Remember being swept off your feet by a charmer who had everything going for him?
Celeste, at the less-than-tender age of 29, finds herself engaged to Alex, living in a penthouse apartment, and jetting off on exotic trips. But soon Celeste discovers that he's not perfect. Alex makes her angry, sometimes everything he does makes her angry. And she's drinking a lot.
As Celeste begins to question her relationship and herself, she is haunted by painful memories from her past - her beautiful French mother who died young, consuming friendships, and her lingering passion for a man who is not Alex. In a bold refusal to compromise, Celeste finds that only by allowing herself to emotionally relive her past can she know in what direction to take her future.
Kaylie Jones has poetically, vividly, and skillfully created a bell jar of a stiflingly rich world and a complicated heroine who smashes her way out.