Every month, Scoop hosts our 60-second book club, where we invite you to take a quick peek inside a buzzed-about new book and let us know what you think. This month’s pick: I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You by Courtney Maum (Touchstone).
Maybe you're hitting the beach for one last hurrah before summer ends. Maybe you're flying to a different city for a friend's wedding. Or maybe you're just planning to enjoy Labor Day weekend from the comfort of your couch. No matter what your plans are for the holiday, we're guessing you'll have some time to curl up with a good book—so allow us to recommend I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You by Courtney Maum.
The book is told from the point of view of Richard Haddon, a British artist living in Paris who's just been jilted by his mistress, am American woman named Lisa. He loves his French wife, Anne-Laure, but can't quite figure out how to muster enthusiasm for the monotony and routine that has come to define his married life. The book is interesting in that it's not quite a love story—and as such, you're unsure if you should root for Richard and Anne-Laure. Here's a brief excerpt:
When Lisa said she was leaving me, she asked if she could write. The paradox of her request always makes me think of the Serge Gainsbourg song "I Love You, Me Neither." Lisa Bishop even looks like Jane Birkin, the little minx. In any case, because I'm an idiot slash glutton for punishment, I said yes. I said write me at the gallery. I said never at my home.
When I tried to imagine what these letters would be like, I had visions of me clue-searching for evidence that Lisa missed me, that she felt she'd made a mistake. I expected that when she finally did get married and was thus exposed to the libido-numbing administrations of conjugal life, that the letters might increase in volume and in temperature, that they'd be lurid, sexy things. In my fantasy world, I wrote her back, keeping a message-in-a-bottle thing going at the gallery, keeping my (now only intellectual) dalliances far away from home. I miss you back. I'm empty. But you're right, it had to end.
In reality, however, Lisa's letters have been so disheartening, I haven't responded. I've thought about writing her to ask her to stop writing, but there's something so terribly childish about that, so very "sticks and stones," I haven't done that either. Besides, sticks and stones have broken my bones, and words have also hurt me.
I don't mean to be churlish about it, but you spend seven years on top-notch behavior only to finally give in, falter, seriously fuck things up, and the least your accomplice can do is have the decency to love you back.
I always assumed that Lisa wanted me to leave my wife. I spent a lot of time wondering why else would she be with me, and not enough time asking her why she actually was. And why was she? For the sex, she finally said. The novelty. The fun. And this from an American, a journalist, a woman endowed with neither the prudishness of her countrywomen nor the ethics of her trade. This isn't how things are supposed to work when you're a cheater. Lisa was supposed to go all fatal attraction for me. She was supposed to want to meet my kid and dream about being a fab stepmum who was a taller, brighter, wilder version of Anne. What she wasn't supposed to do was casually drop over a light lunch of nigiri sushi that she was leaving me for a cutlery designer from London, a prissy toff named Dave.
The book continues on to explore themes like how do you earn forgiveness after betrayal—and how can you tell when a relationship is worth salvaging?
Tell us: Do you hate Richard yet? What do you think of how Courtney Maum writes a male character? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Excerpted from I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You: A Novel by Courtney Maum. Copyright 2014 © Courtney Maum. Reprinted with permission of Touchstone, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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