On
Mermaid Avenue
On Mermaid Avenue is a fresh and captivating novel about the extraordinary friendship between Edie and Monarose, two unforgettable young women, flitting around New York, having themselves a grand time.. They seem to have no attachments except to each other; everyone and everything else serves only as fuel for their contained and imaginative games.
The men they become involved with are an odd lot, ranging from a boy who seems to live nowhere, to a Soviet delegate from the United Nations, to a particularly banal specimen of his gender whom the two girls seduce consecutively. The best part to any love affair is when it is over, and the two girls can rehash it and chalk it up to no great loss. But why then does Edie claim to be obsessed with finding true love, the one boy who will save her? Monarose refuses to acknowledge that this may point to some misery beneath the carefree, happy-go-lucky facade.
Yet when Edie pairs up with the ultimate phony of a man, insisting she wants nothing more than to marry him, we wonder, along with Monarose, whether Edie is really going to abandon her and the life they have together, or is this wedding Edie's biggest scheme ever?
Praise for On Mermaid Avenue
"Kirshenbaum's writing is crisp and clever, and her story zips along, a frothy, quirky tale of urban chic female bonding...A small, surprisingly memorable pleasure." —Library Journal
"A nifty variation on the loss-of-innocence theme....sure-handed, a bright, comic trinket." —The Boston Globe
"Kirshenbaum's writing is swift and witty...with lots of pizzazz." —New York Newday
"Quirky and delightful...original and witty...The fact that things are never exactly what they seem adds depth and insight to this whimsical, enchanting first novel." —The San Francisco Chronicle
"This rollicking first novel...offers the kind of hilarious, often poignant life knowledge that should be required for Mensa membership." —Publishers Weekly
Kirshenbaum's writing is brash and breezy....But the search for identity is ultimately serious business. Kirshenbaum's exploration of the nuances and failures of friendship gives the rollicking humor of her story a satisfying poignancy." —York County Coast Star
"Funny, affecting and refreshingly free of those soaps opera, box, and powder that so often sully novels about women's lives." —The Plain Dealer
"(A) hugely entertaining romp of a novel about two female friends who refuse to grow up." —Cosmopolitan