WITH THE NEXT MAN EVERYTHING WILL BE DIFFERENT

by Eva Heller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1992

A bestseller in Germany, this sharp-witted first novel features a young, female Berlin film student and her complex entanglements with feminism, radical political theory, and love--an up-to-date comedy of manners with a European twist. Constance Wechselburger is only 27, but she's already under pressure from her parents to marry her live-in doctor boyfriend, Albert, and start having babies. But Constance, a graduate film student and self-declared independent woman, would rather work on the screenplay for her senior film project (a film that will poignantly integrate the end of a love affair with such issues as Chronic Consumerism, Progressive Consciousness-Raising, Liberation Struggle from Habitual Prostitution, Bourgeois Institutions, the Arms Race, Feminism, and so on) and fantasize about Gottfried Schachtschnabel (a Marxist film professor who resembles a cute baby seal) than settle into a bourgeois, enslaving relationship with stingy Albert. Constance kicks Albert out of her apartment only to discover that life rarely conforms to theoretical expectations: while Albert easily finds a new love, Constance hangs out at Cafe Kaput, hoping to meet the perfect blend of Jean-Paul Sartre and Prince Charles, but ending up instead with unsatisfying one-night stands, a humiliating liaison with her film professor (who turns out to be married), boring trips home to Mom and Dad, a job cutting insecticide ads out of magazines, and few prospects for a successful future career. In the end, despite all her theorizing and ""stern self-criticism,"" Constance turns 28, panics, instantly puts into action the feminine wiles her mother taught her to maneuver herself back into Albert's arms--and heads for the altar to live happily ever after like all the rest of her friends. Biting, giggle-provoking satire--though no doubt more shocking on its own turf.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1992

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1991

Categories: FICTION