Our Favorite Writers Recount the Most Romantic Things They’ve Ever Read
Maris Kreizman, author of Slaughterhouse 90210 (forthcoming)
Mating Norman Rush
“Causing active ongoing pleasure in your mate is something people tend to restrict to the sexual realm or getting attractive food on the table on time, but keeping permanent intimate comedy going is more important than any other one thing.”
The narrator of Norman Rush’s novel, Mating, is a wayward postgrad student who is both tremendously intelligent and I-wanna-grab-her-by-the-shoulders-and-shake-her foolish. Her intensive research into her own relationship with a charismatic anthropologist is often misguided, but that one particular observation really stuck with me. “Permanent intimate comedy” sounds like the romantic ideal, equal parts snug and sexy.