Serge Bering-Strait, a young poet who lives with his activist mother and four aunties in a Greenwich Village brownstone, has just gone to work as copywriter for "Women's Omnibus" magazine. Serge would much rather have remained up in his garret room writing poetry, but his mother, Dagmar, and his Auntie Janet have insisted that it's high time he got out into the world--it isn't natural to be a recluse at twenty-three--his Auntie Janet, in fact, has secured the job for Serge by calling in a favor from the editor at "Women's Omnibus," Bettina Battle. Ms. Battle, the "Battle of Britain," as she is often referred to by her underlings, hails from "Swinging London"--the magazine as well as the city. In this New York work-a-day situation of the swinging Sixties, Serge finds himself the object of unwanted sexual advances from his lady boss editor. It is all too upsetting to this young, shy, poet. He has spent his whole life under the thumbs of five very tough, aggressive women and now the additional pressure from Editor Battle, out to deflower him, brings him to a crossroads.
He must assert himself! In the beginning, he has only one true supporter in this struggle: Juanna Donna Lorca, his childhood transexual nanny-cum general housekeeper for the family, who is partial to flamenco dresses.
Serge, somewhat inspired by his love of the classics, and perhaps somewhat inspired by the idea of poetic justice, and simply pressured to let off steam, begins a novel--Resurgius. Coincidentally, or not, he begins his novel immediately after meeting the girl of his dreams. It is a futuristic tale of a universe governed by women who bear a striking resemblance to his mother and aunties. In the nation called Atalanta, however, trouble is brewing. The enslaved Dongs, as males are called, are in revolt. In fact, there's an underground leader in ascendancy--one Resurgius. This stalwart Resurgius bears an uncanny resemblance to Serge, obviously a wish-fulfillment, for he has everything that Serge has not--especially muscles and courage, though he is several I.Q. points down from Serge himself and wears Serge's actual horn-rimmed spectacles.
Through the process of writing his novel, and with the help of his transgender friends, and his girlfriend, Amanda, Serge, who has been taught by his dominating female family to pee sitting down, stands up for himself, at last.
Review :
E.M. Schorb's R&R is a quietly hilarious read which, unique though it is, strikes me as belonging to the very league as the comic gems of Evelyn Waugh and Nathaniel West. It abounds in delectable tongue-in-cheek wit. Your price of admission will be richly repaid by the character of Bettina Battle, a woman with all the subtlety of a battering ram, in hot pursuit of sexual satisfaction from Serge, the dorky antihero. Among its other distinctions, R&R is a masterpiece of style, so skillfully written that it would be hard to change a word without a worsening. This comes as no surprise; Schorb for a long while has stood out among our finer poets, with tremendous assets of imagination, powers of invention, and the ability to polish his words to a sheen. This is a book to give to discerning friends, to cherish on a permanent shelf, and to wolf down immediately, being regaled.
X.J. Kennedy
Winner of the 8th Annual Beverly Hills Book Award for Humor.
Schorb's offbeat plot-following a young male author who lives with five forceful women-is clever and amusing. He employs several made up words to describe various acts-which are wildly funny-and his prose is as witty as it is creative. -Publishers Weekly, The BookLife Prize
