Elroy Nights Book

Elroy and his wife, Clare, elect to try living separately, a choice characteristic of their relationship-fond, thoughtful, generous to a fault, and more than a little cracked. So Elroy leases a high-rise beach condo, begins hanging out with his twenty-something students, and experiences a splendid re-enchantment with the world. With his trademark precision and pitch-perfect dialogue, Barthelme elegantly lays open this interweaving of twenty-year olds with their fifty-something fellow traveler. The result is a lovely, lilting romance, and a spare yet generous masterpiece from a writer at the top of his form.

Author Biography: Frederick Barthelme is the author of twelve books of fiction, and the co-author with his brother, Steven, of the memoir Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss. He directs the writing program at the University of Southern Mississippi and edits the literary journal Mississippi Review.

The New York Times

Barthelme's world is vague and unclear. Conversations dead-end, spousal jabs go unanswered, Elroy and Freddie's relationship never evolves into anything defined. Still, currents of hope run through Elroy Nights. Elroy and Clare's relationship contains remarkable moments of kindness -- not in showy grand scenes but in small gestures, in bitten tongues, in the silent lowering of expectations. — Bruce Barcott