Two Marriages

'THE STOIC'S MARRIAGE' IS THE DIARY OF WELL-OFF, idle Gordon, a lifelong student of philosophy who declares, 'I have always regarded myself as having a stunted capacity for happiness.' All that changes when the enchanting Rita enters his life as a nurse's aid sent to care for his dying mother. The attraction is mutual and a marriage proposal ensues. Gordon turns to his diary to record his uxoriousness and to expound on the merits of Stoicism, the philosophy he's adopted as his 'substitute religion.' When Rita's cousin from the Philippines arrives one Christmas, setting in motion an outrageous and hilarious sequence of events, Gordon's stoicism is put to the test.

'Eleanor, or, The Second Marriage' recounts one seemingly golden weekend in the lives of Eleanor and Frank, whose Brooklyn townhouse is a gathering place for their circle of cultured, cosmopolitan friends. It is Saturday morning and Frank and Eleanor are planning the dinner they will host to celebrate the visit of a famous actor friend. These preparations are interrupted by the arrival of Frank's son, a young man deeply troubled by his own aimlessness. Other guests arrive, and in the midst of great conviviality, simmering tensions erupt and various emotional dramas are enacted. Elegant, concise, and comically evastating, Two Marriages illuminates the ways in which love is inseparable from deceit.


Genre: Literary Fiction