Plucking the Apple

by Elizabeth Palmer

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Mira, 1-May-99. Paperback. Very good. Very slight wear to cover, small bumps on top and bottom of spine. Clean & crisp pages. From Publishers Weekly: With an impeccable blend of empathy and mocking wit, Palmer (Scarlet Angel) delivers a novel of high-society slapstick that is nearly impossible to put down. The trouble-and the abundance of delightful wickedness-stems from the chic summer dinner party thrown by Victoria and James Harting, owners of that trendy London exhibition space known simply as ""The Gallery."" Chosen from Victoria's wide acquaintance with the bright and privileged social stratum she calls the ""glitterarty,"" the guest list includes Jack Carey-The Gallery's star artist-and his capable, serene-seeming wife, Ellen. Also invited are narcissistic, compulsively adulterous Tessa, her jealous husband, Alexander, and Ginevra, Victoria's frumpy but brilliant university chum. During the evening, Jack initiates his affair with Tessa, while Ellen establishes a tentative friendship with awkward Ginevra. Brief, snappily written scenes trace the events of the next few months: As voracious Tessa becomes more of a challenge than Jack ever imagined, Ellen-chafing against the confines of her marriage-struggles to find a role more meaningful than being her egotistical husband's caretaker. Meanwhile, Ginevra-living in isolated squalor-nurses her unrequited love for James and slides slowly into vengeful, self-destructive madness. Perhaps the novel's piece de resistance is the wildly disastrous opening night of Jack's long-awaited art show-but that's only one of the many hilarious, acutely observed scenes that pepper this savvy and highly literate romp. \nCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.-From Booklist: Fans of the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral will lap up this story of manners and morals in the frightfully insular world of the London upper classes. Old friends meet at a fashionable dinner party given by the Hardings, an arty, solvent couple who run a London gallery. This gathering introduces a small cast of characters who are simultaneously affected by sexual wanderlust and infidelity's repercussions within their circle. One by one they tumble into adulterous fantasy and affairs like dominoes, with the irrepressible artist Jack setting off events when he lures his friend's wife into bed with the dependable I-would-love-to-paint-you line. Although the engaging characters and wry humor entice to the end, the novel's light sophistication illuminates only a plot that is a good deal of fuss over very little. For those fascinated with the British upper-class milieu, more substance can be found in the ironic wit and perspective of Mary Wesley or Fay Weldon. Deanna Larson-Whiterod ISBN: 1551664933.