New York author Jami Attenberg is in town this week to read from and sign her excellent debut novel, The Kept Man which examines the life of a young woman, Jarvis, whose artist husband is in a coma. It also curiously examines the life of the"kept men" friends Jarvis meets who are able to spend their days as they please because of their wealthy wives. Attenberg's tale is intense, as any novel about a coma patient is likely to be, but her gorgeous prose and her pitch-perfect humor turn what could be a standard-coma-drama (is there such a thing?) into a story that plumbs the deeper depths of what it means to be an artist, what it means to live for your art and how to live - or die - with dignity in today's political climate. more ›