writes:
His mind tonight was on the fine and the illicit pleasures of the planet, on their merits and dispersement. Some people cut daisies, thought James. Some visit Wales, or choose cocaine, or dig latrines for the poor and the weak.Everyone, it seems, is after something different. But it's desire itself that interests the author of Kissing in Manhattan. --Claire Dederer, Amazon.com
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