In Love (Peter Owen Modern Classics)

New
Paperback
2007
$9.06

Fifty years ago, Alfred Hayes was regarded as one of the most interesting and original American novelists, and he deserves to be better known. Set in the Manhattan bar scene in the forties, a middle aged man tells a young woman, whom he has just met, the story of his last love affair: a relationship in the thoroughly modern sense, full of misplaced lust and misunderstood emotion in which the boy was moody and evasive and the girl was even worse, a relationship that was mostly erratic, depressing and dysfunctional. Seemingly sinking without a trace, it is thrown into relief by the intervention of an unscrupulous millionaire. The ensuing turmoil will be recognisable to anyone who has fallen into - and then out of - a relationship. In Love is as much an indictment of love as an elegy to it, an examination of heartbreak rather than the heart.

Synopsis

Fifty years ago, Alfred Hayes was regarded as one of the most interesting and original American novelists, and he deserves to be better known. Set in the Manhattan bar scene in the forties, a middle aged man tells a young woman, whom he has just met, the story of his last love affair: a relationship in the thoroughly modern sense, full of misplaced lust and misunderstood emotion in which the boy was moody and evasive and the girl was even worse, a relationship that was mostly erratic, depressing and dysfunctional. Seemingly sinking without a trace, it is thrown into relief by the intervention of an unscrupulous millionaire. The ensuing turmoil will be recognisable to anyone who has fallen into - and then out of - a relationship. In Love is as much an indictment of love as an elegy to it, an examination of heartbreak rather than the heart.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 220
Edition: 2Rev Ed
Publisher: Peter Owen Ltd
Published: 30 Oct 2007
ISBN 10: 0720612942
ISBN 13: 9780720612943

Media Reviews

'Flawless, a perfectly cut gem' - Frederic Raphael 'Moving and convincing ... a lyrical, intelligent book' - The Guardian 'A little masterpiece.' - Elizabeth Bowen 'Besides being a technical tour de force, In Love is literature; it is a work of art.' - Julien Maclaren Ross 'A complete success ... An honest, witty and moving study of an affair' - Antonia White 'A brilliantly reduced masterpiece' - The Independent 'A very remarkable novel ... Quite unforgettable' - John Lehman 'Hayes has done for bruised men what Jean Rhys does for bruised women, and they both write heartbreakingly beautiful sentences.' - Paul Bailey

Author Bio

Alfred Hayes (1911-1985) was born in London. He grew up and went to school in New York where he later worked for a time as a newspaperman, magazine writer and radio hack. After joining the army in 1943 he served with the US forces in Italy. While in Rome he met Roberto Rossellini and Federico Fellini on the film Paisa (1946). He returned to the United States in 1945 to work in Hollywood. His output was prolific including six more novels, screenplays and adaptions for television.