Fiction, Fiction Subjects

Jeremy Thrane

Name: Jeremy Thrane
Author: Kate Christensen
ISBN: 9780385720342

by Kate Christensen

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Overview

Jeremy Thrane seems to have everything. As the long-time boyfriend of the handsome (but deeply closeted) movie star Ted Masterson, he lives rent-free in a beautiful apartment on the top floor of Ted's Manhattan brownstone and has an easy job that gives him plenty of time to read books and write his novel. When an influential gossip columnist overhears Jeremy talking about Ted, Jeremy's perfect world begins to crumble: in just a few hours Ted asks him to leave. Although Ted says he needs to spend more time with his wife and daughter, Jeremy suspects another man is involved.
With little more than his books, his sprawling manuscript, and his fickle little bird Juanita, Jeremy finds that he needs to re-connect with the eccentric family whose love he has taken for granted, and determine which of his friends have his true well-being in mind. In a dizzying world of art galleries, rock clubs, trendy restaurants, casual sex, dry wit, and drier martinis, Jeremy Thrane must finally figure out what it means to grow up and fall in love.

Synopsis

Publishers Weekly

Two years after her well-received debut, Christensen (In the Drink) delivers a knockout sophomore effort, once again set against the backdrop of a glitteringly grungy downtown Manhattan. As the novel begins, 35-year-old pretty boy Jeremy Thrane lives in the top -floor apartment of a gorgeous Gramercy Park townhouse otherwise inhabited by Hollywood star Ted Masterson, Ted's even hotter actress wife and their adopted daughter. Jeremy, long Ted's secret lover, has been employed as the actor's "archivist" for years, but his free ride is about to come to an end. Unceremoniously dumped by the media-wary Ted, Jeremy must abandon his apartment and take a thankless nine-to-five job; on the bright side, he is finally inspired to finish his decade-in-the-making novel, a revenge fantasy based on the life of his deadbeat Marxist father. Christensen corrals a flawed cast of characters with a sure and compassionate hand, among them Jeremy's mother, a successful poet; his sister, a junior rock star; his best friend, a chic artist addicted to heroin; and a physically repellent gay-porn editor who has been in love with Jeremy since high school. Chistensen's sumptuous prose is both wicked and wise, resulting in a smart, sassy urban tale. Her wit is as acerbic as ever, but the laugh-out-loud humor of her first novel has been exchanged for something darker and more provocative. Young, hip readers will be pleased by this stylish endeavor and will agree that Christensen is establishing herself as an edgy chronicler of the Naked City and its struggling inhabitants. (Aug.) Forecast: The 20- and 30-something fans Christensen picked up with In the Drink will adore her savvy, satiric latest, and get a chance tocollect autographs on her three-city author tour. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

About the Author, Kate Christensen

Kate Christensen lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Jeremy Thrane finds his world turned upside down when his married lover and longtime employer, Hollywood superstar Ted Masterson, dumps him, leaving Jeremy out of a home, a job, and the love of his life, all on the same day. Jeremy attempts to rebuild his life by finishing his novel, making new friends, and reestablishing family connections, while coming to terms with his breakup. Wit and humor grace this second novel by Christensen, whose first, In the Drink (LJ 4/1/99), also dealt with a witty, lovelorn, frustrated writer. Christensen's characters are well realized, displayed on the bright stage of New York City; savvy readers will recognize places, scenes, and literary figures. But this is not just another tale about a big-city singleton desperate for a serious relationship; it's about how we go on living, adapting, and working even after our whole world has changed. Recommended for all public libraries.Devon Thomas, Hass Assoc., Inc., Ann Arbor MI Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A spirited take on the oft-told tale of a life falling apart, then patching itself together again: witty, humane, romantic, and just gossipy enough to keep you flipping pages. Could life get much worse for Jeremy? He's spent the last decade or so working on an unpublishable novel and serving as the inept caretaker of his boyfriend's Manhattan brownstone. The boyfriend, though, is Ted Masterson, Hollywood's hottest action hero, who's not only absent most of the year but deeply in the closet and recently married. As the story opens, Ted, his super-starlet wife Giselle, and their adopted child have swept into town. But any chance of a hot if complicated reunion is quickly squelched when paranoid Ted presents Jeremy with his walking papers. Jeremy's like the gay member of "The First Wives Club", suddenly without a husband, a job, or a home. He even gets revenge, albeit bittersweet: a gossip columnist overhears him in a restaurant analyzing the breakup, which leads to a blind item that brings about Ted's downfall. Fortunately, Jeremy's got his family, biological or not. There's sis, preoccupied with her band and her loutish husband, but with a spare room that Jeremy briefly occupies. Mom, a successful poet, busy with her third husband, who's developing Alzheimer's. Best friend Felicia, who picks now, of all times, to enter rehab and kick that nasty heroin habit. And even Dad, who headed off to Turkey 20 years ago but remains alive as the subject of Jeremy's novel. Then sweaty-palmed, bug-eyed Sebastian-a former high-school mate and now the publisher of "Boytoy"-gives Jeremy his first job, writing porno. And slowly Jeremy starts to put his life together. He finds his own place. Aproduction company wants to produce a nearly forgotten screenplay. He lands a better job as a copyeditor. An editor is interested in his novel. He calls his father. He gets a date. Credible? Just barely. Fun? Immensely. As a chronicler of hip urban travails, Christensen ("In the Drink", 1999) is first-rate.