In Lauren Grodstein's debut novel, Reproduction Is the Flaw of Love, Joel Miller spends a Saturday afternoon standing outside the bathroom door of the Brooklyn apartment he shares with his girlfriend as she takes a pregnancy test to determine their fate as parents, and ultimately as a couple. To occupy the time (both Miller's and our own), Grodstein takes us on a journey through Miller's 28 years, a trip which starts with his father's departure and his mother's madness, continues in a cheap apartment in Queens where he falls in love with a high society girl from Park Avenue, and finally culminates back in the Brooklyn bathroom. Along the way, Grodstein does a commendable job of interpreting the male perspective on grief, ecstasy, love, and eventually heartbreak over the one that got away

About the Author

Lauren Grodstein grew up in New Jersey, and received a BA and an MFA from Columbia University. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Virgin Fiction 2, Ontario Review, Before and After: Stories from New York, and Time Out New York. Her collection of short stories, The Best of Animals was published in 2002. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.