The Rest of Us - by Jessica Lott (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A gorgeous literary debut about second chances, New England Book Festival prize winner The Rest of Us is an indelible love story that explores the legacy of an affair between a young student and her older professor.As a college student, Terry fell madly and destructively in love with Rhinehart, her famous poetry professor--a relationship from which she never fully recovered. Now, fifteen years later, she is single, still living in the New York City walk-up she moved into after college, and languishing as a photographer's assistant, having long since abandoned her own art. When she stumbles on Rhinehart's obituary online, complete with litany of his many accomplishments, she finds herself taking stock of the ways she has not lived up to her youthful expectations--and surprisingly distraught at the thought of never seeing him again. And then, a few weeks later, she bumps into Rhinehart himself: very much alive, married, and Christmas shopping at Bloomingdale's. What ensues is an intense and beautiful friendship, an unexpected second act that inspires Terry to come to terms with the consequences of their past and the depth of her own aspirations--and to begin to grow again, as an artist and a woman. A captivating read to the last page, The Rest of Us explores those nagging questions that haunt us when we think of who we are, and who we might have been--a love letter to New York City and the struggles of its artists, and a sharp and stirring novel of the heart from a "promising new voice in fiction" (The Daily Beast).

Review Quotes

"Jessica Lott s debut is a heartbreaking work of staggering insights written in admirably crystalline prose. An intelligently-rendered May-September story of love, longing, and obsession, "The Rest of Us" recalls both Philip Roth s "The Dying Animal" and Chad Harbach s "The Art of Fielding", but with a compassion, a point of view, and an attention to detail that are all Lott s own."--Adam Langer "author of Crossing California and The Thieves of Manhattan "

"The Rest of Us" proves to be a compelling, resonant, richly nuanced, and sometimes heartbreaking portrait of cross-generational love and the meaning of art...[it's] beautifully paced and totally engrossing. --Karen Campbell "Boston Globe "

[A] stellar fiction newcomer Lott executes some unexpected riffs on the student-professor relationship plot. --Maureen Corrigan "NPR "Fresh Air" "

Although "The Rest of Us" is about art, love, and life, it is also about longing and belonging. Jessica writes with tremendous skill and sophistication, and the novel is truly a pleasure to read. --Ha Jin "author of Waiting and War Trash "

In her debut novel, the vastly talented and wise beyond her years Jessica Lott crafts a beautifully written and clear-eyed portrait of the artist as a young woman while tackling the complicated issues of female identity and ambition and the need to make art and feel known. --Elissa Schappell "author of Blueprints for Building Better Girls "

Jessica Lott's debut surges with life...both its central love story and its account of an artistic coming of age glow with verisimilitude. From the start it s evident that Lott has a mordantly acute comic sensibility. It turns out that she can also write with tenderness and restraint about life's inevitable tragic turns. --Julia Klein "Chicago Tribune "

A funny and moving story, which shows love survives pain, folly, and losses This novella is a work of mature sensibility and deep light. It should signify an important debut. --Ha Jin "author ofNanjing Requiem "

Praise for "Osin"

The sentences are clean and direct and active and with them she slowly builds a world of complex characters who are struggling, in real ways, to figure out how to connect. --Aimee Bender "author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake "

The Rest of Us" is a sharply observant and sexy debut about love, art, feminism, and the search for identity. It s also a valentine to New York, a city whose every landscape here offers memories of the past and opportunities for the future. I particularly admire the emotional nuance and complexity of Lott s characters. --Enid Shomer, author of The Twelve Rooms of the Nile

"A funny and moving story, which shows love survives pain, folly, and losses...This novella is a work of mature sensibility and deep light. It should signify an important debut."--Ha Jin "author of Nanjing Requiem "

"Although The Rest of Us is about art, love and life, it is also about longing and belonging. Jessica writes with tremendous skill and sophistication, and the novel is truly a pleasure to read."--Ha Jin "author of Waiting and War Trash "

"In her debut novel, the vastly talented and wise beyond her years Jessica Lott crafts a beautifully written and clear-eyed portrait of the artist as a young woman, showing us the other side of the starry-eyed-female-coed-older-famous-college-professor love affair, while tackling the complicated issues of female identity and ambition and the need to make art and feel known."--Elissa Schappell "author of Blueprints for Building Better Girls "

"Jessica Lott's debut is a heartbreaking work of staggering insights written in admirably crystalline prose. An intelligently-rendered May-September story of love, longing, and obsession, "The Rest of Us" recalls both Philip Roth's "The Dying Animal" and Chad Harbach's "The Art of Fielding", but with a compassion, a point of view, and an attention to detail that are all Lott's own."--Adam Langer "author of Crossing California, and The Thieves of Manhattan "

"The Rest of Us" is a sharply observant and sexy debut about love, art, feminism, and the search for identity. It's also a valentine to New York, a city whose every landscape here offers memories of the past and opportunities for the future. I particularly admire the emotional nuance and complexity of Lott's characters."--Enid Shomer, author of The Twelve Rooms of the Nile

Praise for "Osin"

"The sentences are clean and direct and active and with them she slowly builds a world of complex characters who are struggling, in real ways, to figure out how to connect."--Aimee Bender "author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake "

"The sentences are clean and direct and active and with them she slowly builds a world of complex characters who are struggling, in real ways, to figure out how to connect."--Aimee Bender, author of "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake", on "Osin"