Reproduction is the Flaw of Love (Delta Fiction) [Paperback]

Lauren Grodstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 2005 | Series: Delta Fiction

It's a Saturday morning in Brooklyn. Joel Miller, age twenty-eight, stands outside his locked bathroom door. Behind it are his girlfriend Lisa, a Dixie cup, and a pregnancy test. While she stalls for time, Miller is left in his hallway to wonder and wait: for the results of the test, for the pieces of his addled life to come together, for some kind of divine intervention to guide his actions when Lisa finally emerges.

Thus begins Lauren Grodstein's beguiling debut novel, a wise, wonderfully assured journey deep into the heart of the commitmentphobic male. Awaiting test results that could determine his future, Miller finds himself replaying all he has seen of love so far. There was his father Stan's awkward balancing act between doting father and failed husband, and his mother Bay's refusal to accept that Stan was never coming back. There was his playboy friend Grant's devastation upon falling for the one woman he couldn't have. And most of all, there was Miller's own prior relationship--with Blair, the aloof beauty he can't stop thinking about, the one who got away. With past and present colliding in his hallway, Miller begins to realize just how little he really knows about intimacy, love and potential fatherhood--and more important, about what he's going to do next.

Reproduction is the Flaw of Love fearlessly charts the romantic odyssey of one endearing New York bachelor, and in so doing illuminates some universal truths about family, loyalty, devotion, and love.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Lauren Grodstein's debut novel, Reproduction Is the Flaw of Love, Joel Miller spends a Saturday afternoon standing outside the bathroom door of the Brooklyn apartment he shares with his girlfriend as she takes a pregnancy test to determine their fate as parents, and ultimately as a couple. To occupy the time (both Miller's and our own), Grodstein takes us on a journey through Miller's 28 years, a trip which starts with his father's departure and his mother's madness, continues in a cheap apartment in Queens where he falls in love with a high society girl from Park Avenue, and finally culminates back in the Brooklyn bathroom. Along the way, Grodstein does a commendable job of interpreting the male perspective on grief, ecstasy, love, and eventually heartbreak over the one that got away ("And yet, while Miller is grateful for all the good things about this girl, he finds it troubling that, taken as a whole, they are usually no challenge to the memory of the girl who came before her.").

In many ways, Joel Miller is reminiscent of most modern heroes (and heroines) of contemporary fiction--he's a recent college graduate, he works for a dot com, ruminates on his failed romances, and comes from a typically dysfunctional family. When looked at from this angle, Reproduction Is the Flaw of Love is not entirely original in its scope. However, Grodstein's voice is honest, and Miller is quirky enough to basically sustain our interest throughout the novel. Even when Miller's story becomes a bit whiny, secondary characters like Stan, Miller's tragically comical father, and Grant, his investment banker best friend, add enough flavor to the mix to keep readers engaged.

Reproduction Is the Flaw of Love is a valiant debut, and readers can look forward to Grodstein's future efforts as she continues to develop her unique voice.--Gisele Toueg --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Grodstein's first novel (after 2002's collection The Best of Animals) is a sweet, honest account of the life and loves of 20-something Joel Miller. It's a rainy Saturday, and Miller has just been directed to walk the 12 blocks to the independent drug store in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to buy his girlfriend a pregnancy test. The rest of the novel takes place as Miller waits outside the bathroom door for Lisa to reveal the results, all the while pondering past loves and future concerns. There was his father Stan's stiff advice to "Remember the consequences, son" of what he called "the deed"—but here Miller is, living with a long-haired, potentially pregnant third-grade teacher with a broken leg. They are "admirable roommates"; they have regular "brisk, healthy sex." But is it enough? Miller recalls the complicated bonds between his depressed mother, Bay, and his father; he spent his high school years weaving his way through the emotional consequences of his father's departure and his mother's instability. But even more powerfully, Miller recalls his first love, Blair, the Park Avenue beauty whose attentions made him feel like he was "eating chocolate for the first time after a lifetime of bread." But Blair eventually teaches him a wrenching lesson about the truths of love. Grodstein's effortless prose slides forward and back in time, charting universal doubts with both specificity and economy. Her story is modest, but compulsively readable, as her familiar characters—a fumbling father, a sad mother, a confused boy, a fratty best friend and an ice princess—move in paths both inevitable and surprising.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Delta (June 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038533771X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385337717
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.5 x 5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #447,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lauren Grodstein is the author of the novels "A Friend of the Family" and "Reproduction is the Flaw of Love," and the short story collection "The Best of Animals." She teaches creative writing at the Camden campus of Rutgers University, where she helps administer the university MFA program, and lives in New Jersey, near Rutgers, with her husband and her fifteen month old son. In her spare time, which is infrequent and totally wonderful, she likes perusing fancy cookbooks, swimming laps at the local indoor pool, and taking long walks around her neighborhood. She also likes folding laundry while listening to "This American Life," on her kitchen radio and making grilled cheese sandwiches for her son (and eating at least half of the sandwiches herself).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful First Novel, July 7, 2004

By 

Django "DJ" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reproduction is the Flaw of Love (Hardcover)

I really can't say enough about this excellent, assured first novel. The story of a young man - Miller - in the longest hours of his life, Lauren Grodstein's "Reproduction is the Flaw of Love" treats issues of love and family with a deft touch, and a real feel for narrative. While Miller waits for the results of his girlfriend's pregnancy test, Grodstein moves seamlessly back-and-forth between his present agony, and the events leading up to it.

From a purely prosaic standpoint, the novel is a textbook example of how to perform one of the most difficult tricks in storytelling: the framing sequence. Grodstein does it by firmly grounding Miller's present troubles, and declining the temptation to gild the memories of his troubled family or his enigmatic ex-girlfriend.

It's a wonderful performance, moving and finely crafted. You should read it.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening, even for a guy, February 11, 2007

By 

Gregory Bascom (San Jose Costa Rica) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Reproduction is the Flaw of Love (Delta Fiction) (Paperback)

This review is for Dial Press hardcover edition, July 2004, 211 pages. REPRODUCTION IS THE FLAW OF LOVE is Lauren Grodstein's debut novel.

Joel Miller, most everyone refers to him as Miller, will be 29 next month. As the story opens, Miller waits outside the bathroom door in an apartment in Park Slope, Manhattan, while his girlfriend, Lisa, procrastinates over taking a pregnancy test. The reader correctly assumes that the author will not reveal Lisa's condition until the end of the novel. Meantime, this third person narrative explores Miller's back story from his point of view. We meet his mother Bay and his father Stan, his best friend Grant and his ex girlfriend Blair who, so far, is the love of Miller's life. His story is interesting and the reader learns what to expect of him if the test is positive.

The acknowledgments page begins with, "Thanks to Elliot Grodstein, for teaching me what I needed to know about how a guy's mind works..." Elliot did a good job. Grodstein's male characters deal with angst and anxiety as men are apt to do. Her female characters are as men perceive women, enigmas. The story is enlightening, even for a guy.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Female Author Contemplates Love From A Man's Point Of View, October 9, 2004

By 

Dr Lawrence Hauser (NYC, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reproduction is the Flaw of Love (Hardcover)

Reproduction Is The Flaw Of Love is a wonderfully ironic title for a novel precisely because reproduction is, in fact, the point of love. At least biologically speaking. But what draws couples together mostly defies facile categorization and it is the nuances of attraction (and the loss of interest in the beloved over time) that Lauren Grodstein understands so well. That Grodstein wrote this exegesis of lust and longing from the male perspective, and so convincingly, I found truly impressive. In particular, she does justice to the way men experience falling in love and the exquisite vulnerability they may feel once love has taken root. Structurally, the narrative of this cleverly written, entertaining novel has the feel of a series of interconnected short stories which revolve around a protagonist, Miller, who is seen coping with male-female issues at a number of stages of his life. Some segments work better than others but I always have trouble when authors try to accomplish a bit too much with their work. This minor criticism notwithstanding, I thoroughly enjoyed Reproduction Is The Flaw Of Love which I devoured greedily in just a few sittings. I hope that men especially get the opportunity to read it as this novel's honest portrayal of our way of responding to the throws of painful romance holds the promise of opening up a topic or two for much needed consideration.