Böcker av Leonard Michaels

An outrageous, darkly funny novel aboutmanhood . . . The late 1970s. Seven men - friends, acquaintances, and strangers - gather in a suburban home in Berkeley, California. They intend to start a men's club, the purpose of which isn't immediately clear to any of them. But as the evening wears on and the drinks flow faster, they discover a powerful and passionate desire to talk - to unburden and to share, to try and comprehend their feelings, their insecurities, their lives. Kramer claims he's slept with six hundred women; Berliner and his wife beat each other up as foreplay; Cavanaugh - big handsome guy - is haunted by his former life as a professional basketball player. And Terry just can't get over Deborah Zeller. The Men's Club is a scathing, pitying, absurdly dark and funny novel about manhood and masculinity.

Leonard, a young writer drifting through the city, meets Sylvia by chance at a friend's shabby Greenwich Village apartment. He's instantly besotted with her striking beauty and quiet disdain, and the question of what to do with his life is resolved. In this remarkable semi-autobiographical novel, we are drawn into the world of a beatnik couple living in Manhattan in the early 1960s, and their demi-monde of jazz, poetry, late nights and early mornings. But when Sylvia's depression emerges and her disturbances take hold, their fights become increasingly violent and their relationship hurtles towards self-destruction. Written with extraordinary clarity and precision, this is a compelling portrait of the mad intensity, exquisite pain and destructive power of young love. 'Every page reveals the mark of an extraordinarily original and gifted talent.' - William Styron 'The writing isn't merely stylish; it's vital . . . the ending is as shocking as that of any thriller.' - Sarah Manguso 'A novel that has the power and the rawness of memoir.' - New York Times

Michaels, one of the most highly regarded contemporary American literary figures and widely read by the discerning public, has long been regarded as a master of the short story. His stature can only be enhanced by this gathering of the best of his previous work as well as new stories, all of them written within the period of the early 1960s to the 1990s. Love and sexuality are the twin themes he continues to mine, and the specific situations he creates to explore these themes pinpoint in the sheerest of prose the absolute truth about relationships. Michael''s trenchant, direct, and lyrical style, with not one word wasted, works as a tight springboard for conveying his vast knowledge about why we love who we love. No library''s short story collection is complete without this career-defining compilation.