Personal Velocity

Rebecca Miller's powerful debut, Personal Velocity, explores the multifaceted lives of women in seven arresting portraits. Given a glimpse of the secret self of each character, we see the surprising shape of her life created as she hurtles through it. Modern and diverse, these women of different classes and ages struggle with sexuality, fate, motherhood, infidelity, desperation, and an overriding will to survive. We meet Greta, a cookbook editor who is chosen by Thavi, the hottest writer of his generation, to edit his new book. The book becomes a best-seller, and Greta is propelled out of her marriage by her own ambition and success. Other characters include Nancy, a psychologically troubled nine-year-old girl growing up within New York high society; Delia, an abused wife who goes into hiding with her children; and Louisa, a painter who moves rapidly from one lover to the next, acting out a self-perpetuating drama over which she has no control. Two stories, "Bryna" and "Julianne," recount the same night from different points of view. At Julianne's dinner party, filled with local celebrities, her housekeeper, Bryna, is working in the kitchen when a startling scene ensues. It draws the two women together and causes each to realize something about their own pain. Miller's fresh and lustrous prose is sure to bring her into the limelight of American fiction.