Eleanor Rushing: An Extremely Controversial Dark Comedy

The FIRST of two Eleanor Rushing books, each a cockeyed (but charming) literary venture by Kindle bestselling author Patty Friedmann. Honors for Eleanor Rushing —Original Voices —BookSense 76 “Intriguing and touching…One finishes [Eleanor Rushing] impressed by Friedmann’s compassion for human frailty." -Publishers Weekly “Friedmann's latest subject is brilliant, bitterly funny, and deeply scary ... the reader is seduced by that willful voice, wavering between shock and grudging admiration at Friedmann's high-wire balancing act. And laughing all the way." -The New Orleans Times-Picayune ***WARNING*** To open these pages is not to enter Disneyland! Before you purchase ELEANOR RUSHING, please be aware that, while loved by many, it is an extremely controversial work of black humor. One reviewer "Not what I was expecting & the theme & tone of the story was dark/disturbed." Heed this man's words! This reviewer was also "Very interesting with a twist. Though it's not for everyone, it sure grasps the attention for the right audience." Yes, a twist! If you need bluebirds and honeymoons, seek entertainment elsewhere. A tour de force whose heroine falls somewhere between the southern elegance of Walker Percy and the zany black comedy of THE CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES . It might also be called "Diary of a Stalker." Surrounded by the splendor and excess of old money in New Orleans, Eleanor Rushing is a wry and witty young woman who first locks eyes with the love of her life at a City Council meeting—or so we’re led to believe. What starts as an innocuous infatuation with Dr. Maxim Walters, a Methodist minister who just so happens to be married, quickly turns into obsessive she orchestrates an automobile accident outside his house, stuffs envelopes at his church, follows him on a business venture, sets up camp in the tools shed in his backyard… Eleanor’s voice is both acutely perceptive and macabrely unhinged. She considers herself blessed with the ability to “remember everything,” except that her recollections and impressions seem to be at odds with everyone around her. As her “relationship” with Dr. Walters begins to spin frantically out of control, we can't help being her willing and faithful admirers. Magnificently showcases Friedmann's touted powers of psychological acuity and laugh-out-loud black humor . Who will like Fans of THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS; dark humorists like Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Moore—and of course the hometown favorite, John Kennedy Toole. " A dazzling novel , capturing that complex mix of lightness and darkness that is New Orleans." -Robert Olen Butler “Expertly, gracefully, Patty Friedmann overlays topographies of loss and desire, reality and delusion , making fiction as strange—and as sad and funny—as truth." -Kathryn Harrison, Author of The Kiss I think it is impossible to change the world unless you are truly evil and so mad for control you never sleep. And it’s ridiculous to try to change yourself at all. Scientists have studied identical twins who feel pain in the gut at the same time, as if everything were laid out from the moment they were conceived. Sometimes I figure all you can do is watch yourself, as if you’re viewing a simple, dull film; eventually you find out what was going to happen. Unless death catches you by surprise. So I go to City Council meetings. I haven’t missed one in four years, not even for a case of B-type influenza... Sitting in those meetings is the only way I can pretend to feel any breezes of serendipity. Somewhere between the global and the personal, they play out the grandest battles of silliness.