First published 1982
Bob Swirling sits in Silver Slopes sanatorium, perfecting his Groucho Marx routine. The middle-aged freelance writer has abandoned his own identity completely after a series of personal disasters left him broken and guilt-ridden. When Bob mistakenly believed he was dying, he decided to pursue sexual liberation. Instead he found himself trapped by his bourgeois mentality and puritanical upbringing. Now he hides behind Groucho's persona, letting the comedian's sharp wit handle all the hostility and antagonism Bob never could express himself. As Groucho, he turns Silver Slopes upside down with his antics. A beautiful black woman who contributed to his original troubles tries to coax the real Bob back to the surface. Even when she succeeds in drawing him out of his comic shell, Bob discovers his problems haven't disappeared. Peter De Vries crafts a comedy about a man so overwhelmed by life's disappointments that he can only face the world through borrowed confidence and someone else's voice.
Genres: fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, adult-fiction, comedy
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Silver Slopes
Period: 20th-century
221 pages · Paperback · Penguin Books
Content warnings: mental-illness