The Family Man

By Elinor Lipman
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), Hardcover, 9780618644667, 305pp.)

Publication Date: May 2009

Other Editions of This Title: Paperback (April 7, 2010), Large Print (September 2009)

Categories: Humorous, Literary

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Selected by Indie Booksellers for the June 2009 Indie Notables
“The Family Man is a charming, funny tale of a gay father reconnecting with his hapless ex-wife and aspiring actress stepdaughter. Witty and urbane, Lipman's latest showcases endearing characters and a storyline that satirizes our fascination with celebrity while it reassures us of the endurance of love and good intentions.”
-- Linda Bubon, Women & Children First, Chicago, IL


Description
Ahysterical phone call from his ex-wife and a familiar face in a photograph upend Henry Archer's wellordered life. They bring him back into contact with the child he adored, a short-term stepdaughter from a misbegotten marriage long ago. Henry is a lawyer, an old-fashioned man, gay, successful, lonely. Thalia is now twenty-nine, an actresshopeful, estranged from her newly widowed crackpot mother-- Denise, Henry's ex. Hoping it will lead to better things for her career, Thalia agrees to pose as the girlfriend of a former sitcom star and current horror-movie luminary who is down on his romantic luck. When Thalia and her complicated social life move into the basement of Henry's Upper West Side townhouse, she finds a champion in her long-lost father, and he finds new life--and maybe even new love--in the commotion.