Subtle Bodies

The tragic death of Douglas, a well-known forgery investigator, is a world-rocking event for the men who made up his once-close coterie at NYU. Now, Ned, Elliott, Gruen, and Joris reunite at Douglas’s Catskills estate, where they find themselves obeying Elliott’s directives for the memorial service despite the fact that his intentions remain murky. Though Ned has always felt himself to be on the group’s fringes, he nevertheless approaches the memorial with a singular goal: to get his old friends to sign a petition protesting the Iraq invasion.

Ned’s presence at the memorial is further complicated by the surprise arrival of his wife, Nina, who has followed him in the hopes of conceiving a child. She doesn’t understand the bonds that connect these men, and her questions and observations drive Ned to consider his old friends in a more critical light. As Douglas’s memorial service takes shape, old loyalties are tested, old assumptions upended – and the good old days are, at last, left behind forever. Rush’s quick pacing and easy switching among points of view pull readers capably into the core of this exclusive group at a crucial juncture in their friendship – and their lives.