Funny Accent A Novel by Barbara Shulgasser-Parker

Sophisticated and fiercely intelligent, Anna Schopenhauer has one weakness: men old enough to be her father. Returning home to New York for her father's seventieth birthday party, she wants to break the pattern and confront a family friend - the older man in her life-about whom she has written a recently published short story. I was learning the ropes. I was learning the fundamental lessons a woman learns. I didn't know it at the time. I thought I was unique. I saw my experience as unusual, a dark, tainting secret I would tell no one until years later. I was learning what every women eventually learns. There are men out there, narcissistic, preening, predatory men who haven't a generous impulse or an unselfish sentiment anywhere within, who also happen to be handsome, charming, fun to be with and sexually attractive. And in the early stages of a woman's education, it is extremely difficult to figure out that these men are to be avoided. My highly unscientific observations have led me to conclude that it is possible to avoid such men but generally luck plays a large role in the avoidance. And the odds are against a girl being that lucky. -- from FUNNY ACCENT Witty, stylish and original, this is for readers of smart, funny, contemporary commercial American women's fiction - especially the readers that made books like GIRL'S GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING by Melissa Banks a success "Barbara Shulgasser-Parker. consistently takes a hard look at life and renders what she sees with precision, sophistication, a lot of heart, and a great wry wit." --Anne Lamott, author of TRAVELLING MERCIES. "Barbara Shulgasser-Parker writes about sex and love with a rare and refreshing precision. Anna is such an antidote to the rather whiny female narrators we get a lot of these days - she's funny, open to experience, slightly hapless, and her colourful family provides her with a wonderful foil" - Diane Johnson, author of LE DIVORCE and LE MARIAGE