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In her debut novel, Talking in Bed, Nelson turns her unflinching gaze on two families who come together and apart after the two men meet in the hospital where both their fathers have just died. The first couple, Evan and Rachel Cole, are sophisticated, urbane, educated liberals. Ev is a psychologist; Rachel a part-time lawyer and full-time mother. Their counterparts are Paddy and Didi Limbach, a conservative, blue-collar couple from the suburbs. Paddy owns a roofing company, and Didi plans to take a part-time job at a daycare center when their daughter enters kindergarten. The two men form an odd and unlikely friendship. Soon afterwards, in a morass of midlife angst, Evan leaves Rachel and their sons. Adrift in the wake of his departure, Rachel surprises herself by falling in love with Paddy. The resulting triangle changes each of them in ways none of them could have foreseen. Nelson exposes all the grief, pain, anger, regret, and resignation of an unraveling marriage. Her adult characters behave childishly; the children take on adult responsibilities. The pages crackle with violent emotions, one after another exploding in rapid succession. Nelson recounts them all, intelligently and with a simple grace.
The author of three short story collections, The Expendables, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction; In the Land of Men; and Family Terrorists; Nelson recently was named a regional winner of the GRANTA award for the Best of the Young American Novelists. With this novel, Nelson expands her form, adding complexity and depth to her characters and their stories. Her work, and her readers, are richer as the result.
Laurie Parker is Marketing Manager for Vanderbilt University Press.
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