Bad Timing: A Novel [Hardcover]

Betsy Berne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 2001

The last thing she wants is to fall in love with a married man — and a father, to boot — particularly now, when so many of her friends have already abandoned ship for husbands and babies, and certainly not while her biological clock is ticking so loudly she can barely sleep. But that’s exactly what happens to the single, unnamed, thirtysome-thing narrator of Bad Timing, who meets jazz musician and club owner Joseph Pendleton at a too-hip downtown party and becomes pregnant after their first night together.

As the city summer heats up, her resolve for independence breaks down, and her increasingly difficult situation seems to make this increasingly difficult man even more irresistible.

Set in all-too-small New York universe of artists, musicians, and writers, in which the lives of our hapless heroine and her errant lover intersect repeatedly, with far fewer than six degrees of separation, Bad Timing memorably depicts a woman struggling to reconcile her need for love with the limits and liberties of an undercover affair. With a startlingly fresh take on some New York prototypes (the witty gay neighbor and the overbearing Jewish family) and devilish looks into the clubby world of art and magazine, Bad Timing is a memorably tart-yet-sweet story of modern love, lost and found.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An unnamed 30-something Manhattan woman embarks on a hopeless not-quite-love affair in this Sex and the City-style fiction debut. Tipsy at "a trashy magazine party at a trashy new bar," the narrator is mesmerized by handsome Joseph Pendleton, a black jazz club owner, and dives into a one-night stand. A month later, she has mixed feelings when she finds herself pregnant by this married man. On the one hand, she wants a baby; on the other, as a struggling painter and magazine writer, she's not confident she can support a child. When she informs Joseph of her decision to terminate the pregnancy, their affair begins again with renewed vigor. While navigating the glossy magazine and gallery scene, the lovers do their best to figure out what, exactly, their commitment to each other should or could be. The result is a tangled and often painfully adolescent relationship, with the couple garrulously engaging in standard therapeutic-speak. The supporting characters are all stock New YorkersDthe flamboyant gay neighbor, the overbearing Jewish mother, the superficial beauty editor. Caustic racial asides are casually sprinkled throughout, but the relationship's racial dimension is never seriously addressed. This is a 21st-century love story, a typically urban tale in which love, in the classic sense of the word, is beside the point. Berne, herself a painter who has written for glossy magazines, brings a journalist's eye to her novel; every excruciating detail of a dead-end relationship is recorded. Some hip, urban female readers may identify despite themselves, but the uninflected, navel-gazing narrative lacks the energy to ring many bells. (Feb. 16)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

The last thing she wants is to fall in love with a married man ? and a father, to boot ? particularly now, when so many of her friends have already abandoned ship for husbands and babies, and certainly not while her biological clock is ticking so loudly she can barely sleep. But that?s exactly what happens to the single, unnamed, thirtysome-thing narrator of Bad Timing, who meets jazz musician and club owner Joseph Pendleton at a too-hip downtown party and becomes pregnant after their first night together.

As the city summer heats up, her resolve for independence breaks down, and her increasingly difficult situation seems to make this increasingly difficult man even more irresistible.

Set in all-too-small New York universe of artists, musicians, and writers, in which the lives of our hapless heroine and her errant lover intersect repeatedly, with far fewer than six degrees of separation, Bad Timing memorably depicts a woman struggling to reconcile her need for love with the limits and liberties of an undercover affair. With a startlingly fresh take on some New York prototypes (the witty gay neighbor and the overbearing Jewish family) and devilish looks into the clubby world of art and magazine, Bad Timing is a memorably tart-yet-sweet story of modern love, lost and found.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1st edition (February 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679463186
• ISBN-13: 978-0679463184
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,392,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fran Lebowitz with soul., March 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Bad Timing: A Novel (Hardcover)

The backdrop, the setting, is a fast paced New York world, and the narrator skewers it, much to our delight, but the book's plot and preoccupation are with a love affair that sweeps the narrator off her feet. It's haunted and beautiful and sad, in spite of the fact that one keeps laughing.

Really great.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heavens (and Hells) to Betsy, May 24, 2001

By 

Marcus (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bad Timing: A Novel (Hardcover)

This novel was loads of fun: compelling, funny, and incisive. I don't live in this rarefied world, but I was taken there and witnessed the writer chewing it up, spitting it out and then, carrying on. I highly recommend this debut work.