Burning Down the House

By Merry McInerney and Merry McAnerney

Book Overview

Toby Dodge is happy to put her own life on hold while her husband writes The Great American Novel. During the day she works and he writes. At night, she edits what he's written. But when the novel hits the bestseller list he becomes a celebrity while she finds herself nudged into the background, and faced with the ugly fact that her man has no intention of standing by her.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812536517
• ISBN13: 9780812536515
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Forge
• Length: 337 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.5" x 1.3" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Wise, sad, funny...all the ingredients of a super read!

If you like Nora Ephron's Heartburn, you will love Merry McInerny's Burning Down the House: the sad first-person tale is told with humor and a barbed wit. Happily, her emotions never turn bitter, not even toward that frivolous, callous, shallow Blaze Regenhere, which is good, and which makes the humor feel at no one's expense. Reading the book, I felt like she was talking with me, the language is so warm and intimate. Smart, funny, sad--it's really a book about growing up and finding your own feet and your own space in the world. I loved it!!!!!!

Hilarious and Smart

MUCH better than Jay McInerny, this book is great. You will laugh (and you will understand why she left the creep). Slick and sharp and fun, READ THIS BOOK!

Dont have to be broken hearted no more...

I think she did a wonderfull job writing this book..She is a wonderfull person,and a beautiful writer...

"A Pen Warmed up in Hell"

In spite of the humor, this books smacks of bitterness and real pain. The author captures her characters alive; in fact, they are still kicking and screaming. McInerney is honest, perspicacious, and brutal. I think she writes with what Mark Twain once called, "A pen warmed up in hell." I picked up this book, oddly enough, because I was a fan of Jay McInerney. I was soon to discover that ex-wife's insight leaves his in the dust. Never again will I be able to read one of his books with a straight face.Diana

A finely crafted, highly intelligent first novel---a must

Merry McInerney has arrived gently on the literary scene with this exqusite novel of "great expectations" gone awry. Drawing on her philospher's backgound with its keen sense of observation and precise description, she has crafted a tale at once achingly poignant and side- splittingly funny...one can tell at once that the wit, insight, and craftmanship so often ascribed to another, more high profile, McInerney have their genesis here. For anyone who desires insight into the world of the Manhatten "glitterati" of the 1980's and, perhaps, why those bright lights are a now fitful glimmer this is a MUST READ.