Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Sep 2019
368 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
The Not Wives traces the lives of three women as they navigate the Occupy Wall Street movement and each other.
In the midst of economic collapse and class conflict, late-night hookups and polyamorous girlfriends, they piece together a new American identity of resistance—against financial precarity, gentrifying New York, and the traditional role of a wife.
"Written with a keen ear for dialogue and an exceptional eye for detail, the novel is a showcase for the everyday reality of working-class intellectuals living in an increasingly gentrified city. A provocative and well-told story about chosen community, friendship, and human frailty." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Though longer than it needs to be, Moore's novel is nonetheless ambitious and immersive." - Publishers Weekly
"An upfront look at what it means to belong to yourself while trying to be a part of something bigger." - Independent Book Review
"The Not Wives is gritty, sexy, very queer, literary social realism that's up-all-night compelling—just what I want from a novel set in NYC in the time of Occupy, with its sprawling cast of adjuncts, bartenders, poets, single parents, little kids, homeless teenagers, and serious organizers embroiled in various romantic and economic complications. When we say report back, this is what we mean!" - Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
"This is a feminist novel for our times—slutty and principled, dedicated and unsure—it dares us to feel everything." - Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author of Sketchtasy
This information about The Not Wives was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Carley Moore is an essayist, novelist, and poet. She's a queer single mom, Vans lover, and #catwife. The Not Wives is her first novel. In 2018, Tinderbox Editions published her debut collection of essays, 16 Pills. In 2017, she published her first poetry chapbook, Portal Poem and in 2012, she published a young adult novel, The Stalker Chronicles. She lives in New York City with her kid and cat and teaches at NYU and Bard College.
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