KRESSING, HARRY [PSEUD. RUBER, HARRY ADAM](1928 - 1990)
Married lives

Faber and Faber, London, United Kingdom. 1974. First U.K. edition. Hardcover. Original publisher's light blue cloth, lettered gilt at the spine. With price unclipped dustjacket.
228 pp. 13,75 x 20,25 x 2,25 cm. 354 gr. ISBN-10 0571105297.

In Married lives Harry Kressing turn an unblinking eye on the most usual yet extraordinary of all relationships between a man and a woman. In the first of the two novellas that make up the book, 'Are we going to Roz's party tonight?', the principle characters are a married couple. In the second, 'The Other Side of the Lake, they are a married man and his mistress. Told almost entirely in a dialogue, the stories capture with unnerving accuracy the advances, feints, retreats and counter attacks of marital warfare. The tensions are brilliantly conveyed - the harboured grievances, the irrational accusations - and though often savage, Married lives is also very funny and slated with a mordant wit.
With his first novel, The Cook, Harry Kressing achieved an instant international success. In his second work of fiction, Married lives, he converts the special blend of fantasy and menace that distinguished The Cook into almost hallucinatory realism. The result is utterly compelling.

Some foxing on top edge. Clean, tight and bright copy. No ink names and no inscriptions. Fine book. Not price-clipped and very good dustjacket with slight edgewear.

BOOKNUMBER: 19806