|
Author Alix Strauss has always had a
love affair with hotels.
"I long to know what happens behind
closed doors and I love the anonymity hotels offer,” says
Strauss. “I’m intrigued by the idea that you can retreat from
real life and be anyone from anywhere, that once you're gone,
the rooms are stripped down and wiped clean, all traces of you
erased as if you'd never been there.”
It’s this sense of anonymity and privacy that draws the 8
seemingly ordinary women in Strauss’s new novel BASED UPON
AVAILABILITY (Harper Paperback; June 2010) towards famed Four
Seasons Hotel in Manhattan. Each one is lovely, strong, and
driven, and when pushed to the edge, must fight for life as she
struggles to become the woman she wants to be. The thread that
ties these women together is Morgan, a manager at the swanky
hotel, who finds that the privacy alone might not offer the
escape she once thought it did. Ultimately, the hotel weaves the
lives of these 8 women together, its sanctuary offering solace
to some and despair to others.
Meet Trish, a gallery owner obsessing over her best friend’s
wedding and dramatic weight loss; Robin, worn down by a lifetime
of abuse by her older sister and forced to take revenge; Anne, a
lonely, single woman suffering from obsessive-compulsive
disorder; Louise, a drug-addicted rock star sent to dry out by
her equally famous publicist; Franny, a Southerner turned
wannabe Manhattanite, envious of her neighbors’ lives; Sheila, a
single teacher driven to punish her boyfriend when he informs
her that he’s returning to his wife; and Ellen, a married woman
desperate to have children.
An utterly original read, touching on themes of family, sex,
power, love, and death, Strauss asks and answers the age old
question, “What happens behind closed doors?” BASED UPON
AVAILABILITY also examines the walls we put up as we attempt
intimacy, while inspecting the ruins once they’re knocked down.
BASED UPON AVAILABILITY
A Novel by ALIX STRAUSS
______________________
“This sharp and brilliant novel shows that truth cannot be seen
from the outside. You’ll absorb every anecdote’s last detail as
real human connection resurfaces and these women take steps to
become the people they’ve always dreamed they’d be.”
—Elle magazine
“…These New York stories, utterly wrenching with pessimistic
undercurrents, will remind some readers of Parker—as in Dorothy,
not Sarah Jessica.”
—Kirkus Reviews |