Girlfriend 44 [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Mark Barrowcliffe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2002

From age ten, Harry has had just one ambition—to find the one girl for him. Forty-three women and twenty-odd years later, he is still looking. He doesn’t ask for much: just a beautiful intellectual who doesn’t mind his constant infidelity.

Harry’s roommate Gerrard did once find True Love—but he didn’t realize it until the day she left him. Only two women have met his exacting criteria, and he’s not hopeful that he’ll find another. Even if he does, he’s not sure he can trust her not to grow old eventually.

And then Harry and Gerrard meet Alice.

Alice is the perfect woman. She’s the only woman in the world Harry and Gerrard can agree on. Unfortunately, she seems to like both of them, and neither will stop at anything to win her for good.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Barrowcliffe's third novel (Infidelity for First-Time Fathers) is another exercise in deadpan drollery with a hapless everyman at its center-but an ambitious strain of fantasy sets it apart, bringing him out of Nick Hornby's shadow and into John Irving territory. The hero this time out is thirtysomething single Dave Barker, who narrates. Emotionally stunted Dave has spent the last decade caring for his terminally ill mother and marking time at his failing real estate office with tart assistant Lucy. When mom dies, Dave thinks his adult life might finally begin, and that he might even take the next step, with Lyndsey, his girlfriend of four years. But then Gilbert and Reg walk into Dave's office-man and dog, respectively. Gilbert and has a heart attack, and Dave inherits Reg who, it turns out, has the gift of speech, but can only be understood by Dave; others hear it as excessive barking. Lyndsey, needless to say, is not enamored of Reg, and the quest to unload him leads Dave to a talking cat named Michael, his pig sidekick who also talks (but more tersely) and temporary wealth via a lucrative poker game. More comic complications follow, including an accidental killing, a hilarious funeral and a sticky real estate scam. Barrowcliffe's winning style and light comic touch make this a twisty page-turner of a different breed.
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Review

“So funny, so nasty and so over-the-top that it could have been penned by the late Terry Southern.” –The Wall Street Journal

“Zany, alive and always true to itself.” – TheWall Street Journal

“[A] wickedly funny debut novel.” –New York Post

“Darkly amusing” –The New York Times

“Barrowcliffe can be funny, and oftentimes insightful and smart . . . he is almost brilliant.” –Chicago Tribune

“A natural chronicler of the love-lorn male” –The Times (London)

“Delightfully zany . . .Barrowcliffe’s writing (especially his snappy dialogue) is sidesplitting.” –Redbook

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (March 6, 2002)
• ISBN-10: 0312287682
• ASIN: B001G8WTMM
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,781,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)