Perfecttunes could not connect
"Brilliantly constructed and beautifully told, threaded with heartbreak, honesty and hope. With storytelling as intoxicating as it is intelligent, Rufi Thorpe has created a tragic and unflinching portrait of identity, a fascinating examination of our struggles to exist in our bodies, and an excruciatingly beautiful story of two humans aching for connection.
When Michael falls in love for the first time, a vicious strain of gossip circulates and a terrible, brutal act becomes the defining feature of both his and Bunny's futures-and of their friendship. At home and at school Michael pretends to be straight, but at night he tries to understand himself by meeting men online for anonymous encounters that both thrill and scare him. Even as she dreams of standing out and competing in the Olympics, she is desperate to fit in, to seem normal, and to get a boyfriend, all while hiding her father's escalating alcoholism. At six foot three, Bunny towers over their classmates. When Bunny catches Michael smoking in her yard, he discovers that her life is not as perfect as it seems. Michael-with a ponytail down his back and a septum piercing-lives with his aunt in the cramped stucco cottage next door. She rose to prominence at Gawker in its early years and has written for the New York Times, New York, The New Yorker, Bookforum, and many other publications.īunny Lampert is the princess of North Shore-beautiful, tall, blond, with a rich real-estate-developer father and a swimming pool in her backyard. With Ruth Curry, she runs Emily Books, which publishes books by women as an imprint of Coffee House Press. Now I want everyone I know to read this book and talk about it with me.” -ELIF BATUMANĮmily Gould is the author of the novel Friendship and the essay collection And the Heart Says Whatever. “Perfect Tunes is mind-blowing.Full of unspeakable insights, or at least I thought they were unspeakable, but there they are.
“Perfect Tunes is an intoxicating blend of music, love, and family from one of the essential writers of the internet generation.” -STEPHANIE DANLER I gulped it down, as will all mothers, New Yorkers, music fans, and lovers of quick-moving novels that are both funny and deep. “Perfect Tunes is a zippy and profound story of love, loss, heredity, and parenthood. But Marie won’t let her, and when she attempts to track down Dylan’s family, both mother and daughter are forced to confront the heartbreak at the root of their relationship.įunny, wise, and utterly immersive, Perfect Tunes explores the fault lines between parents and children, and asks whether dreams deferred can ever be reclaimed. Resemblance to the one she envisioned when she left Ohio all those years ago, and she’s taken pains to close the door on what was and what might have been. Laura has built a quiet life that bears little Their time together is stormy and short-lived- Dylan dies a few months into their relationship-but will reverberate for theįlash forward fourteen years: Laura’s daughter, Marie, is asking questions about the father she never knew, questions that Laura does not want to answer.
A songwriter with a one-of-a-kind talent, she’s just beginning to book gigs when she falls hard for Dylan, a troubled but magnetic musician whose star is on the rise. It’s the early days of the new millennium, and Laura has arrived in New York City’s East Village with the hopes of recording her first album.