About The Book
Two Against One, Frederick Barthelme’s enormously powerful novel, is the portrait of a marriage gone awry. On Edward’s fortieth birthday, his estranged wife, Elise, appears unannounced at the door, triggering a series of events that will involve the couple in a bizarre triangle and lay open the workings of a fifteen-year marriage. Set against the suburban new South that Barthelme has made particularly his own, Two Against One is a wry, revealing comedy about the nature of modern love and confirms that he is one of the most remarkable novelists of his generation.
Praise
“Barthelme achieves what Chekov spoke of as grace, the most gained with the least exertion. He leads us through a shattered set of lives, through scenes with no conclusions. We follow, not knowing where we are going, but certain it will be worth the trip. At the end we are shocked at how far we have come. Barthelme has shown us the chaos of life, and from it, lifted an order we’ve not seen before.””San Francisco Chronicle
“By far the most powerful, disturbing, and interior of Mr. Barthelme’s fictions . . . Exceptionally readable”funny, deft, and engaging.””The New York Times Book Review
Grove Press
