Talking in Bed

March 4, 1996
Fans of Nelson's three short-story collections (one of which, The Expendables, won the Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction) will not be disappointed in her first novel, a provocative portrayal of the psychology of domestic crisis. This is the story of a bizarre and compelling friendship between Evan Cole, a clinical psychologist with a somewhat dysfunctional family, and Paddy Limbach, a roofer who has no idea how to keep a roof over his family's heads. Their attachment begins when both their fathers die within moments of each other at the same hospital. Theirs is an attraction of opposites: invited to Evan and Rachel's house for dinner, Paddy and Didi bring wine coolers, which hardly go with the gamehens Rachel has made. Indeed, Nelson pits all of her superbly realized characters in opposition to one another, generating great tension between friends, husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters. Envy, adultery and forgiveness figure in the plot, but the telling is never relentless or overbearing. Nelson's fine wit illuminates the comic within the tragic as she paints a stunningly nuanced portrait of the complexities and paradoxes of domestic life.

April 1, 1996
In a Chicago hospital, the deaths of their fathers (one expected and longed for, the other a shot out of the blue) bring together two men: heady, intellectual Evan Cole and oafish Adonis Paddy Limbach. An unlikely friendship develops between them. This is not, however, a macho tale of men discovering their missing, complementary half but a domestic drama centered on the woman they both love, Evan's earthy, maternal wife, Rachel. After three well-received short story collections (e.g., Family Terrorists, Houghton, 1994), PEN award winner Nelson crosses over effectively to the longer form with eloquent prose and characters who, on the whole, breathe on the page. The exception is Didi, Paddy's wife, who is painted as a religious-right goofus with absolutely no good points. Talking in Bed is, as its plain title implies, also about marital--and sexual--intimacy: what secrets lovers keep from each other and how these hidden thoughts can corrode a good relationship. In the end we see, as Rachel does, that neither man fits her needs exactly and that every relationship requires some private space, a good deal of compromise, and, yes, plenty of late-night conversations. A story of modern family life that is both compelling and enjoyable; recommended for most fiction collections.--Doris Lynch, Monroe Cty. P.L., Bloomington, Ind.

April 1, 1996
Nelson's first novel, after three award-winning collections of short stories, is a sensitive but curiously cold-blooded investigation into the vicissitudes of love and marriage. Paddy Limbach and Evan Cole, two very different men, are drawn into a kind of friendship after they meet at the hospital where both are visiting their dying fathers. A few weeks later, in the throes of feelings he can't quite understand, Evan leaves his wife, who falls in love with Paddy, putting two marriages into jeopardy. This triangular relationship brings clearly into focus all the conflicting emotions--rage, fear, uncertainty, yearning, and a recognition of one's mortality--that are experienced at mid-life, especially after the death of a parent. Intelligently written, brave in its unflinching exploration of aging, love, and loss, this work shows that Nelson's considerable narrative talent can be sustained for the length of a novel. ((Reviewed April 1, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)