The Fine Art of Insincerity
A Novel
Three grown Southern sisters have ten marriages between them—and more loom on the horizon—when Ginger, the eldest, wonders if she’s the only one who hasn’t inherited what their family calls “the Grandma Gene”: the tendency to like the casualness of courtship better than the intimacy of marriage. Could it be that her two sisters are fated to serially marry, just like their seven-times wed grandmother, Mrs. Lillian Irene Harper Winslow Goldstein Carey James Bobrinski Gordon George? It takes a “girls only” weekend, closing up Grandma’s treasured beach house for the last time, for the sisters to really unpack their family baggage, examine their relationship DNA, and discover the true legacy their much-marrying grandmother left behind . . .
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Buy from us:
- Howard Books |
- 320 pages |
- ISBN 9781439182031 |
- May 2011
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Praise
Read an Excerpt
O n e
Ginger
Even without a calendar, I can feel Monday settling into my bones.
I miss the postman because he comes early; Martha, my cleaning woman, arrives thirty minutes late; and the newspaper doesn’t show up at all. I trudge up the driveway and sort through the mail in my hand—mortgage statement, car loan reminder, bills from Sallie Mae and Stetson University. Four credit card offers. An envelope plastered with the image of that smirking insurance lizard. Michael’s copy of Civil War Times.
I walk into the house, step over the cat sprawled on the rug, and drop the historical... see more
ONE
GINGER
Even without a calendar, I can feel Monday settling into my bones.
I miss the postman because he comes early; Martha, my cleaning woman, arrives thirty minutes late; and the newspaper doesn’t show up at all. I trudge up the driveway and sort through the mail in my hand—mortgage statement, car loan reminder, bills from Sallie Mae and Stetson University. Four credit card offers. An envelope plastered with the image of that smirking insurance lizard. Michael’s copy of Civil War Times.
I walk into the house, step over...
see more
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Book Reviews
Reading Group Guide
This reading group guide for The Fine Art of Insincerity includes a Q&A with author Angela Hunt. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
The ‘Grandma gene,’ is such a great conceit for the novel. Is this the single idea that The Fine Art of Insincerity sprang from?
Yes. Since my grandmother married five times and one of my relatives duplicated her record, I once jokingly referred to a “grandma gene” that likely skipped a generation . . . and thus the idea was born.
What sort of research was involved in the writing this book? Was it geared more toward looking outward and observing, or looking inward and meditating?
Probably equal parts of each. Actual research required a trip to St. Simons Island to spend a week in a rented beach house. My mother, my aunt, and one of my cousins went with me, and we shared “grandma stories” while we were there. Of course, not everything in this novel is drawn from real life. Eventually I had to create characters and spin their unique story problems.
The Fine Art of Insincerity is a fantastic title for this book. While I’m sure each reader will draw his or her own conclusion, who do you think is the m see more
The ‘Grandma gene,’ is such a great conceit for the novel. Is this the single idea that The Fine Art of Insincerity sprang from?
Yes. Since my grandmother married five times and one of my relatives duplicated her record, I once jokingly referred to a “grandma gene” that likely skipped a generation . . . and thus the idea was born.
What sort of research was involved in the writing this book? Was it geared more toward looking outward and observing, or looking inward and meditating?
Probably equal parts of each. Actual research required a trip to St. Simons Island to spend a week in a rented beach house. My mother, my aunt, and one of my cousins went with me, and we shared “grandma stories” while we were there. Of course, not everything in this novel is drawn from real life. Eventually I had to create characters and spin their unique story problems.
The Fine Art of Insincerity is a fantastic title for this book. While I’m sure each reader will draw his or her own conclusion, who do you think is the m see more
