Catalyst
Subtitle: a novel
By: Jennifer Ball.
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 267
Description: Shelby, a born rebel with a talent for entertaining others, is a deliverer of singing telegrams - the only practical job her theater major prepared her for. But beneath the glamour of playing Wonder Woman and the Indignity of wearing an inflatable banana, Shelby fears that despite her eccentric attempts to rejuvenate it, her life has become a series of ten-minute spots of entertainment for people who don't appreciate her.

Her marriage to her chemist husband Max has lost its spark, and her home life sometimes seems to be as much an act as her telegram deliveries.

Her bathroom falling into the basement, drunk men hitting on her, and her husband's preoccupation with a possible scandal at the chemistry lab only reinforce her feeling that she's spinning out of control. To complicate matters even more, Shelby realizes that the only thrill in her days is her growing attraction to Hadley, her husband's best friend and colleague.

Accidents and the possibility of fraud in Max and Hadley's chemistry lab become the catalyst of their lives, throwing Hadley, Max, and Shelby into physically and emotionally dangerous proximity, forcing them to make hard choices about morality, futures, friendship, and marriage.