A Disturbance in One Place: A Novel

by Binnie Kirshenbaum

Book Overview

Brazen and given to transgressions, the narrator of this mordantly witty novel is an aloof, tough talking, married Manhattan woman who carries on three affairs simultaneously, blithely breaking seven... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060520884
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Ecco
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

A Disturbance in One Place

What can I say? This book is as close to perfect as anything I've read in a long time. This is the most in depth, complex, well written novel dealing with female sexuality and emotional isolation that I have ever read. Ever. Every time I think about this book I want to read it again, immediately.

I Want to Be the Narrator--Fantastic Book

I adore the narrator of this book. True, in some ways, she's lonely and feels like an outsider, but then, this is America, who doesn't feel this way, at least 50% of the time. I love the narrator because she is so smooth, such a great player, and even though her intent is not to play people, the men in her life sometimes feel played anyway, but more because they are playng themselves. She has a husband, two lovers, and a love of her life who compares her to a garden-variety snake, "A brief chase and you're easily enough caught. Still, you'll never get warmer than room temperature." This is not to say she's not a hotty in bed, it's just emotionally, she doesn't get sucked into faux-love based on good or bad sex or the loneliness of others. She just does exactly what she wants to, perfectly unconcerned about conventional morality. Clearly, Kirshenbaum has a profound understanding of men and more disturbingly, the human condition. Though the narrator, herself, realizes fulfullment cannot be achieved by collecting lovers--there is no suggestion that there is any better way, either. Ultimately, the implication is not that there's something wrong with the narrator, but rather, that ultimately, life is lonely and there is no cure--only treatments.Kirshenbaum often deals with the theme of profound loneliness, but like Conrad, she offers no solutions. She offers it as a condition of life, and for those who would pass judgment on the narrator's lifestyle, ultimately she reveals herself not as a "puttanta" but as a Christ- figure, suffering the loneliness of the world. Fantastic book.

A real sexy read!

Both lyrical and sensitive this book has a whole new outlook on adultery and its motives!A must for all husbands who wonder what their wives are doing in their afternoons.

A promiscuous woman's funny and sad search for fulfillment.

What a read! A Disturbance in One Place is hysterically funny-and yet, an abyss opens up underneath almost every sentence. This novel is profound without any of the pretense so often found in "literary novels." It is hugely entertaining, sexy, and seemingly carefree, but at the same time expresses a loneliness and self-destruction that is heartbreaking and leaves a longing that can't be filled by stock answers. In short, the book is also refreshingly politically incorrect. Norman Mailer, not known for his sensitive ear for "women's lit," praised the book for its "candor, lack of self-protection, and humor." Right on!

Being passionate and lost - that's what it is about.....

I absolutely loved this wonderfully emotional and somewhat dark story of a young Jewish New Yorker, who is exploring her world through friendship,love and lust. She is so confident, but can not understand herself at times. She is loving and heartless. She is a chameleon, but a sincere one... It's not your average erotic fiction. There is a lot to think about after reading it.