THE SEVEN YEAR BITCH
by Jennifer Belle
and
BASED UPON AVAILABILITY
by Alix Strauss Reading, Signing & Discussion
Thursday, June 24, 7–9 PM
powerHouse Arena · 37 Main Street (corner of Water & Main St.) · DUMBO, Brooklyn
For more information, please call 718.666.3049
RSVP: rsvp@powerHouseArena.com
The Seven Year Bitch by Jennifer Belle is a smart and provocative novel about marriage, motherhood, and discovering that the life you have is exactly the one you wanted. In Based Upon Availability, Alix Strauss displays a keen eye for human connection and the universal feelings of longing. Belle and Strauss will appear in conversation to discuss their new books, followed by a book signing.
About The Seven Year Bitch
Isolde Brilliant is living life in captivity. She was a successful hedge fund manager, she had a devoted, if neurotic, husband, and a perfectly acceptable apartment in downtown Manhattan. But once Izzy's wish to become a mother finally comes true, she is laid off from her job, and her life turns to railing at her husband, becoming involved in her nanny's quest to get pregnant, and lusting after the rich, handsome guy who got away. As Izzy ponders her next move, her best friend announces that she is leaving her husband. "It's not that you get a seven-year itch, it's that they turn you into a seven-year bitch," she says. It's unavoidable. It isn't her fault. It happens to every married woman with a baby. Izzy tries to avoid a similar fate, but as her sex life with her husband rapidly declines and her fantasies involve becoming a widow, she begins to wonder if there might be some inescapable grain of truth in her friend's discouraging theory.
About Based Upon Availability
Meet Trish, a gallery owner obsessing over her best friend's wedding and dramatic weight loss; Robin, worn down by a lifetime of abuse by her older sister and forced to take revenge; Anne, a lonely, single woman suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder; Louise, a drug-addicted rock star sent to dry out by her equally famous publicist; Franny, a Southerner turned wannabe Manhattanite, envious of her neighbors' lives; Sheila, a single teacher driven to punish her boyfriend when he informs her that he's returning to his wife; and Ellen, a married woman desperate to have children. The thread that ties these women together is Morgan, a manager at the swanky Four Seasons in Manhattan. The hotel offers sanctuary to each, and while some find solace, others find only despair. "I've always had a love affair with hotels, and have longed to know what happens behind closed doors. I especially love the anonymity hotels offer," says Strauss. "The retreat from real life. The idea that you can be anyone from anywhere. And that once you're gone, the rooms are stripped down, wiped clean. All traces of you are erased, as if you'd never been there."
Jennifer Belle Belle burst onto the literary scene with her critically acclaimed novel Going Down, which was translated into many languages and optioned for the screen, first by Madonna. Her second equally-praised novel, the national bestseller High Maintenance, took on the cutthroat world of Manhattan real estate, and was also optioned for the screen, as was her third novel, the darkly comic Little Stalker. Belle's essays and stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Observer, The Independent Magazine (London), Cosmopolitan, Ms., Harper's Bazaar, and several anthologies. She lives in New York City and Olivebridge, New York with her husband and two sons.
Alix Strauss is a lifestyle trend writer for national talk shows. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, and other periodicals. She is the author of an award-winning collection of short stories, The Joy of Funerals; an anthology of blind date stories, Have I Got a Guy for You; and most recently, Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous, and the Notorious. Alix lives in Manhattan.
Isolde Brilliant is living life in captivity. She was a successful hedge fund manager, she had a devoted, if neurotic, husband, and a perfectly acceptable apartment in downtown Manhattan. But once Izzy's wish to become a mother finally comes true, she is laid off from her job, and her life turns to railing at her husband, becoming involved in her nanny's quest to get pregnant, and lusting after the rich, handsome guy who got away. As Izzy ponders her next move, her best friend announces that she is leaving her husband. "It's not that you get a seven-year itch, it's that they turn you into a seven-year bitch," she says. It's unavoidable. It isn't her fault. It happens to every married woman with a baby. Izzy tries to avoid a similar fate, but as her sex life with her husband rapidly declines and her fantasies involve becoming a widow, she begins to wonder if there might be some inescapable grain of truth in her friend's discouraging theory.
About Based Upon Availability
Meet Trish, a gallery owner obsessing over her best friend's wedding and dramatic weight loss; Robin, worn down by a lifetime of abuse by her older sister and forced to take revenge; Anne, a lonely, single woman suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder; Louise, a drug-addicted rock star sent to dry out by her equally famous publicist; Franny, a Southerner turned wannabe Manhattanite, envious of her neighbors' lives; Sheila, a single teacher driven to punish her boyfriend when he informs her that he's returning to his wife; and Ellen, a married woman desperate to have children. The thread that ties these women together is Morgan, a manager at the swanky Four Seasons in Manhattan. The hotel offers sanctuary to each, and while some find solace, others find only despair. "I've always had a love affair with hotels, and have longed to know what happens behind closed doors. I especially love the anonymity hotels offer," says Strauss. "The retreat from real life. The idea that you can be anyone from anywhere. And that once you're gone, the rooms are stripped down, wiped clean. All traces of you are erased, as if you'd never been there."
Jennifer Belle Belle burst onto the literary scene with her critically acclaimed novel Going Down, which was translated into many languages and optioned for the screen, first by Madonna. Her second equally-praised novel, the national bestseller High Maintenance, took on the cutthroat world of Manhattan real estate, and was also optioned for the screen, as was her third novel, the darkly comic Little Stalker. Belle's essays and stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Observer, The Independent Magazine (London), Cosmopolitan, Ms., Harper's Bazaar, and several anthologies. She lives in New York City and Olivebridge, New York with her husband and two sons.
Alix Strauss is a lifestyle trend writer for national talk shows. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, and other periodicals. She is the author of an award-winning collection of short stories, The Joy of Funerals; an anthology of blind date stories, Have I Got a Guy for You; and most recently, Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous, and the Notorious. Alix lives in Manhattan.
