It's Romeo and Juliet modern grunge style when Elise Perez, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks and colour meets Jamey Hyde, the scion of a rich family studying at Yale. The attraction is raunchy and immediate and they soon move to Manhattan. What develops is raw, a clash of worlds and sensibilities, mental health frailties and exacerbated emotions. When Jamey's family vengefully attack their relationship, the couple embark on an odyssey of lust, drug taking and despair that can only lead to a dark conclusion at the end of the twisted road. Despite the basic set up, this is not a book for young adults, but rather a tale of young adults abandoned by hope and hanging on to the anchor of their love, inarticulate, drowning and on a slippery road to nowhere. Libaire (and Elise) has a distinct voice, sardonic, sad and picturesque, with a wonderful touch for the telling details (such as Elise's coat, which gives the book its title). A familiar but fascinating tale. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
A stunning star-crossed love story set against the glitz and grit of 1980s New York City
When Elise Perez meets Jamey Hyde on a desolate winter afternoon, fate implodes, and neither of their lives will ever be the same. Although they are next-door neighbors in New Haven, they come from different worlds. Elise grew up in a housing project without a father and didn't graduate from high school; Jamey is a junior at Yale, heir to a private investment bank fortune and beholden to high family expectations. Nevertheless, the attraction is instant, and what starts out as sexual obsession turns into something greater, stranger, and impossible to ignore.
The couple moves to Manhattan in search of a new life, and White Fur follows them as they wander through Newport mansions and East Village dives, WASP-establishment yacht clubs and the grimy streets below Canal Street, fighting the forces determined to keep them apart. White Fur combines the electricity of Less Than Zero with the timeless intensity of Romeo and Juliet in this searing, gorgeously written novel that perfectly captures the ferocity of young love.
