The Epicure's Lament: A Novel

by Kate Christensen

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Book cover for The Epicure's Lament

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Hugo Whittier–failed poet and former kept man–is a wily misanthrope with a taste for whiskey, women, and his own cooking. Afflicted with a rare disease that will be fatal unless he quits smoking, Hugo retreats to his once aristocratic family’s dilapidated mansion, determined to smoke himself to death without forfeiting any of his pleasures. To his chagrin, the world that he has forsaken is not quite finished with him. First, his sanctimonious older brother moves in, closely followed by his estranged wife, their alleged daughter, and his gay uncle. Infuriated at the violation of his sanctum, Hugo devises hilariously perverse ploys to send the intruders packing. Yet the unexpected consequences of his schemes keep forcing him to reconsider, however fleetingly, the more wholesome ingredients of love, and life itself.
  • ISBN10 0767910303
  • ISBN13 9780767910309
  • Publish Date 17 February 2004
  • Publish Status Out of Stock
  • Publish Country US
  • Publisher Broadway Books (A Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc)
  • Imprint Broadway Books (A Division of Bantam Doubleday Del
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 351
  • Language English