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Jeremy Thrane [Hardcover]

Kate Christensen (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)


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Book Description

August 7, 2001
From the author of the highly acclaimed In the Drink, a smart and sexy exploration of New York and its customs through the eyes of a disillusioned, yet secretly hopeful, gay man.

Jeremy Thrane is a thirty-five-year-old writer in love with a married man. For years, Jeremy has posed as "archivist" to Ted Masterson, a Hollywood action star. Jeremy maintains Ted's New York brownstone and guards the secret that could destroy his career. But when Ted and his movie-star wife, Giselle, adopt a child and become America's most-photographed family, Jeremy finds himself without a job and, more importantly, bereft of the love of his life.

With the same wit and authenticity that have made her a critical and popular favorite, Kate Christensen chronicles Jeremy's search for a new start as he ventures to every corner of the New York landscape, from watering holes where gossip columnists await an "item" to dives where waiters and busboys are eager to please patrons–especially after their shifts are over. In his spare time, he struggles to finish a novel based on his father's peripatetic life as a fanatical Marxist and turns out sizzling pornography for a one-man enterprise run by an old high school acquaintance. His sister, an up-and-coming rock musician, and his thrice-married, former flower-child mother, who found her true calling as a poet late in life, provide the mixture of criticism and compassion Jeremy has known all his life and now, for the most unexpected reasons, finally learns to appreciate.

A fast-paced and funny social satire, Jeremy Thrane deftly captures the slippery chameleon quality of American identity, the power of youth and beauty, and the complexity of love.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With this portrait of a closeted gay movie star's live-in lover, Jeremy Thrane ventures into a largely unexplored subcontinent of literature: the lives and times of hangers-on. Jeremy is 35, unemployed, working on novel, and living in a fabulous townhouse in Gramercy Park. For his entire adult life, he has been discreetly provided for by Ted Masterson, an action-movie star married to an equally famous actress. The novel hinges on a question best phrased metaphorically: What happens when Kato gets booted from the guesthouse? In the opening pages, Ted throws his sexual sidekick out on his ear, and Jeremy finds himself in the unenviable position of learning to create a life in his mid-30s. (It's sort of like a gender-swapping version of those novels, epidemic in the 1970s, about unfulfilled wives who head off to find themselves.)

Jeremy realizes he hasn't really noticed the passing of time, and discovers to his shock that he's not the boy he used to be: "Now, on what I was dismayed to learn was the cusp of early middle age, my hair was graying just a little at the temples, my muscles were softening somewhat, and my whole body had widened slightly, had taken on a new maturity that I didn't entirely dislike, but wasn't thrilled with either, because who would be?" The novel follows Jeremy's gentle adventures as he looks for love, an apartment, a job, and a little companionship. This is a grungy, funny Manhattan fable of walk-ups and poisonous ambitions, of family ties and two-faced friends. Kate Christensen brings to Jeremy's story the same mordant wit and social satire that made her first novel, In the Drink, a cult favorite. This one reads like a roman à clef, but probably isn't, which is a compliment to the novel's comical and uncanny verisimilitude. --Claire Dederer

From Publishers Weekly

Two years after her well-received debut, Christensen (In the Drink) delivers a knockout sophomore effort, once again set against the backdrop of a glitteringly grungy downtown Manhattan. As the novel begins, 35-year-old pretty boy Jeremy Thrane lives in the top -floor apartment of a gorgeous Gramercy Park townhouse otherwise inhabited by Hollywood star Ted Masterson, Ted's even hotter actress wife and their adopted daughter. Jeremy, long Ted's secret lover, has been employed as the actor's "archivist" for years, but his free ride is about to come to an end. Unceremoniously dumped by the media-wary Ted, Jeremy must abandon his apartment and take a thankless nine-to-five job; on the bright side, he is finally inspired to finish his decade-in-the-making novel, a revenge fantasy based on the life of his deadbeat Marxist father. Christensen corrals a flawed cast of characters with a sure and compassionate hand, among them Jeremy's mother, a successful poet; his sister, a junior rock star; his best friend, a chic artist addicted to heroin; and a physically repellent gay-porn editor who has been in love with Jeremy since high school. Chistensen's sumptuous prose is both wicked and wise, resulting in a smart, sassy urban tale. Her wit is as acerbic as ever, but the laugh-out-loud humor of her first novel has been exchanged for something darker and more provocative. Young, hip readers will be pleased by this stylish endeavor and will agree that Christensen is establishing herself as an edgy chronicler of the Naked City and its struggling inhabitants. (Aug.) Forecast: The 20- and 30-something fans Christensen picked up with In the Drink will adore her savvy, satiric latest, and get a chance to collect autographs on her three-city author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Broadway; 1st edition (August 7, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0767908015
  • ISBN-13: 978-0767908016
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,407,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

19 Reviews
5 star:
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4 star:
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3 star:
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2 star:
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1 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Fast read...doesn't live up to In the Drink, February 18, 2004
By 
This review is from: Jeremy Thrane (Hardcover)
I bought this book after reading (and enjoying) Christensen's In the Drink. The reviews assured me that if I liked In the Drink, I would love Jeremy Thrane. Boy, were they wrong! Now, don't get me wrong. I read Jeremy Thrane quickly and enjoyed it. There's nothing "wrong" with this book. It's just very different than In the Drink, and, in my humble opinion, not as "good."

Like In the Drink, Jeremy Thrane is written with a first-person voice, which I enjoy. Unlike, In the Drink, however, I feel, well, very aware of the face that our narrator is, well, narrating. Many of the narrator's comments, thoughts, etc. seemed very contrived, and, overall, detract from the book's "flow."

If you're looking for a book that reads quickly, is written decently, and comments on "celebrity culture," a gay man's life in NYC or... just "hip" life in general, Jeremy Thrane won't disappoint. If, however, like me, you're looking for a follow-up to In the Drink, keep looking.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a fine story..., January 2, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Jeremy Thrane (Hardcover)
You'll enjoy this book - great dialogue, exacting descriptions of situations, moods, scenery. She does the job we all wish we could do slamming some of the types we all love to hate (the nosy neighbor, the snooty 20-somethings who think they run the world.) One of the most interesting aspects of this story are the descriptions of good food and drink that are integral to the main character's life, not matter what else is going on. He's all boy, that's for sure. Christensen implies that he's guite a stud, but never comes out and says it, which adds to the intrigue.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An overall satisfactory read!, September 1, 2001
This review is from: Jeremy Thrane (Hardcover)
Ever since I read In the Drink, I have become a fan of Kate Christensen. In the Drink was filled with the kind of dark humor that I enjoy in fiction. I also enjoyed her realistic view of New York City. She didn't romanticize the city -- she showed it for what it was. It was a very clever satire. So I was eager to pick up her second novel.

Jeremy Thrane is the tale of a gay man in his mid-thirties who's had a secret affair with a famous film star named Ted for ten years. Ted is married to a famous movie actress. Both his wife and the media are unaware of his homosexuality. The novel takes some humorous, poignant and sometimes unexpected turns.

The novel is well written, however, there are some things that were left floating in the story. For instance, Ted seldom appears in the novel. Character and story development were needed throughout the novel. Christensen needed to delve into and explore some of the secondary characters.

All and all, it was a satisfactory read. It is not as dark and sinister as In the Drink, but it's nevertheless a great read. Kate has a way with words, and I recommend her lyrical and witty novels most highly.

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
I stood alone at the front of the boat. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
homo voice, kisses sweeter than wine, fainting couch, white tulips
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mai Lin, New York, Gary O'Nan, Angus Thrane, Los Angeles, Bianca Mantooth, American Bar Association, Gramercy Park, Ted Masterson, Yom Kippur, San Francisco, Dina Sandusky, New Jersey, Sebastian Philpott, Waverly Productions, Fourteenth Street, Henry Tolliver, Irene Rheingold, Star Trek, Walking Under Bridges, Bill Dexter, Brock Martel, East Village, Great Neck, Phil Martensen
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