cover image Right Before Your Eyes

Right Before Your Eyes

Ellen Shanman. Delta, $12 (306pp) ISBN 978-0-385-34051-9

A Yale grad and frustrated playwright, Liza Weiler is a temp with attitude, answering phones for the feisty nuns of a New York convent. She is cautious when she meets Will Atherton, a second-year grad student interested in staging one of her plays. Will soon accepts an offer to be the subject of a reality TV series centering on struggling actors, which will bring her work exposure, but Liza's enthusiasm further fades as she watches Will butcher her work. Just when she thinks things can't get worse, she sprains her ankle, gets fired from the convent, and is invaded by her midwestern family, who settle in for a long Thanksgiving visit. There are several possible Mr. Rights, including an ER doc and a corporate takeover artist who smells ""expensive,"" as Shanman's madcap debut unfolds in a New York rich with bawdy immediacy.