Description

A lady embarks on a stunning new stage in her lifestyle after getting a sprawling estate and its huge assortment of taxidermy.Pulitzer Award finalist Lydia Millet is "among the most acclaimed writers of her generation" (Scott Timberg, Los Angeles Times). Salon recognized her for writing that's "usually perfectly beautiful, achieving for an event that precedes language itself." The Village Voice included, "If Kurt Vonnegut were still living, he'd be exceedingly envious." This spectacular new book provides Susan Lindley, a lady adrift after her husband’s dying and the dissolution of her household. Starting on a brand new stage in her lifestyle after getting her uncle’s expansive estate and its huge assortment of taxidermy, Susan decides to displace the forgotten, moth-eaten pet brackets, maintaining “the hair and feathers, the beaks, the bones and glistening tails.” Meanwhile an equally derelict individual menagerie—including an unfaithful spouse and a refrain of odd aged women—joins her in home. In an environment equally ridiculous and marvelous, Leslie examines the mansion’s unfamiliar areas and protects her heritage from relatives. Humorous and tragic, Magnificence explores disintegration and development, motherhood and kids, reduction and thought.