Ex-Wife

Published anonymously in 1929 and long out of print, this breezy novel addresses the timeless issues of love, dependence, infidelity and loss. From heroine Patricia's initial announcement, ``My husband left me four years ago,'' her story clips along at a frenetic pace through the New York of the flamboyant, alcohol-sodden Roaring Twenties. Although Patricia's wounds are raw and their exposition uncensored, Parrott (1899-1957), herself married four times, maintains humor, avoiding moroseness with chirpy details about clothing, millinery, the ubiquitous mixed drinks, street life. She shifts back and forth in her chronology, describing the last, explosive moments of Patricia's marriage to Peter as well as conjugal happiness, and the unwelcome solitude that follows in the wake of separation. Parrott's crystalline insight into the obsessions of women in their relations with men and with their insecurities is jarringly familiar today. Her work's contemporary quality is eerie and disturbing--although the scenery has changed, behavior patterns have not. (June)