Jane Kramer never imagined a life selling discount furniture and commuting between grocery stores and soccer fields via minivan. But when her father-in-law has a heart attack, she and her husband, Leon, trade in their glamorous New York life for a stint running the family business on Rockville Pike, a tributary of the suburban sprawl line extending outward from Washington, D.C. Kramer's Discount Furniture Depot sits away from several lanes of traffic, near the tombstone of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is here that Jane escapes each day at lunchtime to ponder her confusing turn in life. At age forty-one, she has a teenage Goth son, her husband is increasingly overweight and quick-tempered, and their business is in a state of crisis, both financially and legally. Jane finds herself wishing for something more. First, add to the mix Delia, a mysterious and strangely predatory patio-furniture saleswoman who seems to have her sights set on Leon, and then an attack on the store expansion plans by historic preservationists. When potentially disturbing findings about Delia's past come to light, Jane finds herself learning that, despite life's reversals, it is possible to reinvent herself by tapping into talents and desires she didn't realize she still had. Rockville Pike is a smart, witty, and funny read that revels in the joy of discovering what life has in store.
Susan Coll's articles and reviews have appeared in the International Herald Tribune, The Washington Post Book World, and The Asian Wall Street Journal. She lives in Maryland with her husband, the author and journalist Steve Coll, and their three children.
ISBN: 9780743267106 Format: Paperback Pages: 224 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Published: January 14, 2008
Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of Pure Poetry With this charming debut novel, Susan Coll manages to stylishly juggle the contemporary dilemmas of her heroine, Ella Kennedy, the political theories of Karl Marx, and the tragic story of his daughter Eleanor. The result is a thinking girl's treat.
Kirkus Reviews A stylish debut.
Lisa Zeidner The Washington Post There are plenty of dating novels around and also plenty of academic novels. But Susan Coll's antic first novel is an original hybrid: an academic dating novel....Coll has mastered comic pacing.
The New York Times Book Review Coll is an energetic, imaginative writer, and her send-ups of the dichotomy between one's ivory tower principles and daily life are wryly funny.
