Still Life With Husband

“A delightful new voice in American fiction, a voice that instantly recalls the wry, knowing prose of Lorrie Moore crossed with the screwball talents of the cartoonist Roz Chast. . . . [Fox] has an uncanny ability to capture the absurdities of her heroine’s pastel-colored life in Milwaukee, and to map the darker emotional landscapes she inhabits. . . . Fox’s wonderfully quirky voice . . . evoke[s] Emily’s state of mind with a bracing mixture of clarity and compassion . . . uncommon tenderness and wit. . . . Announces the arrival of an immensely gifted writer—a writer adept at capturing the sad-funny mess that happens to be one woman’s life.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“First novelist Lauren Fox is a smooth, wry writer. Her primary achievement is taking you on a slow-motion, step-by-step trip down the infamous slippery slope, showing you how a bored but decent woman starts on high, safe ground and ends up in a ditch. Even more impressively, she does this without you completely losing sympathy for Emily, much as you would stick by your best friend even as you watched her taking out her frustrations on the people she loves.” - Claudia Deane, The Washington Post

“With deft prose and witty characterization. . . Fox gives us an all-too-real glance into what most married people have at one time or another wondered about (if not acted upon): the thrill-ride of illicit love. Emily’s first-person narrative may be laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s also an honest, compassionate look at the heartbreak of misplaced intimacy.” —Amy Woods Butler, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Fox . . . write[s] smartly, simply and sagely about the lives and desires and dreams of women. . . . Nuanced and introspective.” —Geeta Sharma Jensen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Lauren Fox takes on infidelity with an honesty and realism that may inspire you to love the one you’re with.” —Tango

“With this satisfying debut novel, Fox has written a twist on the typical chick lit tale. The story looks at happiness vs. loyalty and reconsiders the adage, Be careful what you wish for.” —Library Journal