Synopsis
At the time Stella Blake meets Richard Fallon, she is nearly broke. Her semi-famous father, who has always neglected her, is dying. Her job at a San Francisco newspaper is only tentative. Richard, on the other hand, is wildly successful as a commercial artist, even if both his marriages to bosomy blondes have failed. Of course, he immediately notes that Stella is not his type, being small, dark, and exotic-looking. For her part, Stella thinks Richard is far too sure of himself, and vain. Naturally they fall in love. Theirs is an almost perfect relationship -- except for the violent fights followed by passionate reconciliations. And there is Stella's suddenly ascending career...and a shimmering San Francisco whose dark side is AIDS.
Something is terribly amiss with this golden couple, something one of them is only beginning to suspect. In Almost Perfect, Alice Adams creates her most searing account of modern relationships when illusions crack, secrets seep out, and women face the consequences of falling madly in love.
Publishers Weekly
Always an acute observer of people and relationships, Adams here writes convincingly and movingly of a passionate love affair, investing her controlled, analytical prose with remarkable depth and feeling. To talented but insecure journalist Stella Blake, her intense affair with charismatic advertising entrepreneur Richard Fallon is 'almost perfect.' Richard is startlingly handsome, likes to cook, always brings flowers. Soon, however, it becomes obvious that he is unstable: he drinks too much and flies into rages. Accustomed to disparaging herself as small, dark and dowdy, Stella is astonished that gorgeous Richard is in her bed, and even as her disquietude increases she is helpless to restrain her love. The perfectly calibrated tension rises as she gradually realizes that Richard is a manic-depressive on the verge of madness. This richly imaginative psychological novel will surely rank as one of her best in a distinguished career.