Suzanne Davis Gets a Life

236-page paperback / 5" x 8" / ISBN 978-1-58988-095-5 / Publication Date: May 2014

"Incredibly charming…Suzanne Davis Gets a Life has an emotional honesty and moments of real wisdom."—Philadelphia Inquirer

Cohen "portrays timeless and universal challenges through a buoyant combination of humor, pathos, and gumption."—Booklist

"Suzanne Davis Gets a Life isn't just seriously entertaining, it's entertainingly serious…I want my romantic comedy heroines to have wit, but I want them to have character too, and be as interested in the world as in themselves. Paula Marantz Cohen has given me all of that."—Margo Jefferson

A "witty commentary on contemporary life, enriched by a funny, flawed, and likable heroine."—Kirkus

"Ms. Cohen is a perceptive, comic writer."—Wall Street Journal

Suzanne Davis lounges around her tiny New York City apartment in her pajamas, writing press releases for the International Association of Air-Conditioning Engineers, listening to the ticking of her biological clock, and wondering where life is taking her. As her 35th birthday looms, Suzanne embarks on a wrong-headed, but very funny, quest—to find Mr. Right and start the family she hopes will give meaning to her life.

Her quest plunges us into the world of her Upper West Side apartment building, a world of overly invested mothers, fanatical dog-owners, curmudgeonly longtime residents, and young (and not so young) professionals. All are keenly observed by Suzanne, whose witty self-deprecation endears her to us even as it makes us want to shake some sense into her.

Light in its tone but incisive in its social satire, Suzanne Davis Gets a Life balances its wit with true concern for its protagonist. We can't help but wish Suzanne success in "getting a life." But can such a search possibly yield the meaning she craves? When her extremely annoying mother arrives on the scene, it appears that her plan has been hijacked. But serious illness opens her to new people and a new perspective. She ends by getting a life—even as she may lose one.

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Paula Marantz Cohen's novels include Jane Austen in Scarsdale or Love, Death and the SATs; Jane Austen in Boca; and the recent What Alice Knew: A Most Curious Tale of Henry James and Jack the Ripper. Cohen is Distinguished Professor of English at Drexel University, and is host of the weekly public television program The Drexel Interview.

Praise for Paula Marantz Cohen

"Cohen's wit is sharp, smart, and satirical, and her characterizations are vividly on target."—San Francisco Chronicle

Praise for Jane Austen in Boca

"Utterly charming."—Vanity Fair

"Page turner of the week."—People Magazine

Praise for Much Ado about Jesse Kaplan

"A brightly comic book."—Times Literary Supplement

"Kept me laughing from beginning to end...a comic tour-de-force."—The Hudson Review

Praise for Jane Austen in Scarsdale

"Paula Marantz Cohen has done it again! Jane Austen in Scarsdale is laugh-out-loud funny, literate, wise—and best of all, a satirical mirror of our times. She has become our own Jane Austen."—Diane Ravitch, author of The Language Police

Praise for What Alice Knew

"A marvelously rich and intelligent read."—John Banville

Book Club Discussion Questions for Suzanne Davis Gets a Life