Bride of Catastrophe
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"I grew up on a farm,"—the year is l974, the place Sweetriver College, and Beatrice Wolfe is telling the story of her life to the glamorous young professor Philippa Sayres. So begins the achingly funny, often heartbreaking story of Beatrice's quest to escape the gothic eccentricity of her family and find an authentic identity of her own.Married in a misbegotten passion, her parents are totally unsuited to farming or to any kind of business. When they finally lose their "farm," Bea's family spirals out of control. Still under Philippa's spell, Bea moves to the city of Hartford and joins a lesbian community, and becomes so committed to her new gay identity that she barely notices she’s falling in love with a man—a man just risen from the ashes of addiction, whose re-creation of himself she threatens to undo.The Washington PostSchmidt has graced Beatrice's tale with a winningly arch and self-disarming voice...If at times The Bride of Catastrophe seems overstuffed with outlandish incident, and Beatrice's private life an implausible mess, that voice, and all the good-humored angst that comes with it, is more than worth the price of admission. Beatrice may be a long way from mastering her life, but Schmidt has given her an enviable command of the book of love.—Chris Lehmann
