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  <title><![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]></title>
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  <description><![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]></description>
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    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
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    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[&quot;The short novel tends to have a history of containing quietism on the one hand and hysteria on the other.&quot;<br/><br/>You said it, Charlie Baxter!<br/><br/>Although we will be reading Paula Fox's The Widow's Daughter for Charlie's class, I was not alerted to either his interest in Fox o...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10250725">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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    <name><![CDATA[Rebecca]]></name>
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    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
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    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
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    <body><![CDATA[This novel is short and perfect.  It's about an affluent, childless couple living in Brooklyn (I think Park Slope or thereabouts) in the late 1960s.  The growing disorder of society is gradually creeping up on them.  Reading it was the first time I understood how a lot of people must have felt in th...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44982496">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
  <id>54034042</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Simon]]></name>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
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    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
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    <rating>4</rating>
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  <read_at>Mon May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Apr 26 13:21:29 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Jun 08 07:48:29 -0700 2009</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[With exceptional imagery, similar to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's &quot;The Yellow Paper&quot;, or Cynthia Ozick's &quot;The Pagan Rabbi&quot;, Paula Fox weaves a powerful drama, this one in search of questions as to the values of the modern family, the struggle for personal identity. <br/><br/>At t...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/54034042">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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    <name><![CDATA[Daniel]]></name>
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    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters: A Novel]]>
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  <average_rating>3.88</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[First published in 1970 to great acclaim, this novel stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storyteller's craft in postwar American literature--a novel that, according to Irving Howe, ranks with &quot;Billy Budd&quot; and &quot;The Great Gatsby&quot;.]]>
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  <read_at>Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
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    <body><![CDATA[Paula Fox's &quot;Desperate Characters&quot; is a nearly perfect novel, one that I can see myself revisiting more than once in the coming years, and one that deserves a place alongside Richard Yates's &quot;<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48328.Revolutionary_Road" title="Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates">Revolutionary Road</a>&quot; in the pantheon of fiction brilliantly depicting suburban American m...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/29188905">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/29188905]]></url>
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      <review>
  <id>55479434</id>
    <user>
    <id>2298777</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Rose]]></name>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
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  <read_at>Sat May 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat May 09 09:28:26 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat May 09 09:36:12 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Not surprising that Jonathan Franzen loves this book. (He writes the introduction and is responsible for getting it back in print.) It's a story about a relationship that is slowly dismantling itself and is set in the backdrop of Brooklyn, in the 60s when pioneering mid-class whites started moving i...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/55479434">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
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    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
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    <body><![CDATA[I read a manual about writing once, and a paragraph from this book was included as an example of how to write well. Plus, Becca liked it, so it must be good. And it is good. It captures middle class anxiety and bourgeois marriage perfectly--in particular, through non-sequitur-laden dialogue that let...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/63797653">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
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    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
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  <date_added>Mon Feb 04 09:45:25 -0800 2008</date_added>
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    <body><![CDATA[p.58: &quot;And how she had grown to hate that amicability which had once given her such pleasure! It was a shirt of mail, an expression of his unalterable detachment. Behind it lay his life's desolation, his disappointment in himself, his failure with his wife, his real resentment at his hole-in-th...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14528176">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
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    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
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  <read_at>Fri Feb 08 10:42:22 -0800 2008</read_at>
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    <body><![CDATA[WOW!  Okay, here's Goodreads in action: 3 friends highly recommended this, and after getting it from the library yesterday, I frittered away real-work time reading it.  Ignored my boyfriend last night for awhile, just to keep going, and finished up today.  Well.  What a brilliant, brutal, wicked thi...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14415510">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
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    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
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    <body><![CDATA[A solid novel which doesn't quite live up to Franzen's overpraise, but is nevertheless a quality work of fiction. The style is effortless and lucid. It is straightforward but deceptively so; beneath its simplicity lies depth and considerable social commentary. Fox's characterisation and dialogue are...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/62810756">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
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    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
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  <read_at>Thu Oct 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
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    <body><![CDATA[Short novel about an upper middle class couple living in a neighborhood in the process of gentrification in 1970's Brooklyn. The introduction is by Jonathan Franzen and it has been compared to Revolutionary Road. I picked it up because it was used and cheap and about a couple living in Brooklyn and ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74325166">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
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  <read_at>Sun Oct 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Sep 14 21:19:20 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Oct 04 12:05:14 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Not much happens in this short book, but it is not about actions, but about a feeling, in this caseof fear.  Sophie and Otto live in terror of a world outside full of deranged cats, bricks thru windows, partners, homeless, etc.  How does one live with such desperation, can one live that way?  I thin...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71251768">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71251768]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71251768]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
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  <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
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  <read_at>Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Mar 09 22:02:47 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Mar 09 22:05:59 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This book was like a Woody Allen movie... only less funny... but still funny... but also strange. I will say that even though I didn't feel like I was liking it when I was reading it, it definitely stuck with me once it was over. Even now I can recall certain images and feelings that the author crea...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/48771380">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>37104360</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Merritt]]></name>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
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  <read_at>Sun Nov 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Nov 07 06:54:49 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Nov 23 15:33:39 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I really enjoyed Desperate Characters.  It was not just a story reflecting the painful realities of life but I was taken away today, turning page by page into another life.  I felt like I was Sophie in the future or maybe another life.  I liked the parallel between Sophie's festering wound and her s...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/37104360">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/37104360]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>6222437</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Slygly]]></name>
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    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
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  <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
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  <read_at>Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Sep 14 19:28:13 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Sep 20 19:27:05 -0700 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[   Desperate Characters is a satisfyingly dark, dense novel about running away from unpleasantness, seeking refuge in one sanctuary to another, away from wilted marriages, dirty urban living, crime, disappointing friendships, dreadful diagnoses, vicious cats.<br/>   I appreciate Paula Fox's prose: ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6222437">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6222437]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6222437]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>46574270</id>
    <user>
    <id>76970</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Alex]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Los Angeles, CA]]></location>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>364</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Wed Feb 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Feb 16 17:51:37 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Feb 26 11:06:39 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Oh man, I was loving this book a couple of days ago, but as it speeds toward its end, there were a few too many false notes.  Such a tight, short novel can't survive those.  Still the book reminded me of how different life was 30 years ago, not just with rotary dial telephones, but in the way people...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46574270">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46574270]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>75660613</id>
    <user>
    <id>791555</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Chris]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>
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    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
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  <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>364</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Oct 25 07:05:40 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Oct 25 07:10:48 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[A great picture of America/New York in 1970.  More than any fiction I've read, it gives a sense of how people felt &quot;under siege.&quot;  Personally interesting too because I they lived in my neighborhood during a very different time.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75660613]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>31131263</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Jen]]></name>
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  <isbn>0007150385</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780007150380</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">51</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>364</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
</book>

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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[Kirsti]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Mon Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Aug 25 08:21:05 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Aug 27 15:32:21 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Kirsti described this book as claustrophobic, and she sure is right! It reminded me of an Edward Albee play. The book kept me intrigued, there were some very well-worded perceptions throughout, and I was interested by the gentrification of Brooklyn in the late 60s. However, I don't quite agree with ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/31131263">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/31131263]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/31131263]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>30645790</id>
    <user>
    <id>102246</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Anna]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>
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  <isbn13>9780007150380</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">51</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171339467m/96544.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171339467s/96544.jpg</small_image_url>
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  <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>364</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
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  <read_at>Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Aug 20 07:19:15 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Nov 12 08:29:40 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[evidence that you don't have to fill a 242 page signature to write a brilliant book.<br/><br/>paula fox lays bare the prejudices we have towards the community around us, the mental acrobatics necessary to keep a marriage alive, and the lengths we go to to conceal those things that we're ashamed of...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/30645790">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/30645790]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/30645790]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>1761670</id>
    <user>
    <id>121949</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Terra]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>
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  <isbn>039331894X</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780393318944</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">7</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/526593.Desperate_Characters_A_Novel</link>
  <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>364</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[First published in 1970 to great acclaim, this novel stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storyteller's craft in postwar American literature--a novel that, according to Irving Howe, ranks with &quot;Billy Budd&quot; and &quot;The Great Gatsby&quot;.]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[fans of Revolutionary Road and Light Years]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Jun 07 15:33:27 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Dec 16 20:59:42 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[The only thing I had a problem with in this beautifully written novel was how this one seed was planted that I kept expecting to grow into something and it never did (the threat of her husband finding out about her affair). But I think Fox meant to keep it realistic that way. It's a short novel and ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1761670">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1761670]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>57600089</id>
    <user>
    <id>238656</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Denise]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Omaha, NE]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/238656-denise]]></link>
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  <isbn>0333120728</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780333120729</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">2</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Desperate Characters]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>364</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Meet the Bentwoods, Sophie and Otto, &quot;both just over forty,&quot; living  in Brooklyn sometime in the '60s with neither hope nor children to  encourage them to work on their suffocating marriage. Such are the  central subjects of Paula Fox's enthralling <em>Desperate Characters</em>, first  published to much acclaim in 1970. The novel's action unfolds in a  single weekend, and includes Otto's torturous breakup with his longtime  business partner, Charlie, and a visit the Bentwoods make to their  country home, which they find vandalized. Everything pivots around an  occurrence so ordinary as to make us marvel at the power it wields under  Fox's brilliant pressure: a cat bite. <p>  Despite Otto's protests, Sophie puts out a dish for a stray that roams  the Bentwoods' neighborhood--an area which is also home to enormous  poverty, and in which they, in their renovated townhouse, sit like distant  royalty. The cat sinks its teeth into her hand and instantly we are  plunged into the heart of what plagues every aspect of this couple's  lives: the threat of rabies. Where the cat is concerned, it's literal  rabies, but the book is also steeped in the sense that a kind of social rabies  lurks just outside the Bentwoods' and indeed the whole world's door. As  Sophie suddenly realizes at one point: &quot;Ticking away inside the carapace  of ordinary life and its sketchy agreements was anarchy.&quot; <p>  Throughout Fox's gorgeously crafted, unflinching portrait of a dying  marriage and a country at war with itself, the Bentwoods fight the desire  to self-destruct like everything around them. At one point, Otto screams  at Sophie: &quot;What in God's name do you want? Do you want Charlie to  murder me? Do you wish the farmhouse had been burned down?... <em>Do you want  to be rabid?</em>&quot; She doesn't, of course, but in a certain way, that  outcome makes sense. &quot;'<em>God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what  is outside</em>,' she said out loud, and felt an extraordinary relief as  though, at last, she'd discovered what it was that could create a balance  between the quiet, rather vacant progression of the days she spent in  this house, and those portents that lit up the dark at the edge of her  own existence.&quot; How fortunate and rare to discover such a perfect  articulation of the human condition. <em>--Melanie Rehak</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1970</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
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  <read_at>Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu May 28 06:20:04 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu May 28 06:21:16 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Great, haunting story.  Not a very long book.  Read it on the plane from Oakland to Denver.  ]]></body>
    
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