Lump
Published on 28. September 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-1-4597-5128-6 (ISBN)
Description
A dark, satiric novel about a woman whose attempt to escape crises in her health and marriage ends up causing more chaos.
Cat's career has stalled, her marriage has gone flat, and being a stay-at-home mom for two young kids has become a grind. When she finds out, all within a few days, that she is pregnant, that a lump in her breast is the worst thing it could be, and that her husband has done something unforgivably repulsive, she responds by running away from her marriage and her life - a life that, on the outside, looks like middle-class success. Her actions send waves of chaos through the lives of multiple characters, including a struggling house cleaner, a rich and charismatic yoga guru, and even an ailing dog. What follows is a dark comedy about marriage, motherhood, privilege, and power.
A RARE MACHINES BOOK
Cat's career has stalled, her marriage has gone flat, and being a stay-at-home mom for two young kids has become a grind. When she finds out, all within a few days, that she is pregnant, that a lump in her breast is the worst thing it could be, and that her husband has done something unforgivably repulsive, she responds by running away from her marriage and her life - a life that, on the outside, looks like middle-class success. Her actions send waves of chaos through the lives of multiple characters, including a struggling house cleaner, a rich and charismatic yoga guru, and even an ailing dog. What follows is a dark comedy about marriage, motherhood, privilege, and power.
A RARE MACHINES BOOK
Reviews / Votes
Lump is both a page-turner and a disquieting and complex take on marriage, illness, and privilege. Whitlock is wry, smart, and never boring. * Zoe Whittall, author of The Best Kind of People * Parenthood, money, marriage, illness - everyday mini-tragedies morph into snort-worthy comedy when put under Nathan Whitlock's microscope. Lump drives in shivs of self-recognition on every page, along with lines you'll want to share with the stranger sitting next to you on the subway. * Andrew Pyper, author of The Residence * In Lump, things fall completely, often hilariously, apart for a seemingly perfect Toronto family. With a keen eye and plenty of verve and humour, Nathan Whitlock peels back the facades of a cast of urbanites to reveal messy truths, ugly appetites, and highly questionable decision-making. * Elyse Friedman, author of The Opportunist * You might call Nathan Whitlock's sense of humour the gallows kind: he readily locates the brutal and exposes its ridiculous underside. * Winnipeg Review, for Congratulations On Everything *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 213 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
363 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4597-5128-6 (9781459751286)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Nathan Whitlock is the author of the novels A Week of This and Congratulations On Everything. His work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, The Walrus, The Globe and Mail, Best Canadian Essays, and elsewhere. He lives with his family in Hamilton, Ontario.