Private Means Cree LeFavour
A deliciously compulsive first novel from New York Times Editor\u2019s Choice author of Lights On, Rats Out, Cree LeFavour\u2019s Private Means captures the very essence of summer in a sharply observed, moving meditation on marriage, money, and loss.
It\u2019s Memorial Day weekend and Alice\u2019s beloved dog Maebelle has been lost. Alice stays in New York, desperate to find her dog, while her husband Peter drives north to stay with friends in the Berkshires. Relieved to be alone, Alice isn\u2019t sure if she should remain married to Peter but she\u2019s built a life with him. For his part, Peter is pleased to have time alone\u2015he\u2019s tired of the lost dog drama, of Alice\u2019s coolness, of New York. A psychiatrist, he ponders his patients and one, particularly attractive, woman in particular. As the summer unfolds, tensions rise as Alice and Peter struggle with infidelity, loneliness, and loss. Escaping the heat of New York City to visit wealthy friends in the Hamptons, on Cape Cod and in the Berkshires, each continues to play his or her part in the life they\u2019ve chosen together. By the time Labor Day rolls around, a summer that began with isolation has transformed into something else entirely.
Matching keen observations on human behavior with wry prose, Private Means, with its sexy, page-turning plot, will draw fans of Nora Ephron and Meg Wolitzer. At once dark, funny, sad and suspenseful, LeFavour\u2019s debut is a rare find: a tart literary indulgence with depth and intelligence.