The Engagements
Published on 15. August 2013
Book
Hardback
400 pages
978-1-84408-936-9 (ISBN)
Description
1947: Mary Frances Gerety, a young copywriter in an eminent advertising agency, has to convince the world of two things - that marriage means a diamond ring on every woman's finger, and that she is as good at her job as any man. And then, in one moment of brilliant inspiration, Mary Frances writes down four words which will achieve both her aims ...Moving from a Harvard swim-meet in 1927 to the three-martini lunches of 1940s advertising, from the back streets of 1980s Boston to an exquisite Parisian music shop in 2003, The Engagements is a novel about love, marriage, commitment and betrayal; it is as sharp, as fiery and as beautiful as the stone we have taken to represent our dreams.
Reviews / Votes
A perceptive portrait ... In Sullivan's easy, unadorned style, The Engagements is a delightful marriage of cultural research and literary entertainment ... Sullivan handles all the details elegantly, and the situations are surprisingly distinct ... For all her sharp wit and insight into the agony of failed relationships, Sullivan's no cynic. The novel's final wedding transcends the craziness and the extravagance and the bickering. Against all odds, it represents something genuinely eternal about the love between two people -- Ron Charles The Washington Post The Engagements is a rollicking, entertaining read and a thought-provoking one too. Several of the characters' voices have stayed in my head, and even days after putting it down I am left with a sturdy, hopeful sense of the fundamental goodwill of people and the abiding power of love ... [I] am certain it will be one of this summer's big hits -- Lindsey Mead Huffington Post The Engagements ... opens in 1947 with ad-agency copywriter Frances Gerety ... Struggling to find a last-minute tagline for De Beers, she scribbles down 'A Diamond Is Forever' and promptly falls asleep. For Frances, a lifelong bachelorette, it's just marketing - her boss points out that the phrase isn't even grammatically correct. But Engagements' other characters show how much her tossed-off idea came to define diamonds as the ultimate symbol of love and commitment ... [Sullivan is] a born storyteller. Like its mineral muse, Engagements shines -- Leah Greenblatt Entertainment WeeklyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Little, Brown Book Group
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 34 mm
Weight
668 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84408-936-9 (9781844089369)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Person
J. Courtney Sullivan is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels Commencement, Maine and The Engagements. Maine was named a Best Book of the Year by Time magazine and a Washington Post Notable Book for 2011. The Engagements was one of People Magazine's Top Ten Books of 2013 and an Irish Times Best Book of the Year. It is soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon and distributed by Fox 2000, and will be translated into 17 languages. Courtney's writing has also appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Chicago Tribune, New York magazine, Elle, Glamour, Allure, Real Simple and the New York Observer, among many others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.