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Mutual Interest

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: At least 6 months
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: At least 6 months
Bloomsbury presents Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith, read by Laurel Lefkow.

"A timeless queer love story and a meditation on power, capitalism, and the flow of history . . . This novel is a revelation and a joy." —Anna North, New York Times bestselling author of Outlawed

A classic in the making: a mesmerizing novel about marriage and ambition, sexuality and secrecy, and the true costs of building an empire.
At the turn of the 20th century, Vivian Lesperance is determined to flee her origins in Utica, New York, and avoid repeating her parents' dull, limited life. When she meets Oscar Schmidt, a middle manager at a soap company, Vivian finds a partner she can guide to build the life she wants—not least because, more interested in men himself, Oscar will leave Vivian to tend to her own romances with women.
But Vivian's plans require capital, so the two pair up with Squire Clancey, scion of an old American fortune. Together they found Clancey & Schmidt, a preeminent manufacturer of soap, perfume, and candles. When Oscar and Squire fall in love, the trio form a new kind of partnership.
Vivian reaches the pinnacle of her power building Clancey & Schmidt into an empire of personal care products while operating behind the image of both men. But exposure threatens, and all three partners are made aware of how much they have to lose.
For readers of Hernan Diaz's Trust and Colm Tóibín's The Magician, with echoes of Gustave Flaubert and E.M. Forster, Mutual Interest is a beguiling story of queer romance, empire, and power.
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    • Kirkus

      December 1, 2024
      In turn-of-the-century Manhattan, a businessman enters into a lavender marriage with an ambitious woman and falls in love with his eccentric business rival. On Fifth Avenue, a gambling party brings together three characters. Vivian Lesperance knows she's in the last throes of romance with her lover, Sofia, a wealthy singer; she's left behind her spiteful parents in Utica, New York, and worked her way into the fringes of Manhattan high society through her clever tenacity, but she's running out of time to hitch herself to a new wagon. Forty-three-year-old Oscar Schmidt is a transplant from Ohio who manages the New York office of a soap company. Both his career and his personal reputation are on the verge of disaster--the former due to an upstart candle manufacturer competing for resources; the latter due to the gossip columnists' assessment of him as a "horticultural gent" (to wit: a pansy). Finally, there is the rival in question, old-money Squire Clancey, a gentle "crackpot" (modern readers will clock him as likely on the autism spectrum), whose hyperfixation on candles and excessive wealth lead to his inadvertent competition with Oscar. Vivian sees at once that merging the two businesses could create a lucrative partnership; she also realizes that marrying Oscar could protect them both from the weight of their secrets. What follows is Squire, Vivian, and Oscar's attempt to create a business--and a life--outside of traditional expectations. Wolfgang-Smith approaches historical fiction as a costume ball, affecting a fizzy, omniscient narration: At the book's most fun, it's Edith Wharton or Henry James, with more camp and a winking tone. But strict verisimilitude to this period in fiction also means a reliance on exposition, and combined with lots of business talk, this can slow things down. All's queer in love and industry: a memorable tale uniquely told.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      January 1, 2025
      As she accomplished so well with her debut novel, Glassworks (2023), Wolfgang-Smith creates nuanced, full lives for the characters in her second. Vivian Lesperance escapes her oppressive childhood in Utica to reinvent herself in New York City, using her charm and skill to break into society. Her relationship with singer Sofia Bianchi catapults Vivian into a world of luxury for a time. Personal-care salesman Oscar Schmidt similarly f lees Cincinnati for New York, where his attraction to men can be managed without so many prying eyes. Squire Clancey, from an established New York society family, pursues his interests with an enthusiasm his parents do not understand. As the three characters encounter one another, Vivian's ambition leads them toward a life none of them could have expected. Wolfgang-Smith's remarkable skill with story and language brings readers into queer life in the early days of the twentieth century. Even side characters have deep histories. While the narrator's direct asides to the reader vary from intimate to distracting, Wolfgang-Smith's memorable protagonists and rich description are captivating.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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