Easy Way Out [Paperback]

Stephen McCauley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2004

Patrick O'Neil is a travel agent who never goes anywhere. His closest confidante, Sharon, is chain-smoking her way to singles hell, passing up man ('He used the word 'lifestyle' four times since we met') after man ('He said I have nice feet'). His parents, proprietors of a suburban men's store, can't help fighting about how best to interfere in their three sons' lives. And his lover, Arthur, whom Patrick can't quite commit to, wants to cement their relationship by buying a house. Then a call comes in the middle of another sleepless night. Tony, Patrick's straight-as-an-arrow younger brother, has fallen in love with a beautiful lawyer...unfortunately, she's not the woman he's already pledged to marry. Tony's life is a mess. Finally, the brothers have something in common. That's when things get complicated. The Easy Way Out is about family and friendship, about being in love and out of love, about the perils of modern life. It's a story of doing what you want to do, not what you should do.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McCauley's The Object of My Affection was among the highly praised first novels of the 1980s. This beautifully written, heartbreaking book lacks the earlier novel's magnetism and spark, but is an eloquent depiction of the compromises lovers and families make to keep relationships alive. Narrator Patrick, a Cambridge, Mass., travel agent in his early 30s, lives with Arthur, an immigration lawyer; but for a long time, Patrick has been sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of their bedroom. His younger brother, Tony, plans to marry his high school sweetheart but is having an affair that is far more satisfying than his relationship with his fiancee. Their older brother, Ryan, is divorced, living at home and working at his parents' hopelessly unprofitable men's clothing store. And McCauley soon makes achingly clear that the parents' marriage is far from happy. The novel's deeply contemplative and melancholy mood is accentuated by the fact that there is little plot; its considerable drama arises from the clever, revealing dialogue and the reader's intense involvement with the sharply drawn characters. Most notable among McCauley's dysfunctional eccentrics is Patrick's uproarious, chain-smoking colleague Sharon, whose strategems for beating the airlines are priceless. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The author of The Object of My Affection ( LJ 3/1/87) returns with an amusing, eccentric collection of dysfunctional middle-class Bostonians. Patrick O'Neil's relationship with lover Arthur "had developed into the kind of benign domestic dependency that takes love for granted and accepts as inevitable a certain level of boredom, discontent and suppressed rage." As the rather predictable plot develops, Patrick's yuppie brother Tony avoids marriage to his childhood sweetheart by having a last fling, and other brother Ryan, recently divorced, feels lonely. Mother and Father O'Neil snipe constantly at their discontented offspring; interactions among the clan make for lots of bitchy lines and great characterizations. Good for expanding gay fiction collections, but not a necessary purchase.
- Kevin M. Roddy, Univ. of Hawaii at Hilo Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Granta Books (September 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 186207710X
• ISBN-13: 978-1862077102
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,776,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Add Another Name To The List of Long-Haired Geniuses, November 18, 1996

By 

Robert S Michaels "bobm" (Fairfield, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Easy Way Out (Paperback)

Why is it that every book I love lately seems to be written by a wildly locked, mischevous looking late 20s/early 30s individual? David Foster Wallace, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Franzen.... and now Stephen McCauley. For me, The Easy Way Out was one of those books that brought with it a certain amount of sorrow when I had finished it. I could never have the experience of reading it for the first time again! By delving into the lives of Patrick's bitterly married parents, his recently separated brother Ryan, his player brother Tony, his live-in lover Arthur, his non-live-in lover Jeffrey, and his best friend and travel agent extraordinaire, Sharon, McCauley manages to show not only the irony and hipocrisy of our actions but also highlight the love that runs through the bunch regardlessly. This is an author who capital R respects his characters, allowing them to only move by their agendas, never the author's. What also struck me about this book is that in dealing with a tale focused around the best way to deal with the truth, McCauley doesn't take the easy way out (pun intended) and write a coming-out story. One of those books that you'll insist everyone you know must read

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Full Catastrophe....., November 14, 2010

By 

letters2mary (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Easy Way Out (Paperback)

Something in McCauley's style makes reading him seem like getting caught up with an old friend. I find myself muttering to myself, "Oh, yes, they were always like that!" and..."Yes, that's true," and "Well, what did you think would happen?" This capacity for engaging story telling and the nuanced detail of everyday life should not be underestimated, speaking as it does to the place where most of us live, where notwithstanding our best efforts (or, worse yet, perhaps because of them), love eludes and lust deceives. Yet we keep trying. And reading.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hilarious, personable, and a fairly easy read., January 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Easy Way Out (Paperback)

Stephen McCauley is absolutely hysterical. He has effectively captured and written what people think but don't articulate. The characters are life-like. I missed them by the time I was finished. I've read all of Stephen's books and 'The Easy Way Out' is my favorite- at least until his fourth book is released.