Synopsis:
New
York City, May 2000. The Internet bubble has burst, and Evan's boss fires him
with an email. The next day, his girlfriend dumps him, also via email. Afraid to
check any more emails, Evan desperately seeks a rebound romance but the
catastrophes that ensue go from bad to hilariously worse. Fortunately, Evan
meets someone whose legendary disasters with females eclipse even his own.
To
reverse their fortunes, they recruit their friends into a group of five guys
who take on Manhattan in pursuit of dates, sex, and adventure. With musings
about life, relationships, and human psychology, this quintessential New York
story about the search for happiness follows five men on their comical paths to
trouble, self-discovery, and love
Goodreads book link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18710853-sex-in-the-title
Excerpt:
Your
employment is terminated. I’m out of the office this morning for meetings but
you should pack up your belongings by 1 p.m. today. Your last pay check will
arrive in the mail.” That was the first email waiting for Evan on Monday
morning, May 29, 2000, at the office where he had worked for the last two
years. ChocaChump.com, the Internet-based, chocolate home delivery company, was
another dot-com whose days were numbered. About six weeks earlier, the NASDAQ
had dropped more than twenty-five percent from its peak in a single week.
The
tech crash would continue, and Evan’s boss, a mercurial CEO who closely managed
his twenty employees, grew increasingly bitter and difficult as his company
faltered. After Evan read the email terminating his employment, he recalled
their curt discussion from the previous Friday.
“Tell
me the real reason why you were gone so long yesterday.”
“It’s
the reason I gave you: my grandma had a bad fall and needed to be taken to the
hospital. She called me for help because my parents were out of town.”
“You
were gone for six hours.”
“Well,
I had to go to Queens, where she lives. She needed a bunch of medical tests.
And I wasn’t just going to leave her alone in the hospital. She’s a
seventy-five-year old widow, so I had to be there to comfort her, and help her
deal with insurance forms, doctors, etc.”
“Evan,
everyone’s got problems. You don’t think I have a grandma who needs me just as
much? Do you think our competitors care about our grandmas? It’s war out there!
And we’re losing. Things used to be much better, but our operating budget no
longer covers middle-of-the-day-grandma-emergencies.”
“But
this is the first time I’ve ever done that. And I told you before I left that I
had a family emergency. I can come in this weekend to make up for the lost work
time.”
“Yes,
please do that...I’ll have to think things over.”
As
he promised, Evan spent much of his Saturday making up for his time away from
the office.
But
there was no reversing a CEO desperate to trim his payroll. Evan decided not to
tell his girlfriend, Alexandra, about the fact that he was now unemployed. He
would wait until after they returned from the Puerto Rican vacation that he had
promised her a month ago, so that she could fully enjoy the experience, rather
than feel guilty about the expense. The quality time with her would also help
him to refocus on what really mattered to him, he thought.
Hoping
for a fresh and positive start the morning after he was fired, Evan turned on
his home laptop and purchased the airline tickets online. He then logged into
his email account, so that he could forward the trip details to Alexandra. He
noticed a new email from her in his inbox.
“Evan,
Hun, sorry to tell you like this over email, but my plane’s leaving soon, so I
don’t have time to do this in person. I’m leaving because I really need a
break. From everything. Please don’t start wondering what this means or what
you did wrong or anything, because you’ve been great. And that means that I
have to use that trite line about how this isn’t about you. Because it really
is about me...I’m twenty-four years old and I feel like I’m losing my youth
suddenly. I just want to feel young and free for a few months. And I’m tired of
this city. It’s making me old. The routine, the stress, the constant
competition. I just need to escape for a while. I know we were supposed to go
away one of these weekends, but I need more than a weekend. Much more. I
decided – in a totally spur of the moment kind of way – to go to Australia. I
know this all seems crazy and surprising, but that’s how these things go when
you’re young. Without planning too much. I’ll be gone for six weeks. Maybe
more. I’d ask you to wait for me, but that wouldn’t be fair to either of us.
And I’m just not sure we’re right for each other, even though you’re really a
wonderful guy...I think a clean break would be best for both of us. By the time
you read this I’ll probably be on a plane. I’m really sorry, Evan, because I
know this will hurt, even though that was never my intention. Call it a crazy
and selfish impulse, but I just need this change right now. You’ve always been
a sweetheart and I’ll totally miss you. Postcards will follow! Kisses,
Alexandra.”
*****
Evan
stared at his laptop screen, in speechless disbelief. For the lonely three
months that followed, he struggled with the loss of a job he had mostly
enjoyed, and a woman he had begun to love after almost five months of dating
her. On the few occasions when he could motivate himself to go out and act like
a single man again, Evan crashed and burned with every woman he approached.
Julia, a sexy, thirty-two-year-old therapist, was the only exception, but there
were too many issues for that prospect to go anywhere. She couldn’t resist
psychoanalyzing Evan whenever they met, which he soon realized was just her way
of avoiding her own doldrums. Julia was clinically depressed and desperately
seeking marriage and children (which Evan didn’t want for another four or five
years), so his conscience forced him to nip things in the bud, even though she
seemed open to a fling with him. Thus, Evan continued stumbling along his
losing streak, learning just how much being down is not particularly appealing
to anyone – especially the attractive women of New York City, clad in their
heels or hipster boots, looking for a good time.
Evan
Cheson was actually a charming and good-looking man. He had a full head of
thick, black hair; blue eyes; an athletic, six-foot-one build; smooth, dark
eyebrows; and facial features suggestive of his French-Italian ancestry. And
for most of his adult life, he had been a confident and successful man, from
school, to work, to women.
The Character Bios:
The Character Bios:
SAMMY — at a mere
five-eight, he’s the shortest, chubbiest, and baldest in the group. But the
quirky math geek, who works as an actuary, is also the funniest and the
smartest of the gang. Sammy is nicknamed “Heeb” because of his plan to enjoy
bachelorhood with only non-Jews until age 28, at which point he will date only
Jewish girls so as to find his wife by age 30. In his ever unpredictable dating
adventures, Heeb will try just about anything to get a date with a woman.
CARLOS — Sammy’s
Harvard College roommate. Carlos has the slick Latin look of a telenovela star.
The six foot one Mexican-American dresses with impeccable style, maintains a
great physique, and easily charms with his silver tongue. But he’s still a
virgin when he graduates from college because of his obsessive and irrational
fear of germs, his Puritanical beliefs, and his impossibly selective standards.
YI WANG (“Narc”) — Evan’s
freshman year roommate at Brown College. Yi is a good-looking,
Chinese-American, who is fluent in Cantonese and ghetto talk, and — at
six-three — was the star basketball player of his high school. Nicknamed “Narc”
during high school for his willingness to experiment with narcotics (and later
“Narse” for his narcissistic focus on his looks/style), he goes on to become a
disgruntled corporate lawyer after studying at Columbia Law School. But Narc
secretly maintains two alternative career fantasies: both seem wildly
unrealistic, but one is unthinkable because of the shame it would cause his
traditional parents.
TREVOR — A debonaire,
Afro-British man who became Narc’s best friend and basketball partner while
earning his JD degree at Columbia Law School. Originally from Ghana but
educated at Oxford, Trevor charms anyone who hears him talk — if they can turn
their attention away from his extraordinary six-foot-seven height (which earned
him the nickname “Tower”). Trevor sports a perfectly clean shaven head and
escapes the drudgery of his corporate law firm job by exploring yoga,
alternative careers, and new dating prospects.
Book Trailer:
About The
Author:
Zack
Love graduated from Harvard College, where he tried to create a bachelor’s
degree in Women. With the bachelor portion of that degree in hand, he settled
in New York City but – to afford renting his bed-sized studio – found himself
flirting mostly with a computer screen and stacks of documents. Determined not
to die a corporate drone, Zack decided to sacrifice sleep for screenwriting, an
active social life, and Internet startups offering temporary billion-dollar
fantasies.
To
feed his steady diet of NYC nightlife, he regularly crashed VIP parties in the
early 2000s and twice bumped into his burgeoning crush, a Hollywood starlet.
But – much to Zack’s surprise – neither of those awkward conversations led to
marriage with the A-list actress. Zack eventually consoled himself by imagining
fiascoes far worse than those involving his celebrity crush. In the process, he
dreamed up a motley gang of five men inspired by some of his college friends
and quirky work colleagues. And thus was born Sex in the Title. But the novel
is not autobiographical: Zack never had his third leg attacked by any mammal
(nor by any plant, for that matter). In fact, keeping his member safe has been
one of Zack’s lifelong goals – and one of the few that he’s managed to
accomplish.
Buy Links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G2JM0D8/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00G2JM0D8&linkCode=as2&tag=keitrebobl01-20
Amazon UK: http://tinyurl.com/AmazonUKSITT
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