Time's a Thief

A Novel

De: B. G. Firmani

Narrado por: Emily Rankin

Eighties New York springs to gritty, vibrant life in this piercingly romantic and compulsively listenable coming-of-age novel. A beautiful, sad, funny, altogether bewitching debut.

Francesca "Chess" Varani is an ultra-bright, sassy, but vulnerable Barnard freshwoman from a blue-collar background in the vibrantly gritty New York City of the mid-'80s. She strikes up a volatile and somewhat toxic friendship with drama-queen classmate Kendra Marr-Löwenstein and falls into the bewitching orbit of her Salingeresque, high-toned family. Upon graduation she moves into the Marr-Löwenstein house in the West Village as a secretary/girl-of-all-work to the soignèe literary intellectual Clarice Marr (think Susan Sontag but blondly coiffed and dressed in Chanel) and receives the sentimental education and emotional roughing up New York bestows on all of its new arrivals - including a love affair with Clarice's glamorously damaged son, Jerry.

The story is related by Chess in sadder but wiser fashion from the distance of a financially beset 2008 and the depths of a crap job taken of necessity, tinged with the poignancy of time and choices made and not made.

©2017 B. G. Firmani (P)2017 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Firmani really captures the grit and promise of 1980s New York, with too many cigarettes and dingy punk shows, when it was both unusual and magical for kids to come...for school.... A leisurely exploration of character and place that, when you connect to Chess, packs a wallop." ( Booklist)

Not a big fan

If you attended Barnard College, you may like this book a lot. Despite a lot of good description, it lacked a good story line, in my opinion. It was well written, though.

Returned after 1st chapter

I love Emily Rankin.... but was very disappointed. The story has a heavy political undertone and has several comments that are religiously insensitive. Returned after the first chapter. No thanks. I like to read for enjoyment. This was no fun at all.