Eleanor Rushing: A Novel - Hardcover

Eleanor Rushing knows Maxim Walters loves her. At the crowded city council meeting, he chooses to sit beside her; from his pulpit, he preaches only to her, a vision in white sitting in the first pew. Soon, he invites her along on a business trip to Nashville, where they make love all night long.
But Maxim sees things a little differently. The distinguished and very married preacher denies his love for Eleanor, but she understands his reluctance to walk away from the plain wife and the narrow path of virtue he chose long ago. Refusing to be refused, Eleanor showers Maxim with gifts and volunteers at the church simply to be near him.
Though she appears to be undaunted, Eleanor is, in fact, deeply troubled. Sparing no detail, she recounts the tragedy that left her mute for four years, and the abuse she has suffered at the hands of her friends and family. Though these memoirs are often at odds with those of others around her, the now-loquacious Eleanor charms us completely until we can't help but become her willing and faithful supporters. In this narrative tour-de-force - at once hilarious and deeply moving - Friedmann gives a memorable look at the willfulness of obsessive love, the caustic mix of money and leisure, and the power of memory to damage the soul.

A hilarious novel about the zany character Eleanor Rushing, a charming, delusional woman weaving wildly through the splendor and excess of New Orleans.. This zany, hilarious novel is set amid the splendors and excesses of New Orleans. Blessed with acute powers of observation and the ability to remember everything, Eleanor Rushings recollections are often at odds with those of the people around her. When Maxim Walters, a distinguished Methodist minister speaks passionately at the city council meeting and then sits next to Eleanor, she knows what it means. Soon she is boasting of her affair with Maxim, how he ignores his congregation and speaks only to her, how he invites her to join him on a business trip to Nashville, how they make love all night long.But Maxim sees things a little differently. He is married and knows Eleanor only as a member of his congregation who always sits in the front row. He has no idea why she appears in Nashville when he is there, and there is certainly no love between them. Or so he says. But who is telling the truth? Doesnt the truth really depend on your point of view?The loquacious and endearing Eleanor charms us so completely, even as we begin to realize that surviving a childhood marred by tragedy has extracted a terrible toll, we cant help being her willing and faithful admirers. Eleanor Rushing is a first-person narrative tour-de-force. At once highly entertaining and deeply moving, it is a unique--and often hilarious--look at the results of mixing obsessive love, the caustic mix of money and leisure, and the power of memory to damage the soul.