Description
A novel of unsurpassed candor, punctuated by bold ruminations on love, marriage, family, sex, gender, and relationships, 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love depicts one womans psychological descent into sexual captivity. This is the story of the extremes to which she will go to achieve erotic bliss?and of her struggle to regain her soul.
As Daphne Merkins audacious new novel opens, a wife and mother looks back at the moment when her life as a young book editor is upended by a casual encounter with an intriguing man who seems to intuit her every thought.
Convinced shes found the one, Judith Stone succumbs to the push and pull of her sexual entanglement with Howard Rose, constantly seeking his attention and approval. That is, until she realizes that beneath his erotic obsession with her, Howard is intent on obliterating any sense of self she possesses. As Merkin writes, his was the allure of remoteness, affection edged in ice. Escaping Howards grasp?and her own perverse enjoyment of being under his control?will test the limits of Judiths capacity to resist the siren call of submission.
Narrated by Judith in a time before the #MeToo movement, 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love charts the persistent hold the past has on us and the way it shapes our present.
Author Information
Daphne Merkin is the author of several books, including the essay collection The Fame Lunches and the memoir This Close to Happy. She is a former staff writer for The New Yorker, and she is widely published in The New York Times, Bookforum, Travel + Leisure, W, Vogue, Elle, and other publications. She has taught writing at the 92nd Street Y, Marymount College, and Hunter College. She lives in New York City.
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