※来自美国最知名女权主义作家Alix Kates Shulman，这是一本关于婚姻，文学以及自我欺骗的知性小说
 
※《纽约时报》称赞Alix Kates Shulman：「这三十年来，她的声音丰富地叙述了不停在美国转变的女性地位。」（“The voice that has for three decades provided a lyrical narrative of the changing position of women in American society.” —New York Times）
 
故事介绍：
海瑟和先生麦克是一对夫妻，他们似乎拥有一切：金钱，一栋令人羡慕的豪宅，两个可爱的孩子以及带孩子的保姆。但是，他们的婚姻失去了色彩：麦克虽然是一位成功的房地产开发商，但他和海瑟之间已经失去了热情。海瑟是一位泄气的作家，为了家庭以及孩子，她早已放弃了自己的梦想。在一个偶然的见面下，麦克邀请了知名作家佐谭·巴布—一度是人人崇拜的作家，现在是贫穷过气人士—到他们家，跟他们一起住。他们的商议是，麦克夫妇会提供给无家可归的佐谭一个适合写作的环境，而佐谭必须提供给他们家庭文化上的刺激以及生活上的智慧。
 
当然，事情不可能这么简单，问题慢慢开始浮现。每个人的自私以及价值观开始出现及冲突。三人之间的关系开始变化，而麦克与海瑟的婚姻也接受了这考验。这变成一个争取权力的游戏，使用到三人的智慧以及魅力。这是美国最知名的女权作家最勇敢又出色的表现。在她这第五本小说里，Shulman探讨了人类为了达到自己的志向，愿意使用他人的方式。
 
关于作者：
Alix Kates Shulman是女权主义经典Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen的作者。Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen一书虽然是她的第一本小书，确狂销了1，000，000册。这本书被称为“来自女权动作的第一本重要小说。”她在1969年写得论文“婚姻的协议”至今还在被阅读以及讨论。这是她的第五本小书，她也写过三本回忆录，三本儿童书，两本传记，一本散文集，以及数多短篇故事以及论文。她的书已卖到：丹麦，荷兰，法国，德国，以色列，意大利，日本，葡萄牙，西班牙，瑞典等国家。她住在纽约。
作者网站：http://www.alixkshulman.com

给Ménage的评语：


“A surprisingly tart little literary satire…Shulman is delightfully wicked.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“Written in an accelerated style reminiscent of Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, [Ménage is] a light-hearted read with an urbane twist.” —Library Journal
 
“Alix Kates Shulman’s many readers will be grateful to see her return to fiction in full force, with this delectable social satire that deftly and even-handedly skewers her three main characters. Shulman’s devilishly clever wit and uncommonly keen vision of marriage, ambition, and self-interest hurtling against each other make Ménage an altogether wonderful read.  I was sorry to reach the last page!” —Lynne Sharon Schwartz, author of The Writing on the Wall


“‘Careful what you wish for’ might be the subtext of Alix Kates Shulman’s witty and delightful new novel about three misguided people who may or may not have learned a lesson from this old adage but no doubt the discerning reader will.” —Lily Tuck, author of I Married You for Happiness
 
“The dynamics of the triangle in Ménage keep changing, but Alix Kates Shulman’s take on modern marriage is consistently inventive, witty and smart.” —Hilma Wolitzer, author of An Available Man


“The voice that has for three decades provided a lyrical narrative of the changing position of women in American society.” —New York Times
 
 
BOOKLIST Advanced Review of Ménage
Issue: April 1, 2012

Shulman twirled into the book world with a witty and revolutionary feminist novel, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen (1972), and eventually wrote actual memoirs, including To Love What Is: A Marriage Transformed (2008). Now, in a delectably mischievous return to fiction, she detonates our brittle assumptions about marriage and creativity. Powerful, rich, bossy Mack meets the celebrated yet destitute émigré writer Zoltan in Los Angeles and, feeling guilty about leaving his wife, Heather, home alone so much, spontaneously invites Zoltan to come live at their New Jersey mansion. He expects dark, handsome, hungry Zoltan of the molten eyes and chronic writer’s block to produce a masterpiece, while also providing literary companionship for brainy, beautiful, well-read Heather, who keeps an impeccable home, writes an environmental column, and dreams of becoming a novelist. What sort of husband takes such a risk? Saucy Shulman orchestrates a brilliantly wry and entertaining comedy of desires as the by-turns dire and hilarious dynamics of this “odd ménage” heat up and illuminate the cracks in our fantasies about wealth, fame, sex, and art. — Donna Seaman
 
KIRKUS REVIEW of Ménage
Issue: April 1, 2012

A surprisingly tart little literary satire from Shulman, whose long career includes a feminist classic (Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, 1972), biographies of Emma Goldman, children’s books and affectionate memoirs.
At 36, Mack McKay has made a ton of money with a hugely successful career as a developer. He has an airplane and a growing art collection in his one-of-a-kind mansion in New Jersey. But he senses his marriage to Heather, whom he met when they were students at Yale, has gone stale. He still adores Heather but is spending more and more time in Los Angeles wining and dining a hottie named Maja. Meanwhile Heather has put her literary ambitions on hold to raise their two children in the suburbs, with the help of nannies of course. Mack senses Heather’s resentment, although not her sexual paranoia concerning Mack and Maja—an affair that is never going to happen, especially once Maja commits suicide. At her funeral, Mack meets Maja’s actual lover, dashingly handsome if aging Zoltan Barbu, whose book Mack meant to return to Maja before her untimely demise. Exiled from an unnamed Eastern European nation and championed by the likes of Susan Sontag, Zolton was once a literary cause célèbre but now is broke, suffering from writer’s block and about to be evicted from his apartment. Nevertheless he works his charm on Mack, who invites him back to the manse in New Jersey as a surprise for Heather. The agreement is that Zoltan will get a luxurious writer’s refuge and Heather will be presented with an intellectual companion. Needless to say, Mack’s plan goes awry. There is a clash of values, none of them noble though all self-justifying. Forget Shulman’s reputation as a feminist author; spoiled, self-absorbed Heather is no more sympathetic than the two men who with her form an increasingly barbed triangle of mixed signals. And the liberal publishing establishment doesn’t come off too well either.
For a woman approaching 80, Shulman is delightfully wicked, verging on malevolent.