Maynard and Jennica [Paperback]

Rudolph Delson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 2009

A wildly original debut,Maynard and Jennica is both a hilarious urban comedy and a captivating love story. In the summer of 2000, while riding the uptown number 6 train, the musician/filmmaker Maynard Gogarty first encounters the beautiful Jennica Green.Though their initial meeting is brief, when fate next brings them together a romance ensues, and as with most things in life, everyone has an opinion.
Delson tells the story of this improbable love affair through the voices of Maynard and Jennica, along with their family, friends, and assorted characters (among them two attorneys, three journalists, and a rap star) pulled into their dizzying orbit.He brings to life a pair of lovers who are flawed, complex, at once eccentric and deeply familiar—and in whose story we continue to feel invested long after we’ve turned the last page.
In the words of Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, “this book is the reason we should all read first novels.”

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A heady, slippery dramedy-lite of modern love and urban manners, ex-lawyer Delson's debut puts native New Yorker Maynard Gogarty, a not quite talented composer/filmmaker, in the path of hardworking Californian Jennica Green, who arrives in New York to be illustrious. Shifting back and forth over the period 2000–2002, this cleverly pieced together story draws on 35 first-person narrators—including friends, family, a macaw, dead ancestors and an emergency brake on the train—to chronicle Maynard and Jennica's shifting roles as potential spouses, schemers, arrestees and exes. Their relationship comes to a head, natch, in the aftermath of 9/11, as the lovers' families meet for the first time. It's gimmicky, but the surprising ways each narrator connects with Maynard and Jennica make for small delights, and the interplay among the voices works often enough. Maynard's blistering riffs on how grief is coopted postcatastrophe end up giving insight into his character, and Delson's prose shimmers when describing the magic and romance of falling in love in New York. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

New Yorker Maynard Gogarty, a wayward musician who has just sold rights to his art-house film, meets the introspective and resolute Jennica Green, a California transplant, on the subway in the summer of 2000. They shrug off the initial encounter, but when Jennica attends a screening of Maynard's eccentric film, the two plunge into a fervent relationship chronicled via an array of first-person narrators, including family members dead and alive, a hip-hop star, a Russian Israeli scam artist, and even a macaw. As the novel shifts in time and place, the narrators recount the churning, evolving relationship between the titular characters. Events culminate against the backdrop of September 11, coupled with a tense family gathering at a cabin in the Berkshires. Though at times the ruminations of secondary voices don't encompass the wistful peaks established through Maynard and Jennica's story, the varying narratives are effectively cohesive. Delson's clever debut is sharp and energetic, a highly original contemporary love story set against New York's invigorating urban landscape. Strauss, Leah --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (February 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0547085710
• ISBN-13: 978-0547085715
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,641,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ingenious!, September 25, 2007

By 

Sam Spade (Lexington, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maynard and Jennica (Hardcover)

I picked this book up mainly because of the terrific jacket and the buzz I'd read about it and the author in USA Today. Well, it was 100% customer satisfaction as I read it cover to cover in no time! Delson has a terrific voice- this is laugh-out-loud funny, moving, touching, all at the same time. The characters stick with you, especially the title two- and anyone who's ever communted via public transportation will be envious of Maynard's filming of NY subway fashion faux pas. Theres a bit about 9/11 that was indeed memorable- I need to buy at least 4 more copies to get to friends. This one is absolutely worth it!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, February 4, 2009

By 

Stacey M Smith (Fredericksburg, TEXAS) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Maynard and Jennica (Paperback)

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This book does not follow a typical novel's path - it much more interesting! The author chooses to tell the story through a variety of characters (and inanimate objects) offering their own point of view & interpretation of events. At first I thought this might lead to lots of 'plot repeats" -- but actually, it's so well written that basically the characters are simply all adding pieces to a larger puzzle, ultimately giving the reader the "whole story." This is an example of an author elevating to mundane into something much more interesting.

M&J has a cinematic quality to it -- I could see it as a movie. A lot of fun.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh Out Loud Funny! Enjoyable Reading! Quirky, Lighthearted, And Deep At the Same Time, December 16, 2009

By 

Nice Lady "a reasonable person" (Alaska) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Maynard and Jennica (Paperback)

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In these difficult times, we can all find solace in a good book. What better way to while away the time than having a few good chuckles and belly-laughs.

Maynard and Jennica is the literary debut of the author Rudolph Delson.

The book takes place in Manhattan (a.k.a. New York City), starting in the Summer of 2000. Its characters then find themselves in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

Rudolf Delson writes very well. Perhaps the true strength of this novel is the character development of the main people in this book.

Reminiscent of a funny sitcom like Mad About You or Seinfeld, this story focuses on the relationship of a young filmmaker-pianist (Maynard Gogarty) and a brilliant graduate of Princeton (Jennica Green). Initially they meet in typical New York fashion, riding uptown on the Number 6.

Although that first meeting is a short & delightful encounter, as fate would have it, they meet again. But, after the next meeting, they are head over heels.

Opposites attract, they say and of course, all around them, people wonder why they are together. But their relationship just works..............

Don't miss this book. It is extremely well written, a quick read, and a highly enjoyable and exhilarating experience!