Rules for Saying Goodbye: A Novel

"Reminiscent of Melissa Bank's The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing. Now there are two savvy, witty novels about . . . young women coming of age." —Daily News"Kath is curious," observes her younger brother, Ethan, not without anxiety. She is thirteen; already everyone can see she's got her eye on bigger things than provincial Fresno can offer. Years in the glamorous chill of an East Coast prep school will introduce her to a razor-sharp sense of social distinction, cocaine "so good it's pink," and an indispensable best friend—all that she needs to prepare for life in Manhattan. There will be fourteen-dollar cocktails but no money for groceries; unsuitable men of enormous charm, and unsuitable jobs of no charm at all; and a wistful yearning for a transformation from someone of promise into someone of genius.In this deliciously witty and affecting debut novel, fiction winks at real life: Katherine Taylor is its muddled heroine, and also its author. Written in the tradition of Curtis Sittenfeld and Melissa Bank, with the gorgeous hues of a pile of Gatsby's shirts, Rules for Saying Goodbye is a bittersweet yet comic coming-of-age tale that has an unerring feel for the delights and malaises of a generation."Bursts of brilliant dialogue and description illuminate many already bright scenes from California to Massachusetts to Rome, from teenage through twenty-something. Taylor's story moves far and fast and is engaging and entertaining at every point." —The Boston Globe"A delightful debut." —Vogue"A finely crafted debut novel." —The Philadelphia Inquirer Read more