Shelf Discovery

by Lizzie Skurnick

  Domestic Arrangements’ Tatiana Engleberg, who lives with her long-legged soap-actress mom and documentary-director dad, is one of my favorite Klein characters. She’s not explicitly sophisticated—in fact, she’s mildly giggly and innocent, to the irritation of her older sister, Deel—but she still manages to have innocent, unremarkable sex in the first few pages of the novel (“Then we studied a bit and then we fucked and then we went to sleep”), to the great consternation of her father and to the mild delight of her mother, who seems to welcome her daughter’s sexual awakening at the same time she’s decided to break out of her own tired marital bubble.

  In the course of the novel, Tatiana also manages to star in a film (nude!), get put on the cover of People magazine, carry on a relationship with her increasingly jealous boyfriend, Joshua, witness the dalliances of both of her parents, then lie in the arms of a naked gay man whom she finds hot, kissing, while on a jaunt to L.A. It’s not hard to imagine what any director would do today with such explosive material—and it seems certain that the notions of scandal and intrigue would enter the picture. But what’s most remarkable about Domestic Arrangements is not only how ordinary Tatiana is, but how free the world around her is of any of the notions we take for granted today—irony, image control, the selling of sexuality. (A director takes her to a tennis court to see how she jiggles around, then patiently explains, “If you’re a movie star, you’re going to be the subject of a lot of men’s fantasies.”) It might seem strange to long for a time when a pervy director could perve without being pervy rather than long for, say, a time when we all just talked to each other across the room for a few months, then asked our parents if we could got married. But that’s why what Klein does is revolutionary. Not only does she write the go-to manual for love and sex. She manages, like whoever that dude is who wrote the Bible, to make it innocent again.

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks first to my mother, who always bought me the books I wanted, let me borrow hers, and rarely let people wandering into the house steal mine. Laura, you are a wonderful friend as well as the strange guidelight of my career. (Shine on, bright and dangerous object!) Thanks to the spectacular Casey and Barrie and my singular sister Miriam for libraries, loans, and crucial memories. (Summer. Of. Fear.) Thanks to my wonderful agent Kate Lee and my editor Carrie Feron, who always listen to me, and to Tessa Woodward for her hard work. Endless thank-yous to cousin Victoria, who supports me, sponsors me, and takes me to dinner. And last, thanks to all the Fine Lines readers whose stunning insights, polite corrections, and constant commentary have made creating this work both a privilege and a delight.

  About the Author

  LIZZIE SKURNICK has written on books and culture extensively for the New York Times Book Review, Times Sunday Styles, the LA Times, NPR.org, The Washington Post and many other publications. Her blog, Old Hag, was a Forbes Best of the Web pick. Look for Shelf Discovery on Facebook.

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  By Lizzie Skurnick

  SHELF DISCOVERY:

  TEEN CLASSICS WE NEVER STOPPED READING

  Credits

  Cover photograph by Jose Luis Pelaez/Getty Images

  Copyright

  SHELF DISCOVERY. Copyright © 2009 by Elizabeth Skurnick. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Adobe Digital Edition June 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-187866-4

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