James Magruder

James Magruder reads from "Vamp Until Ready"

Author

Vamp Until Ready

The network of protagonists in Vamp Until Ready. Cary Dunkler, Isa Vass, Kristy Schroyer, Judy Gabelson, and Mark Shinner have lives that are transformed in surprising ways by working on or backstage at the Hangar Theatre, a summer stock outfit in upstate New York in the 1980’s. They make—and remake—their families in this closely observed, ultimately comic valentine to the Socialist-leaning hamlet of Ithaca and to the pleasures of putting on a show at warp speed in hot weather.

Praise for Vamp Until Ready

“A precise, affectionate collection of linked stories follows the lives of several “townies” in Ithaca, New York, from 1980 through 1992. It’s a tour de force performance, charming and unstrained…”
—Kirkus, starred review

“James Magruder’s warm-hearted, hair-raising, and hilarious new novel, Vamp Until Ready, is a cross between Winesburg, Ohio and a backstage musical—a panorama of small-town American life over a dozen years, but a dozen particular years during the era of Reagan-Bush, the global AIDS crisis, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. And not just any town: Ithaca, New York, a college town with a hippie hangover and a cast of literally theatrical characters who are always putting on a play. In the novel’s ingenious structure, major characters in one chapter appear as minor characters in the next, and vice versa, as if you held up a multi-faceted gem and kept turning it in the light until every surface was illuminated. Magruder’s gift is to make you feel like you’ve gotten to be friends with a bunch of charming, fallible, wounded and wounding, passionate and compassionate people who are yearning for—and sometimes avoiding—connection. Like us.”
—John Weir, author of Your Nostalgia is Killing Me

“This novel is a triumphant romp. We’re privileged with intimate portraits of a group of friends as they roam from Ithaca to Uganda, from love to grief, from ambition to reconciliation, James Magruder’s Vamp Until Ready is a pure pleasure.”
—Don Lee, author of Lonesome Lies Before Us

“A hilarious, moving novel inhabited by characters who are both outrageous and utterly human, linked not only by a theater in Ithaca but by their desire to be loved. With its seductive, Russian doll structure and gorgeous prose, Vamp Until Ready captivates and delights.”
—Jane Delury, author of The Balcony

 

 

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Author

$16.49

Order from Rattling Good Yarns Press

Availability: In stock (can be backordered)

Or buy a print or ebook edition from one of these booksellers. You’ll be taken to the booksellers website to make your purchase.
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Ebook