Riven Rock - by T C Boyle (Paperback)

About the Book

In his most fully realized and compassionate novel to date, T.C. Boyle transforms two characters straight out of history into rich, mythic creations whose tortured love and epic story is intimate enough to break readers' hearts.

Book Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK - "A flamboyant meditation on love in all of its absurdity and all its undeniability" (The Mercury News) set during America's age of innocence--and against a backdrop of wealth and privilege--from the award-winning author of The Tortilla Curtain

"As romantic as it is informative, as colorful as it is convincing. Boyle combines his gift for historical re-creation with his dazzling powers as a storyteller."--The Boston Globe

It is the dawn of the twentieth century when the beautiful, budding feminist Katherine Dexter falls in love with Stanley McCormick, son of a millionaire inventor. The two wed, but before the marriage is consummated, Stanley experiences a nervous breakdown and is diagnosed as a schizophrenic sex maniac. Stanley is locked up in his family's Santa Barbara mansion and forbidden the mere sight of women--above all, his wife.

Throughout her career as a scientist and a suffragette, Katherine's faith never waiters: that, one day, one of the many psychiatrists she hires to try to cure her husband will free him of his demons.

Blending social history with some of the most deliciously dark humor ever written, T.C. Boyle employs his hallmark virtuoso prose to tell the story of a love affair that is as extraordinary as it is unforgettable.

About the Author

T. C. Boyle is a novelist and regular contributor to The New Yorker. His novels include World's End and The Tortilla Curtain, and he has also published numerous collections of short stories. A Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Southern California, he lives in Santa Barbara.