Amid the leafy avenues and comfortable houses, the residents of Arlington park live out the dubious accomplishments of civilisation: material prosperity, personal freedom, and moral indifference. Men work, women look after children, and people generally do what's expected of them. Set over the course of a single rainy day, this novel moves from one household to another, and through the passing hours conducts a deep examination of its characters' lives: of Juliet, enranged at the victory of men over women in family life; of Amanda, warding off thoughts of death with obsessive housework; of Solly, who confronts her own buried femininity in the person of her Italian lodger; of Maisie, despairing at the inevitability with which beauty is destroyed; and of Christine, whose troubled, hilarious spirit presides over Arlington Park and the way of life it represents.
- ISBN10 0374100802
- ISBN13 9780374100803
- Publish Date 9 January 2007 (first published 7 September 2006)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 28 January 2014
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Farrar Straus Giroux
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 248
- Language English