This Beautiful Life (Paperback)
Description
"This Beautiful Life is a gripping, potent and blisteringly well-written story of family, dilemma, and consequence. . . . I read this book with white-knuckled urgency, and I finished it in tears. Helen Schulman is an absolutely brilliant novelist." —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love
The events of a single night shatter one family’s sense of security and identity in this provocative and deeply affecting domestic drama from Helen Schulman, the acclaimed author of A Day at the Beach and Out of Time. In the tradition of Lionel Shriver, Sue Miller, and Laura Moriarty, Schulman crafts a brilliantly observed portrait of parenting and modern life, cunningly exploring our most deeply-held convictions and revealing the enduring strengths that emerge in the face of crisis.
About the Author
Helen Schulman is the author of the novels A Day at the Beach, P.S., The Revisionist, and Out of Time, and the short story collection Not a Free Show. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Vanity Fair, Time, Vogue, GQ, the Paris Review, and the New York Times Book Review. An associate professor of writing at The New School, she lives in New York City with her husband and two children.
Praise for This Beautiful Life…
âeoeWith psychological acuity and cinematic pacing, Helen Schulman takes a hypercontemporary nightmareâe¦and parlays it into a wildly compelling novel about parenting, privilege, and the fragility of happinessâe¦. This Beautiful Life is moving, disturbing, and grandly incisive.âe
-Jonathan Miles, author of Dear American Airlines
âeoeA harrowing and moving account of just how much twenty-first-century technology has magnified the scope of the kind of imbecilities in which teenagers excel. Itâe(TM)s poignant about the fragility of even those homes that are seemingly invulnerably insulated by privilege and caring and vigilant parents.âe
-Jim Shepard, author of Like You'd Understand, Anyway
âeoeHelen Schulmanâe(TM)s trenchant social observations and precise, lucid writing are brought to bear on the timely story of a crisis in the life of the Bergamot familyâe¦. Schulman takes on a controversial topic with depth, evenhandedness, and warmth. Spare and focused, This Beautiful Life packs a wallop.âe
-Kate Christensen, author of The Epicure's Lament and The Great Man
âeoeThis Beautiful Life is as much a bracing novel as a timely cautionary taleâe¦. Schulman has managed to capture this bizarre of-the-moment tragedy in a novel that remains deeply humane and sensitiveâe¦. This Beautiful Life is a powerful story of a good family in crisis.âe
-Mary McGarry Morris, Washington Post
âeoeHelen Schulman is one of the most gifted writers of her generation.âe
-Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Good Squad
âeoeIn another writerâe(TM)s hands, it might come out as a cautionary tale, but Schulman is careful not to paint anyone as villain or victim.âe
-Hannah Gerson, New York Observer
âeoeA gripping, potent, and blisteringly well-written story of family, dilemma, and consequence. While the setting is thoroughly modern, the drama feels as ancient and inevitable as a Greek myth. I read this book with white-knuckled urgency, and finished it in tears. Helen Schulman is an absolutely brilliant novelist.âe
-Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Committed and Eat, Pray, Love
âeoeRiveting. . . . As much as this book fiercely inhabits our shared online reality, it operates most powerfully on a deeper level, posing an enduring question about American values.âe
-Maria Russo, New York Times Book Review
âeoeA rich, engrossing, and surprisingly nuanced novel exploring timeless questions of guilt and responsiblity.âe
-O, The Oprah Magazine
âeoeIn the hands of a lesser writer, this might have been simply a book about a scandal; Helen Schulman, though, has a long enough view, and a large enough heart, to have found in that scandalâe(TM)s outlines a mournful and affecting portrait of our brave new social world.âe
-Jonathan Dee, Author of The Privileges
âeoeThis Beautiful Life isnâe(TM)t just an intimate look at family breaking down under intense pressure; itâe(TM)s also a sharp and unsparing indictment of a culture in search of scapegoats. In this timely and provocative novel, Helen Schulman maps out the contours of a contemporary American nightmare.âe
-Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers and Little Children
âeoeSchulmanâe(TM)s topical, unsettling new novel [is] set in Manhattanâe(TM)s world of private-school privilege but chillingly relatable for parents anywhereâe¦. Raising tough questions about child rearing, morality and the way the Internet both frees and imprisons, Schulmanâe(TM)s story resonates.âe
-People (3 ½ out of 4 stars)
