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Ex-Wife

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An instant bestseller when it was published anonymously in 1929—the story of a divorce and its aftermath, which scandalized the Jazz Age.

It's 1924, and Peter and Patricia have what looks to be a very modern marriage. Both drink. Both smoke. Both work, Patricia as a head copywriter at a major department store. When it comes to sex with other people, both believe in "the honesty policy." Until they don't. Or, at least, until Peter doesn't—and a shell-shocked, lovesick Patricia finds herself starting out all over again, but this time around as a different kind of single woman: the ex-wife.

An instant bestseller when it was published anonymously in 1929, Ex-Wife captures the speakeasies, night clubs, and parties that defined Jazz Age New York—alongside the morning-after aspirin and calisthenics, the lunch-hour visits to the gym, the girl-talk, and the freedoms and anguish of solitude. It also casts a cool eye on the bedrooms and the doctor's offices where, despite rising hemlines, the men still call the shots. The result is a unique view of what its author Ursula Parrott called "the era of the one-night stand": an era very much like our own.

©1929 Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, Inc.; copyright renewed 1957 by Lindsay Marc Parrott, Jr.; afterword copyright 1989 by Richard Kai Parrott; foreword copyright 2023 by Alissa Bennett (P)2024 Tantor
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At first I found the narrator’s voice grating, but as the story unfolded the tone was simply perfect. It helped conjure up the image and personality of the heroine in this story. I found the audio book very funny and profound in places. A highly entertaining story, exceptionally well narrated.

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