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    In the Flesh: A Novel
    Unavailable
    In the Flesh: A Novel
    Unavailable
    In the Flesh: A Novel
    Ebook323 pages4 hours

    In the Flesh: A Novel

    By Hilma Wolitzer

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A woman rediscovers herself as her domestic life crumbles in this novel of mid-century marriage by the author of Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket.

    It’s 1957, and Paulette has just gotten into trouble in the backseat of a car. Her beau, Howard, is a handsome musician with an ability to inspire lust that she has never encountered before. So, although some women in her position might choose a different path, Paulette persuades Howard to get married.
     After a small ceremony, the happy couple takes up residence on the nineteenth floor of a high rise in Forest Hills. For a time they are shockingly happy, but then things start to go wrong. And when Howard’s eye begins to wander, Paulette must ask herself: If a person lives for love alone, what happens when the love disappears? This ebook features an illustrated biography of Hilma Wolitzer, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateJan 29, 2013
    ISBN9781453287880
    Unavailable
    In the Flesh: A Novel
    Author

    Hilma Wolitzer

    Hilma Wolitzer (b. 1930) is a critically hailed author of literary fiction. She is a recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and a Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award. She has taught writing at the University of Iowa, New York University, and Columbia University. Born in Brooklyn, she began writing as a child, and published her first poem at age nine. Her first published short story, “Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket,” appeared in print when she was thirty-six. Eight years later, she published Ending (1974), a novel about a young man succumbing to a terminal illness and his wife’s struggle to go on. Since then, her novels have dealt mostly with domestic themes, and she has drawn praise for illuminating the dark interiors of the American home.  After publishing her tenth novel, Tunnel of Love (1994), Wolitzer confronted a crippling writer’s block. She worked with a therapist to understand and overcome the block, and completed the first draft of a new novel in just a few months. Upon its release, The Doctor’s Daughter (2006) was touted as a “triumphant comeback” by the New York Times Book Review. Since then, Wolitzer has published two more books—Summer Reading (2007) and An Available Man (2012). She has two daughters—an editor and a novelist—and lives with her husband in New York City, where she continues to write. 

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    Reviews for In the Flesh

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    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed reading your book. I read enthusiastically and understood the story. ... If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to hardy@novelstar.top or joye@novelstar.top
    • 5/5
      I seem to be working my way backward and forward with Hilma Wolitzer's fiction for the past few years. Admittedly, I was late finding her, as her writing dates back to the sixties. First I read AN AVAILABLE MAN, then THE DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER (loved 'em both), then, more recently I read an advance copy of TODAY A WOMAN WENT MAD IN THE SUPERMARKET (again, loved it), which is a collection of her stories, some dating back to the sixties and seventies, with one brand new one. But I was caught up in the connected stories about Paulie and Howard Flax, with Paulie as narrator. She's a wife and mother (and frustrated poet), Howard a musician. Her voice is so real, original, funny, heartbreaking and utterly human, that I wanted more. So I was delighted to find IN THE FLESH, first published well over forty years ago, a whole NOVEL about ups and downs and trials and heartaches of Paulie and Howard, set in the 1950s and early 60s. There is a bit of everything in here - the excitement of first love, arguments and disagreements with parents, marriage and pregnancy, that first apartment, giving birth for the first time, infidelity, heartache and separation - and so much more. All in Paulie's voice, laced with her very quirky sense of humor and fierce determination to make this marriage work. I tried to remember another young couple in fiction to compare the Flaxes with. I thought of Emma and Flap Horton from McMurtry's TERMS OF ENDEARMENT - maybe. Then I thought of Annie and Carl from Betty Smith's JOY IN THE MORNING - close, but they were from an earlier era, and a lot more "innocent." I know I've read similar stuff, but I'm old now. Can't remember important stuff when I want to, or need to. Maybe Anne Roiphe's UP THE SANDBOX!? Closer, but more fanciful that Wolitzer, if I remember correctly. Nah. Paulie and Howard are kinda unique as characters, I think. And IN THE FLESH? It may seem dated to some readers, with its references to Weismueller, Gertrude Ederle, Duz, the ALICE "eat me" reference, Cugat, Shirley Temple, and even a "bundling board." But hell, I'm old enough to recognize all of these. So yeah, and I hate to sound like a broken record (a kid today would say, "A broken record? What's that mean?"), but I LOVED IT. My very highest recommendation.- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER