"THIS FAMILY HAD EVERYTHING: LOOKS, BRAINS, MONEY, A STRONG, FORTIFIED SENSE OF CLAN, AND BRANCHES IN BOSTON, PHILADELPHIA AND NEW YORK, AS WELL AS LONDON, JUST LIKE A BANKING HOUSE."

COLWIN, Laurie. Family Happiness. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982. Octavo, original half beige cloth, original dust jacket. $150.

First edition of Laurie Colwin's acclaimed novel about family expectations and inner longing, signed by her.

"Laurie Colwin's Family Happiness displays a richness of characterization reminiscent of 19th-Century British novels. Polly Demarest is the put-upon peacemaker in an eccentric, upper-middle-class Jewish family. When she finally tires of catering to the crotchets of her querulous relatives, she indulges herself for the first time and obtains something she really wants: an extramarital affair with the sensual painter, Lincoln Bennett. The pleasures and pains of their liaison help Polly to assert her independence and realize that her personal worth extends beyond doing what her family expects. In terms of conventional morality, she does stoop to conquer—which makes the conquest all the more delicious" (Los Angeles Times).

Book fine, dust jacket very nearly so with only mild toning to spine.