Author:Howard Jacobson
Marvin Kreitman, the luggage baron of South London, lives for sex. Or at least he lives for women. At present he loves four women - his mother, his wife Hazel, and his two daughters - and is in love with five more. Charlie Merriweather, on the other hand, nice Charlie, loves just the one woman, also called Charlie, the wife with whom he has been writing children's books and having nice sex for twenty years. Once a week the two friends meet for a Chinese lunch, contriving never quite to have the conversation they would like to have - about fidelity and womanising, and which makes you happier. Until today. It is Charlie who takes the dangerous step of asking for a piece of Marvin's disordered life, but what follows embroils them all, the wives no less than the husbands. And none of them will ever be the same again.
Udall demonstrates a wonderful ability to move the reader one way or the other. He is a brilliant comic writer, and this novel is full of laugh-out-loud moments and running jokes. But he is equally adept at heartbreaking tragedy. Combining the two superbly here, he has recreated the terrible wonder and wonderful terror of family life, in a novel that's not larger than life, but just as large, as difficult, as funny and as poignant as everyday life itself
—— Doug Johnstone , Sunday HeraldIt's funny, but not simply a comic noel; Udall has some wonderful observations about the dynamics of family life
—— The TimesAn exceptional tale of an exceptional family.
—— The New York TimesA dark, funny and insightful probe into the ways we can be lonely even when surrounded
—— Sunday Telegraph, AustraliaMemorable... Shining above all in this joyful celebration of communal living is Rusty, the misfit whose explosive fate will have profound effects on the whole, enormous family.
—— Ross Gilfillan , Daily MailSome people might be saying the latest David Mitchell book or the most recent Martin Amis, but for me, so far, The Lonely Polygamist is the novel of 2010
—— Book MunchUdall, author of the well regarded The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, posesses a comic touch that is occassionally reminiscent of Richard Russo or John Irving. And while his style is usually as effortlessly plain-spoken as the people he depicts, he is capable of impressive rhetorical flights
—— Stephen Amidon , Sunday TimesUdall is the real thing: a writer with an instinctive feel for the human condition worthy of Steinbeck or Twain
—— Daily TelegraphAt every turn, Udall plays with his readers' expectations of believers and non-believers, husbands and wives...That this longish book is kept largely aloft by a structure of humorous conceits is an indication of the author's strengths as a storyteller.
—— Emma Hagestadt , IndependentA haunting debut that eschews sensationalism and unfurls with quiet delicacy
—— Easy Living[An] ambitious debut
—— Financial TimesRiveting, luminous
—— The New York Times Book ReviewFelix Quinn, the narrator of the book...explains it beautifully - and this is a very good novel... Feeling unsafe makes him feel alive. And loss, of course, is the wellspring of good storytelling
—— Evening StandardThe Act of Love is an ambitious and at times extremely uncomfortable novel
—— The TelegraphIt is an almost frighteningly brilliant achievement. Why did the Booker judges not recognise it?
—— The GuardianThis is a very good novel
—— ScotsmanJacobson's 10th novel is a moving, thought-provoking and darkly witty story of desire and love
—— Irish Times
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