-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Novel
by Paul Rudnick
From the acclaimed writer and "one of our preeminent humorists" (the New York Times) Paul Rudnick, a riotously funny, perceptive, and life-affirming novel following the decades-long, rule-breaking romance between the son of one of American's wealthiest families and a middle-class aspiring author.
Devastatingly handsome and insanely rich, Farrell Covington is capable of anything and impossible to resist. He's a clear-eyed romantic, an aesthete but not a snob, self-indulgent yet wildly generous. As the son of one of the country's most powerful and deeply conservative families, the world could be his. But when he falls for Nate Reminger, an aspiring writer from a nice Jewish family in Piscataway, New Jersey, the results are passionate and catastrophic.
Together, the two embark on a uniquely managed romance that spans half a century. They are inseparable—except for the many years when they are apart. Moving from the ivy-covered bastion of Yale to New York City, Los Angeles, and eventually all over the world, Farrell and Nate experience the tremendous upheaval and social change of the last fifty years. From the freedom of gay life in 1970s Manhattan to the Hollywood closet, the AIDS epidemic, and the profound strides of the LGBTQ+ movement, this witty and moving novel shows how the world changes around us while we're busy doing other things. A story of chances lost and found (and sometimes just temporarily misplaced), with an epic reach, it reminds us that there is always the possibility of undiluted, unbridled, unstoppable happiness, if, as Farrell says, "You know where to look." Style has its limits, love does not.
"An aspiring writer becomes enamored of a dashing fellow student at Yale in Rudnick's dazzling and funny latest...The author proves himself to be in top form, and each page is loaded with quippy dialogue and winning character work. This is a roaring good time." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A gay love story for the ages from one of the great comic voices of his generation...Is it a spoiler to say there are no limits? At least not to Rudnick's ability to brilliantly elegize and entertain." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"I loved Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style. Just ate up every word; it will make a Rudnick fan out of every reader. No funnier, wiser or more charming book will come out this year, I guarantee. So what are you waiting for? Get it!" —Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less and Less Is Lost
"If you believe that there should be more pleasure, more style (high and low) and more genuine wit in this world, then read Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style. If you don't, I am sorry for you and if anyone cares for you, even a little, they will run out and get you this joyful and snarky, life-affirming, love-celebrating novel." —Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of In Love
"Rudnick writes with such engaging wit, side-eyed perceptiveness, and barbed elan, with such irrepressible life, that before you quite notice the shadings of loss, mortality and poignant retrospection in his new novel, they have already touched you with their power." —Michael Chabon
This information about Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style 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.
Paul Rudnick is an author, playwright, and screenwriter. His plays have been produced on and off Broadway and include Jeffrey, I Hate Hamlet, Regrets Only, and The New Century. He is the author of seven books, and his writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Esquire, and more. His screenplays include Addams Family Values, Coastal Elites, In & Out, Sister Act, and the film adaptation of Jeffrey
If you liked Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style, try these:
by Jess Walter
Published 2026
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins—and in the propulsive spirit of Charles Portis' True Grit—comes a hilarious, empathetic, and brilliantly provocative adventure through life in modern America, about a reclusive journalist forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.
by Julia May. Jonas
Published 2023
A provocative, razor-sharp, and timely debut novel about a beloved English professor facing a slew of accusations against her professor husband by former students - a situation that becomes more complicated when she herself develops an obsession of her own...
by Maggie O'Farrell
Published 2017
A dazzling novel from bestselling writer Maggie O'Farrell, winner of the Costa Novel Award—an irresistible love story that crisscrosses continents and time zones as it captures an extraordinary marriage, and an unforgettable family, with wit, humor, and deep affection.
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
