Riven Rock

<b>NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A <i>NEW YORK TIMES </i>NOTABLE BOOK - A flamboyant meditation on love in all of its absurdity and all its undeniability (<i>The Mercury News</i>) set during America's age of innocence--and against a backdrop of wealth and privilege--from the award-winning author of <i>The Tortilla Curtain</i></b><br><b> </b><br><b>As romantic as it is informative as colorful as it is convincing. Boyle combines his gift for historical re-creation with his dazzling powers as a storyteller.--<i>The Boston Globe</i></b> <p/>It is the dawn of the twentieth century when the beautiful budding feminist Katherine Dexter falls in love with Stanley McCormick son of a millionaire inventor. The two wed but before the marriage is consummated Stanley experiences a nervous breakdown and is diagnosed as a schizophrenic sex maniac. Stanley is locked up in his family's Santa Barbara mansion and forbidden the mere sight of women--above all his wife. <p/>Throughout her career as a scientist and a suffragette Katherine's faith never waiters: that one day one of the many psychiatrists she hires to try to cure her husband will free him of his demons. <p/>Blending social history with some of the most deliciously dark humor ever written T.C. Boyle employs his hallmark virtuoso prose to tell the story of a love affair that is as extraordinary as it is unforgettable.