Perfect Life - Tapa dura

Two years ago, Neil Banks walked into a bathroom in the Pacific Fertility Center to provide his former college girlfriend, Jenny Callahan, with the biological material needed to conceive a child. Becoming a father was not part of the deal: adrift in his postmodern Los Angeles lifestyle, he signed away all paternity rights. But on the day of the baby s christening, Neil turns up at the church. His unexpected and unauthorized return to Jenny s privileged East Coast world sends a shockwave through the families of Jenny and her two college roommates and sets off this keenly observed novel about fertility, biology, love, and American excess. Elegantly written, Perfect Life asks the perennially daunting question: What is the perfect life? In her smart and timely new novel, Jessica Shattuck tells a story that is humorous and moving, enlightening and life-affirming."

"Each of the four fully delineated characters is unique, and their situations clearly reflect their personalities as Shattuck describes their feelings with great accuracy, reveling in the fact that her characters are well educated and reflective people who demonstrate admirable self-awareness. In all, this is an excellent, resonant novel." "Shattuck does a great job with her characters, and the bizarre situations they find themselves in-Neil particularly-come across as oddly believable. Light humor and breezy prose seal the deal." "Stylish storytelling and sharp social commentary-on issues ranging from adultery to genetic engineering-make Perfect Life both topical and eminently readable."