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Book Review of Burning Down the House

Burning Down the House
reviewed on + 111 more book reviews


From Library Journal
Toby and Blase are the perfect couple for the 1990s. He is an aspiring novelist with leanings toward Fitzgerald, and she teaches philosophy while working on her Ph.D. Their courtship is passionate and romantic. Soon after they marry, Blase leaves his teaching job to write full-time, while Toby sportingly pays the bills. Then Blase's new novel hits the top of the charts, and their marriage hits the skids. Has success spoiled Blase? You bet! Their lives become a haze of parties, booze, and drugs, and Blase begins to sleep around. Toby is at the end of her rope when Blase walks out and she begins to pull her life together, sadder but wiser. One suspects that McInerney, the former wife of bad boy author Jay McInerney, knows quite well the territory about which she writes. Her all-too-familiar story is told with a sharp and stinging wit. Recommended for popular collections.