Elroy Nights by Frederick Barthelme

From the Publisher

Elroy and his wife, Clare, elect to try living separately, a choice characteristic of their relationship-fond, thoughtful, generous to a fault, and more than a little cracked. So Elroy leases a high-rise beach condo, begins hanging out with his twenty-something students, and experiences a splendid re-enchantment with the world. With his trademark precision and pitch-perfect dialogue, Barthelme elegantly lays open this interweaving of twenty-year olds with their fifty-something fellow traveler. The result is a lovely, lilting romance, and a spare yet generous masterpiece from a writer at the top of his form.

Author Biography: Frederick Barthelme is the author of twelve books of fiction, and the co-author with his brother, Steven, of the memoir Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss. He directs the writing program at the University of Southern Mississippi and edits the literary journal Mississippi Review.

The New York Times

Barthelme's world is vague and unclear. Conversations dead-end, spousal jabs go unanswered, Elroy and Freddie's relationship never evolves into anything defined. Still, currents of hope run through Elroy Nights. Elroy and Clare's relationship contains remarkable moments of kindness -- not in showy grand scenes but in small gestures, in bitten tongues, in the silent lowering of expectations. — Bruce Barcott

Publishers Weekly

This slight story of midlife crisis and fantasy romance follows Barthelme's familiar path along the southern Gulf Coast. Elroy Nights is a 50-something art professor at a small, third-rate Mississippi university. Amicably separated from his wife, Clare, he fills his otherwise solitary life with occasional visits or dinner at Clare's when her grown daughter Winter is there. When Winter brings home Freddie, a free spirit of a girl who will be Elroy's student in the coming term, Elroy is instantly smitten. But the affair into which they casually fall leads to tragedy for their friends and near disaster for them. As Elroy ambles along, attempting to rediscover his youth by hanging out with his students, drinking and smoking again, taking impromptu road trips and listening to collegiate wisdom, he narrates his adventures, such as they are, but remains little more than a hazy collection of half-formed impressions. None of the other characters ever quite emerges as three-dimensional, either. The story is too precious and whimsical by half; no events-be they deaths, shootings or divorce talks-leave much of a mark. Through it all, Elroy observes and questions ("I thought it would be great to be inside somebody else's head for a while, to hear the noise in there," he thinks about Freddie), striving halfheartedly to regain his bearings. Barthelme's 13th work of fiction-with its slight romance and unexceptional protagonist-may disappoint fans of his earlier work. Regional author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

For his ninth novel, Barthelme remains in the suburban New South, covering familiar territory. A middle-aged professor-the eponymous Elroy-moves out (sort of) from the house he shared with his wife of 15 years to find himself in the spareness and solitude of a condo in a complex called Windswept. Elroy narrates his marital ambivalence, sexual reawakening, and experiences as a teacher and parent in a confiding, expository, and almost documentary style that suits the banality of his midlife reflections (e.g., "Turns out kids are resilient" and "Perhaps being married is just a better way of being alone"). He spends his nights partying with his twentysomething art students in and around Biloxi, MS. Apart from Elroy's awkward trysts with his stepdaughter's 22-year-old friend (a girl named Freddie), only two salient events occur in about 200 pages, both sudden and violent. Underdeveloped characters and unconvincing dialog make this an optional selection for larger collections of contemporary Southern fiction. [Frederick Barthelme is the brother of the late Donald Barthelme, an influential experimental fiction writer.-Ed.]-Mark Andr Singer, Mechanics' Inst. Lib., San Francisco Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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