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Envy
A Novel
by Kathryn Harrison


9.0

based on 15 reviews
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Official Publisher Site

Sex, family and betrayal--lots and lots of betrayal--run through this novel that centers on a 40-something married New Yorker who encounters an old flame at a college reunion.

Random House, 320 pages
07/12/2005
$24.95

ISBN: 1400063469

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Publishers Weekly

Juicy and intelligent.

New York Observer Daniel Asa Rose

After reading it, I felt guilty and chastened both, as though I'd not only cheated on my wife but gotten my comeuppance, too. Mind what beach you read this on. [18 July 2005, pg. 21]

Boston Globe Diane White

Envy is a masterfully constructed, insightful novel of psychosexual suspense that explores the destructive power of loss, betrayal, guilt, and envy.

Boston Globe Sandra Shea

An engaging, beautifully written story.

Chicago Sun-Times Sally Duros

[In Envy] there are secrets, and we see new secrets being created -- sizzling sexual secrets. The more Will struggles in his situation, the tighter the noose, the greater his immobilization, until the rope of events snaps and the story reaches an unexpected -- albeit slightly unsatisfactory -- resolution.

Salon Amy Reiter

Unusually potent, repellent and compelling at the same time.

Kirkus Reviews

Harrison's... measured, matter-of-fact prose gives each perverse twist of her pulpish plot a nasty kick.

Library Journal Beth E. Anderson

Compulsively readable and deeply disturbing. [15 June 2005, p. 58]

Chicago Tribune Art Winslow

Where Oedipus meets Freud, that's where you'll find Harrison. [10 July 2005, pg. 4]

The New York Times Book Review Emily Nussbaum

[Envy] is like one of those souvenir 1950's pens that tilt upside down to strip an innocent cheesecake model to her pornographic double, and Harrison's witty, lucid, poetic sentences do carry us quite a long way through passages rife with the kind of ickiness bound to alienate some readers and rivet others.

Los Angeles Times Jane Ciabattari

[Harrison's] sixth novel mixes incest, obsession, family secrets and betrayal into a toxic quagmire. [10 July 2005, pg. R12]

Village Voice Joy Press

[A] well-written but deeply frustrating novel.

Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese

Harrison has some admirably creepy plot twists up her sleeve -- and some extremely nasty sex scenes -- though she fails to knit them together convincingly.

San Francisco Chronicle Jennie Yabroff

Envy is a claustrophobic, overheated book.

Washington Post Charles Taylor

A smugness infects Envy right down to its we're-stronger-for-having-passed-through-the-pain finale.

The average user rating for this book is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
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Envy A Novel by Kathryn Harrison

Envy
A Novel
by Kathryn Harrison