An atmospheric, suspenseful story of a couple's struggle to adopt a baby, while staying in a fading, grand European hotel. (Think: Barton Fink crossed with Patricia Highsmith) In this atmospheric, suspenseful novel, an American couple travels to a strange, snowy European city to adopt a baby, who they hope will resurrect their failing marriage. Their difficult journey leaves the wife, who is struggling with cancer, desperately weak, and her husband worries that her apparent illness will prevent the orphanage from releasing their child. The couple check into the cavernous and eerily deserted Borgarfjaroasysla Grand Imperial Hotel where the bar is always open, the restaurant serves thirteen-course dinners from centuries past, and the doors of the guest rooms have been salvaged from demolished opera houses. Their attempt to claim their baby is both helped and hampered by the people they encounter: an ancient, flamboyant chanteuse, a debauched businessman, an...

From Library JournalThe characters in these terse, elliptical tales are burdened by the knowledge that something is missing from their lives. Cut off from a usable past and isolated from one another, they flounder about, desperately seeking someone or something with which to connect. In "Just Relax," a young woman leaving the Peace Corps takes a job as a Pilgrim at a Massachusetts theme park. "The Secret Dog" concerns a man who invents an imaginary pet to compensate for an unhappy marriage. While Cameron's stories typically involve young urbanites, some of the best here are set in a small Indiana town. Notable is "The Winter Bazaar," an achingly sad tale in which an old, empty house becomes a symbol of the peace and contentment denied to two lovers. Always stylish and often affecting, Cameron's work belongs in all collections of contemporary fiction.- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsThree stories at the book's end--all concerning the same Indiana family but all of whose characters are given long leash to act independently, non-conformingly, movingly--and the story Not the Point'' (a mother, having lost one teenage son to suicide, is anxious about her remaining teenage son's behavior) give notice that Cameron is able to write with emotional directness when he wants to. But he wants to so rarely here. Three-quarters of the stories are annoyingly flyweight, especially when they try to be hip-funny:Just Relax,'' The Cafe Hysteria,''The Secret Dog,'' The Near Future.'' Three stories try for more seriousness, involving emotional rejection:What?'' and Slowly'' andThe Meeting and Greeting Area''; these are stories, though, that seem so self-conscious about their homosexual protagonists that they labor beneath a smog of transposition and eagerness-to-please, leaving out all the fictional palpability of place and speech. A weak, puppy-ish, unsatisfying collection. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From BooklistStarred Review Though he's been accepted by Brown University, 18-year-old James isn't sure he wants to go to college. What he really wants is to buy a nice house in a small town somewhere in the Midwest—Indiana, perhaps. In the meantime, however, he has a dull, make-work job at his thrice-married mother's Manhattan art gallery, where he finds himself attracted to her assistant, an older man named John. In a clumsy attempt to capture John's attention, James winds up accused of sexual harassment! A critically acclaimed author of adult fiction, Cameron makes a singularly auspicious entry into the world of YA with this beautifully conceived and written coming-of-age novel that is, at turns, funny, sad, tender, and sophisticated. James makes a memorable protagonist, touching in his inability to connect with the world but always entertaining in his first-person account of his New York environment, his fractured family, his disastrous trip to the nation's capital, and his ongoing bouts with psychoanalysis. In the process he dramatizes the ambivalences and uncertainties of adolescence in ways that both teen and adult readers will savor and remember. Cart, Michael Review"His best work--it's terrific, piercing, and funny. The novel demonstrates every kind of strength."--David Lipsky, The New York Times Book Review"James Sveck is a brilliant wit of a character whose voice will echo long after his story ends."--Kristin Kloberdanz, Chicago Tribune"Deliciously vital right from the start . . . a piece of vocal virtuosity and possibly Cameron's best book . . . It is a bravura performance, and Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You is a stunning little book. "--Lorrie Moore, The New York Review of Books "Cameron's prose handily marries the tangled logic of adolescence to simple, beautiful language."--Peter Terzian, Newsday"Beautifully conceived and written . . . funny, sad, tender, and sophisticated."--Michael Cart, Booklist

A wryly humorous, impeccably observed novel about the capriciousness of loveOmar Razaghi posts a letter on September 13, 1995 that will change the course of his life forever. A doctoral student at the University of Kansas, he writes to the estate of the Latin American author Jules Gund, requesting permission to write Gund's authorized biography. His request is refused, but Omar has already accepted a fellowship from the university, and with his girlfriend's vehement encouragement, he goes in person to Uruguay to petition to Gund's three executors. Although Caroline Gund, Jules' wife, and Arden Langdon, Jules' mistress and mother of his child, are initially opposed to the idea of a biography, Omar has the support of Adam, Jules' older brother, and hopes to be able to persuade the two women. Omar's unexpected arrival in Uruguay reverberates through this odd and isolated little family group, and his stay in the languid, dreamy Ochos Rios makes him question his...

t is 1988, just two years away from "the decade of friendship," and there is still time on the clock for all the greed and need of the 80s to wreak havoc on the lives of this ensemble cast of distressed but endearing New Yorkers. With razor sharp wit and great comic invention, Leap Year charts the uneasy paths people take around the physical and emotional land mines of city life. The score of quirky characters ricochet back and forth between downtown lofts, art galleries, health clubs, restaurants--even a sperm bank--in the attempt to discover fame, fortune, and true love. In this leap year, however, everything seems slightly awry, as unexpected affairs, an accidental kidnapping, catering disasters, murder, and a regrettable amount of bad publicity turns everyone's lives upside down. Peter Cameron's Leap Year is a comic valentine to a frenzied era, serving up the lusts and laments of an entire generation with great wit and affection. With its large and lively cast of gay and straight characters, Leap Year is a comic satire with the same appeal as Armistad Maupin's Tales of the City novels.The many fans of Peter Cameron's brilliant novels The Weekend and Andorra now have the opportunity to read the long out-of-print debut novel of one of America's finest writers.From Publishers WeeklyA funny, fast-paced and ambitious first novel by a New Yorker writer whose stories were previously collected in One Way or Another , this romantic comedy (previously published in weekly installments in 7 Days ) chronicles a year in the life of New Yorkers lost in the twilight of the '80s. Loren and David have been separated for several months; David is torn between love for his family (they have a daughter, Kate) and passion for his male temp, Heath; Loren, now seeing Gregory, can't seem to stop loving David. While Heath struggles with the discomfort he feels at loving an older, shorter, bisexual man, Lillian, Loren and David's lonely mutual friend, consults a sperm bank; and Judith, Loren's mother (taking a sabbatical from her marriage at her husband's request) begins an affair with an Asian named Fang. Villains include scheming Amanda Paine, director of an art gallery, and Solange and Anton Shawangunk, its jaded, perverse and ultra-rich co-owners. What happens to Solange at the opening of the show Amanda gives Heath (who is an artist as well as a temp) is among the events raised above simple comedy or melodrama by Cameron's focus on issues of sexual responsibility and his resonant, jewel-like prose. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalOriginally published in 7 Days magazine, this first novel reveals skill, a dark sense of humor, and, best of all, the promise of better novels to come. Despite some rather frenetic crosscutting and a tendency toward the tour de force , it cleverly satirizes a number of quirky characters caught up in events that include an earthquake, a kidnapping, voodoo at a Day Care Center, and a murder trial. Loren and David, amiably divorced, involved with lovers, and raising their daughter, unify the novel. Other characters have at times slightly contrived connections with them. Despite the emphasis on empty lives caught up in success and sex, the author provides some likable characters, allowing the reader a sense of relief when all turns out well for them. A good choice for current and selective collections.-Elizabeth Guiney Sandvick, North Hennepin Community Coll., MinneapolisCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Coral Glynn arrives at Hart House, an isolated manse in the English countryside, early in the very wet spring of 1950, to nurse the elderly Mrs. Hart, who is dying of cancer. Hart House is also inhabited by Mrs. Prence, the perpetually disgruntled housekeeper, and Major Clement Hart, Mrs. Hart's war-ravaged son, who is struggling to come to terms with his latent homosexuality. When a child's game goes violently awry in the woods surrounding Hart House, a great shadow--love, perhaps--descends upon its inhabitants. Like the misguided child's play, other seemingly random events--a torn dress, a missing ring, a lost letter--propel Coral and Clement into the dark thicket of marriage. A period novel observed through a refreshingly gimlet eye, Coral Glynn explores how quickly need and desire can blossom into love, and just as quickly transform into something less categorical. Borrowing from themes and characters prevalent in the work of mid-twentieth-century...