Gigolo

A beautifully crafted collection of eight short stories by Edna Ferber.

In Gigolo, Edna Ferber delves into the minds of eight diverse characters from all walks and stages of life: a handsome, oft-pursued mechanic who finds himself falling in love; a new widower who moves into the home of his son and daughter-in-law; a wounded pilot who discovers his family fortune has disappeared during the war and is reduced to making a living as a gigolo in Paris; a Broadway comedienne who is forced to reconsider her career options as she approaches the age of 40; an aspirational inventor who gets more than he bargained for when he marries a “home girl” whom he assumed would support his aspirations but ultimately furthers her own; a camping supply clerk who fancies himself a rugged outdoors man when in reality he has never traveled beyond Manhattan; a matriarch who grapples with turning 60 and managing her responsibilities to her grown children; and a young woman from Oklahoma who longs to escape her small town and discovers leaving home is hard to do.

Gigolo is a stirring collection from a best-selling and beloved chronicler of American working people.

Full contents:

• “The Afternoon of a Faun”
• “Old Man Minick”
• “Gigolo”
• “Not a Day over Twenty-One”
• “Home Girl”
• “Ain’t Nature Wonderful!”
• “The Sudden Sixties”
• “If I Should Ever Travel!”