Pleasure and guilt make mischievous bedfellows in Stephen McCauley's witty send-up of modern love, sex, and real estate.
Boston real estate agent William Collins knows that his habits are slipping out of control. Due to obsessive-compulsive daily cleaning binges and a penchant for nightly online cruising for hookups, he finds his sales figures slipping despite a booming market. There's also his ongoing struggle to collect the rent from his passive-aggressive tenant and his worries about his best friend, Edward, whom he's certainly not in love with. Just as he decides to do something about his life, he meets Charlotte and Samuel, wealthy suburbanites looking for the perfect city apartment. "Happy couple," he writes in his notes. "Maybe I can learn something from them." What he ultimately discovers challenges his own assumptions about real estate, love, and desire—and what they learn from him might unravel a budding friendship, not to mention a very promising sale.
Full of crackling dialogue delivered by a stellar ensemble of players, Alternatives to Sex is a smart, hilarious chronicle of life in post-traumatic, morally ambiguous America—where the desire to do good is constantly being tripped up by the need to feel good. Right now.
- 304 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Information
Subtopic
Literature GeneralIndex
LiteratureTable of contents
- Cover
- By the Same Author
- Copyright
- Dedication
- A Start
- Dinner Plans
- The Seven Stages
- My Wife
- Oh, Really?
- Previous Addictions
- Too Damned Happy
- Rocks and Pills
- Meaningful Relationships
- Should We? Shouldn’t We?
- Passing the Nut House
- Dishwasher People
- Touch
- “Style”
- Where Am I?
- An Alternative to Sex
- An Alternative to Vacuuming
- Landlord 101
- An Alternative to Kumiko
- A Fresh Start
- Sleep Deprivation
- Advice
- LTR
- Exactly on Time
- Edward’s Story
- Contemptuous Compassion
- Dave?
- The Beast
- Fasten Your Seat Belts
- Room 473
- Please Charlotte
- Come Again?
- A Bright Idea
- Confidence
- Just in Time
- Something
- Drying Out
- Real Estate
- Song to a Seagull
- Trapped
- Rose
- Getting My Story Straight
- Atmospheric
- Crutches
- Blowing Smoke
- Likes and Dislikes
- Feelings
- Money
- The Cousins
- Focusing on the Future
- Like Marriage
- The One
- I Doubt That’s True
- Done
- Getting Around
- Simply Buy It
- Sold
- Accepted
- Monogamy
- U.D.
- Thinking About It
- Breathing Exercises
- Thomas Merton on his Best Day
- In Theory, Yes
- Nahant
- Pampered and Expensive
- The Major Leagues
- How Embarrassing
- All her Shameful Secrets
- Mr. Collins?
- Hypotheticals
- So It Seems
- After the Fact
- Scents
- Mr. Didier
- The Remote Control
- Happy
- Alcohol Instead
- The Missing Piece
- Solutions
- Something the Matter
- Back Rubs
- Endearing New Traits
- Ulterior Motives
- Intentions
- So So
- Uncluttering
- Inspection
- One Big Sudden Something
- Mutual Interest
- Esther
- An Offer
- The Neighbors
- Mrs. Didier
- Midnight Call
- Closing
- Snowstorm
- The Center of My Life
- Anyone
- An Empty Bench
- Acknowledgments
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Yes, you can access Alternatives to Sex by Stephen McCauley in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Literature General. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.