Overview

From the acclaimed author of Her First American, a 'charming novel disguised as a book of short stories,' (The New York Times Book Review) exploring belonging, connection, intimacy, and self-acceptance. The thirteen interconnected stories of Shakespeare's Kitchen capture the universal longing for friendship, how we achieve new intimacies for ourselves, and how slowly, inexplicably, we lose them. Featuring seven short stories that originally appeared in The New Yorker, including the O. Henry Prizewinning 'The Reverse Bug,' and including six additional pieces, Lore Segal's stunning collection 'exhibits a rare insight into the human character' (Publishers Weekly). Called 'an enchanting storyteller' by The Los Angeles Times, Segal unravels a web of human relationships as we meet Ilka Weisz, who, having accepted a teaching position at the Concordance Institute, a Connecticut think tank, reluctantly leaves her New York circle of friends. After the comedy of her struggle to meet new people, Ilka comes to embrace, and be embraced by, a new set of acquaintances, including the institute's director, Leslie Shakespeare, and his wife, Eliza. Through a series of memorable dinner parties, picnics, Sunday brunches, and long hours of kitchen conversation, Segal evokes the subtle drama and humour of an outsider's loneliness, the comfort and charm of familiar companionship, the bliss of being in love, and the strangeness of our behaviour in the face of other people's deaths. A magnificent, wholly original 'comedy of manners set in academic' (Booklist), Shakespeare's Kitchen is 'filled with all the pomp and depressed glory of a modern day The Great Gatsby...' these vignettes are hilarious and telling. Segal exhibits a rare insight into the human character that is at once humbling and shamelessly enjoyable to behold"" (Publishers Weekly).

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Reviews

Praise for Shakespeare's Kitchen: ""[A] charming novel disguised as a book of short stories. . . . In Segal's world, a world where domestic tragedies occur against the backdrop of historic human cruelty, people tend to behave badly not out of a perverted sense of ambition or power but from a deep need for attachment and belonging. . . . Lore Segal is an astute and gentle observer."" --The New York Times Book Review ""As the stories unspool and intertwine, one realizes that only in the hands of a master do a few vaguely defined characters and themes create such an exquisite tapestry. . . . The cumulative power of Shakespeare's Kitchen lies in Segal's dazzling ability to merge the mundane details of life--a missing pencil sharpener, a tipped-over garbage can--with the arc of human emotions."" --The Washington Post ""Shakespeare's Kitchen is a delicate and droll examination of a topic you don't often encounter in American fiction: intimate friendship between consenting adults. . . . Segal is an enchanting storyteller."" --Los Angeles Times ""Filled with all the pomp and depressed glory of a modern-day Great Gatsby. . . . These vignettes are hilarious and telling. Segal exhibits a rare insight into the human character that is at once humbling and shamelessly enjoyable to behold."" --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Praise for Shakespeare's Kitchen: ""[A] charming novel disguised as a book of short stories. . . . In Segal's world, a world where domestic tragedies occur against the backdrop of historic human cruelty, people tend to behave badly not out of a perverted sense of ambition or power but from a deep need for attachment and belonging. . . . Lore Segal is an astute and gentle observer."" --The New York Times Book Review ""As the stories unspool and intertwine, one realizes that only in the hands of a master do a few vaguely defined characters and themes create such an exquisite tapestry. . . . The cumulative power of Shakespeare's Kitchen lies in Segal's dazzling ability to merge the mundane details of life--a missing pencil sharpener, a tipped-over garbage can--with the arc of human emotions."" --The Washington Post ""Shakespeare's Kitchen is a delicate and droll examination of a topic you don't often encounter in American fiction: intimate friendship between consenting adults. . . . Segal is an enchanting storyteller."" --Los Angeles Times ;Segal's crystalline prose elevates even the most banal workaday details into art."" --Entertainment Weekly ""Sharply perceptive, enchanting, and touching."" --People ""A surprising and gratifying treat for literary fiction readers. . . . Highly recommended."" --Library Journal ""Filled with all the pomp and depressed glory of a modern-day Great Gatsby. . . . These vignettes are hilarious and telling. Segal exhibits a rare insight into the human character that is at once humbling and shamelessly enjoyable to behold."" --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Author Information

Lore Segal (19282024), author of Other People's HousesandHer First American(both published by The New Press), among other works, was the recipient of a New Yorker Best Book of the Year Award, an O. Henry Prize, the Clifton Fadiman Medal, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She was a regular contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, and other publications.

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