A Disturbance in One Place: A Novel

by Binnie Kirshenbaum

Overview

Brazen and given to transgressions, the narrator of this mordantly witty novel is an aloof, tough talking, married Manhattan woman who carries on three affairs simultaneously, blithely breaking seven of the Ten Commandments in her search for a safe place to land. Rootless, bouncing from bed to bed, she knows she is pure of heart. If only she could find where her heart got lost. Irreverent and achingly honest, she points to the small but infinitely deep cracks in our masks, drawing the reader into her world of misadventure -- erotic, comic, and deeply unsettling. Juggling four men -- her husband, "the hit man," "the multimedia artist," and "the love of her life" -- she can't decide whether she is out to prove or disprove the Talmudic wisdom: If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061976889
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/16/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	226
File size:	797 KB

About the Author

Binnie Kirshenbaum is the author of An Almost Perfect Moment, On Mermaid Avenue, A Disturbance in One Place, Pure Poetry, Hester Among the Ruins, and History on a Personal Note. She is a professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts, where she is chair of the Graduate Writing Program.

Editorial Reviews

In a series of graphic sketches, the author of the witty On Mermaid Avenue depicts a young Jewish woman who passes her days and nights in determined promiscuity as she and her random lovers casually confront their insecurities. New York at its urban dreariest is the background. The sharp-tongued narrator lives without guilt (``I like naked bodies, and when I put clothes on, it's with the idea of taking them off'') but desires to understand her past. Does she indulge in multiple liaisons because her father, a compulsive gambler, was a suicide? Is she haphazardly trying to find her Jewish roots? Whatever the reason, her rampant emotions propel her through a series of erotic and often funny encounters that bring her little comfort. The lovers are nameless: a Sicilian hit man; a famous multimedia artist; the aging love of her life; and the placid man she's been married to for four years, whom she refers to only as ``my husband.'' He has a cold streak and, fortunately, doesn't want to know too much. Some sharply defined episodes (a caustic encounter in a Dairy Deli; some nasty words from the hit man's long-dead mother) force this brittle woman to take a long, fresh look at herself. Kirshenbaum seems at times to be on a comic spree, but in the end this is a dark and powerful look at a troubled spirit. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Kisses melt her soul, thrift shopping skyrockets her adrenaline, and love affairs are her daily bread. Who is she? She is a delightfully brazen Jewish New Yorker who has a husband, two paramours, and one true love. Her Italian lover from Brooklyn ``speaks like Frank Sinatra sings,'' deluges her with sumptuous pastas, and begs her to declare her undying love. The multimedia artist is an egocentric, Dutch-treat type of guy who cares more about his art than people but is useful because he gives her ``dreamy orgasms.'' She treats her husband like a postscript since she married him mostly to ensnare the true love of her life, an elderly film critic. Ironically, her true love is a holdout, the only male she fails to hypnotize and lure into the sack. Kirshenbaum ( On Mermaid Avenue , LJ 3/1/93) titillates the reader with a clever novel that explores female sexual forays with frolicsome humor. Highly recommended.-- Mary Ellen Elsbernd, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Library Journal