This is a hardback that Janny loaned to me.
Although still an engaging read, this was my least favorite of Berg's novels.
PREMISE:
Patty has been in love with Ethan since they were children. The problem is that Ethan is gay.
Patty is getting older and is fixated on marriage and having children.
Patty convinces Ethan that they should have a child together and try to live as husband and wife.
They move from where they live in Massachusetts to Minneapolis. Ethan believes that he requires a new place to 'try out' his heterosexuality.
Robert and Marilyn are her parents and the baby is named Marilyn, in honor of Patty's mother who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's
Elaine- Patty's closest friend.
Mark is a man that Elaine tried to hook up with Patty. Patty isn't attracted to him, and later Mark marries Elaine.
Sophia- Patty's foreign neighbor who has a 'convoluted sense of the English language'.
In the end of the novel Patty is with her baby and living in a cottage by the sea (Massachusetts?). Ethan has a lover, Louis, and although Patty is alone she is hopeful for the future and grateful for all that she has.
From the book's page at Google Books:
"Patty Murphy is facing that pivotal point in a woman's life when her biological clock ticks as insistently as a beating heart. Will she find Mr Right and start a family? But Patty is in love - with a man who is not only attractive and financially sound, but sensitive and warmhearted. There's just one small problem: He is also gay. Against her better judgment, and pleas from family and friends, Patty refuses to give up on Ethan. Every man she dates ultimately leaves her aching for the gentle comfort and intimacy she shares with him. But even as she throws eligible bachelors to the wayside to spend yet another platonic night with Ethan, Patty longs more and more for the consolation of loving and being loved. In the meantime she must content herself with waiting - until the real thing comes along."
I wondered if there was a backlash from the gay community. Wouldn't gays be offended if a novel presented a homosexual character forcing himself to 'act straight'?
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