Till the Fat Lady Sings, Alisa Kwitney
Till the Fat Lady Sings, Alisa Kwitney
List: $22.00 | Sale: $15.40
Club: $11.00

Till the Fat Lady Sings

Author: Alisa Kwitney

Narrator: Andrea Emmes

Unabridged: 7 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/17/2024


Synopsis

Manya Miriam Mittelman has an uneasy relationship with her flesh, of which there is a bit too much by the standards of Columbia University circa 1992.

"If only the flesh weren't so closely connected with the spirit!" Manya reflects. "The spirit has such wonderful moments of illumination, and all the flesh ever does is intrude and say, 'We're hungry now. We have to pee now. We're horny now.'"

Till the Fat Lady Sings traces the intertwined fortunes of plump, thoughtful Manya and her circle of acquaintances at Columbia, all of whom are grappling in one way or another with the unbearable weight of being in the 1990s: Manya's flamboyant fellow students, punk-neurasthenic Ophelia (nee Jane Saunders) and angst-ridden Arthur, organizers of the mysterious Doomsday Coalition; Feminism 101 professor Emilia Larsdatter (nee Emily Larson), who has broken up with the tempestuous poet Saul, though "in point of fact their relationship was not exactly over. Like malaria, it recurred from time to time in uncontrollable fits"; Boris, womanizing Russian emigre owner of Zaftigue, the boutique where Manya works on weekends; and Vanessa, who "was having a great deal of difficulty getting over Boris. Perhaps it was her job; she was an editor at LoveLorn romances, for their Regency line of novels. All day long Vanessa read about eighteen-year-olds whose impish flouting of convention ('I shall not perform my needlepoint, Mama!') led them straight into the arms of dashing rakes ('You have heard rumors, Minerva, of my way with the fair sex...')."

Wickedly funny, worldly wise, Alisa Kwitney displays extraordinary sureness and emotional wisdom in her first novel. She's a contender.

About Alisa Kwitney

Alisa Kwitney was once an editor at DC Comics/Vertigo and is an Eisner-nominated author of graphic novels, romantic women’s fiction and urban fantasy. She is one of the authors of A Flight of Angels, which made YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens Top Ten list, and the YA graphic novel Token, named a highlight of the Minx imprint by Publishers Weekly. Alisa has an MFA from Columbia University.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lenny on April 29, 2015

Found this in a Used Book Store and jumped at it because of the title. At first, didn't get into it. The author describes her characters as if she is a Psychologist studying primates and documenting their behavior. I didn't really like any of the characters (or dislike them) for that reason--they we......more

Goodreads review by Cayce on June 16, 2014

Century of Books: 1993......more