Overview
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU DISCOVER YOUR INSIGNIFICANT OTHER IS BECOMING MORE SIGNIFICANT THAN YOUR SPOUSE?
Richard Rossi works in HR at a Boston-based software company and prides himself on his understanding of the foibles and fictions we all use to get through the day. Too bad he’s not as good at spotting such behavior in himself. What else could explain his passionate affair with Benjamin, a very unavailable married man? Richard is also not entirely available himself—there’s Conrad, his adorable if maddening partner to contend with. But when Conrad starts spending a suspicious amount of time in Ohio, and economic uncertainty challenges Richard’s chances for promotion, he realizes his priorities might be a little skewed.
Synopsis
What do you do when you discover your spouse has an insignificant other?
How about when you realize your own insignificant other is becoming more significant than your spouse?
There are no easy answers to these questions, but Stephen McCauley—"the master of the modern comedy of manners" (USA Today)—makes exploring them a literary delight.
Richard Rossi works in HR at a touchy-feely software company and prides himself on his understanding of the foibles and fictions we all use to get through the day. Too bad he’s not as good at spotting such behavior in himself.
What else could explain his passionate affair with Benjamin, a very unavailable married man? Richard suggests birthday presents for Benjamin’s wife and vacation plans for his kids, meets him for "lunch" at a sublet apartment, and would never think about calling him after business hours.
"In the three years I’d known Benjamin, I’d come to think of him as my husband. He was, after all, a husband, and I saw it as my responsibility to protect his marriage from a barrage of outside threats and bad influences. It was the only way I could justify sleeping with him."
Since Richard is not entirely available himself—there’s Conrad, his adorable if maddening partner to contend with—it all seems perfect. But when cosmopolitan Conrad starts spending a suspicious amount of time in Ohio, and economic uncertainty challenges Richard’s chances for promotion, he realizes his priorities might be a little skewed.
With a cast of sharply drawn friends, frenemies, colleagues, and personal trainers, Insignificant Others is classic McCauley—a hilarious and ultimately haunting social satire about life in the United States at the bitter end of the boom years, when clinging to significant people and pursuits has never been more important—if only one could figure out what they are.
Publishers Weekly
Narrator Richard and his partner, Conrad, are a well-adjusted gay couple living in Boston at “the end of the American Century” in McCauley’s adroit latest (after Alternatives to Sex). They have an understanding that allows for the occasional infidelity, but when Richard realizes that Conrad’s current fling may be luring him away, he begins to worry. It doesn’t help that Richard is becoming infatuated with his own insignificant other, Benjamin, who leads a double life as a supposedly happily married father of two. Richard’s problems, though, go well beyond his love life, and with a dry, caustic wit and the occasionally weighty social observation, he describes how he’s coping with his own exercise addiction, his suspicious sister, a client at work who may or may not be on the brink of going crazy, a friend who can’t bring himself to tell his wife about his health problems, and his deeply confused feelings about Conrad and Benjamin. But it’s an unlikely alliance with Conrad’s business partner and the slow unraveling of his problems that adds an unexpectedly and refreshingly sentimental dimension to this accomplished comedy. (June)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Narrator Richard and his partner, Conrad, are a well-adjusted gay couple living in Boston at “the end of the American Century” in McCauley’s adroit latest (after Alternatives to Sex). They have an understanding that allows for the occasional infidelity, but when Richard realizes that Conrad’s current fling may be luring him away, he begins to worry. It doesn’t help that Richard is becoming infatuated with his own insignificant other, Benjamin, who leads a double life as a supposedly happily married father of two. Richard’s problems, though, go well beyond his love life, and with a dry, caustic wit and the occasionally weighty social observation, he describes how he’s coping with his own exercise addiction, his suspicious sister, a client at work who may or may not be on the brink of going crazy, a friend who can’t bring himself to tell his wife about his health problems, and his deeply confused feelings about Conrad and Benjamin. But it’s an unlikely alliance with Conrad’s business partner and the slow unraveling of his problems that adds an unexpectedly and refreshingly sentimental dimension to this accomplished comedy. (June)Kirkus Reviews
A breezily funny, affecting tale by the author of the novel-turned-film The Object of My Affection, about the entanglements of a gay Bostonian facing a midlife crisis. Richard Rossi is a "psychologist by degree" working in the human resources department of a software company, Connectrix, who could use some counseling of his own. His partner Conrad, with whom he has lived for eight years in a Beacon Hill condo, has been secretly seeing someone else during his out-of-town trips as a consultant (he tells rich people what art work to hang in their homes). Richard's occasional lover, Ben, an architect with whom he sublets a studio apartment and thinks of as his real "husband," is spending more time with his wife and kids. At work, Richard is responsible for keeping a young hire from leaving Connectrix and for coaching a hostile supervisor involved in a discrimination suit. He also must soothe a resentful sister in Buffalo and provide support for a married friend with heart disease. Failing in his attempt to escape reality through daily visits to the health club, Richard is forced to confront his ideas about fidelity, obligation and fulfillment. An amiably rendered gay man's guide to contemporary life, this is a rare novel that details its characters' imperfections without imparting judgment. McCauley invests them with a romantic outlook that no amount of disappointment can diminish. A novel with pithy observations, lightness of touch and generosity of spirit.From the Publisher
“The master of the modern comedy of manners.” —USA Today“Charming…McCauley displays terrific comic insight about our penchant for denial while still revealing a great deal of compassion for human foibles.” —Connie Ogle, The Miami Herald
“A sparkling writer . . . he tosses off witticisms with the alacrity of a Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde.” —Heller McAlpin, NPR.org
“Insignificant Others is vintage McCauley, offering up the usual mixture of hilarity, pathos, irony, and regret. It’s The Office meets Jane Austen, with a twist.” —Mameve Medwed
“A novel with pithy observations, lightness of touch, and generosity of spirit.” —Kirkus Reviews