description: A novel that concerns adultery between a married Jewish architect and an almost-divorced poet--in Berkeley, no less--had better have a sense of humor about its subject. Fortunately, The Physics of Sunset does. Yes, Jane Vandenburgh populates her tale with characters named Alec and Gina and Carlo and Veronique; yes, they all have glamorous occupations such as poet and painter and experimental musician; and, yes, they dine at Chez Pannisse. But into the mix, the author stirs a bracing dollop of irony and not a little satire. Take, for example, this commentary on Berkeley What one did in order to demonstrate that you were a successful Berkeley couple, Anna noticed, was manage to stay together long enough to get the family's portrait done by Elizabeth Smythe and therefore have irrefutable evidence. And then there are the chapter titles--spiky little headings, such as "Technically Daylight" or "Suicide Haiku" or "Schmutz," that add a frisson of anticipation of what is to follow. What does follow is the history of two marriages, and the point where they intersect. Architect Alec Baxter and his wife, Gina, have entered a lull in their relationship; Gina, an artist, has become so involved in her latest venture, Video Family , that "her love for this project--she called it 'Bungalow'--was so intense, her love for her own family paled by comparison." Though Alec is proud of his wife and of her dedication, he is also beginning to think "vaguely of other women." Enter poet Anna Shay, a neighbor whose own marriage to her musician husband, Charlie, is on the rocks. Over a period of years, Alec and Anna--both East Coast transplants to Berkeley--are drawn to each other and finally into an affair that threatens to shatter the careful balance each has achieved in life. Though The Physics of Sunset is not a particularly long book, Vandenburgh doesn't rush Anna and Alec--or the reader--into this affair. Instead she carefully lays the groundwork, introducing us to her protagonists' pasts, to their friends and passions and preoccupations, before finally allowing them to indulge in some very kinky sexual adventuring. Indeed, one could describe this book as an erotic novel for intellectuals, for in between the graphic love scenes are meditations on subjects as diverse as physics, architecture, and ethnography. In her second novel, Jane Vandenburgh has taken an old subject and given it a uniquely imagined new twist. --Alix Wilber
language: English
title: The Physics of Sunset Galley with Color Covers
titlecomplete: The Physics of Sunset Galley with Color Covers
genres: Fiction
ratings_count: 30
publisher: Pantheon Books