Reproduction is the flaw of love - Lauren Grodstein

Joel Miller is waiting for his girlfriend Lisa to take a pregnancy test. He hasn't planned to be a father, he's not even sure he wants to be a father, but as of a couple of hours ago it's a very real possibility. Lisa isn't the love of Miller's life - theirs is a relationship, which happened by accident rather than by design - but as Lisa, locked in the bathroom, stalls for time by doing her make-up and taking a bath, he realises he might now be bound to her forever. And so, while his future is decided for him behind a closed door, he tries to make sense of his past. As Miller thinks back, he starts to look more closely at his turbulent childhood and his parents' dysfunctional marriage; at his relationships with his complex father and his difficult, unpredictable mother. But, most of all, he thinks about his failed relationship with Blair, the woman he loved but couldn't hold on to ...An everyman for his generation, Miller explores his relationships with aremarkable combination of irony, acerbic wit, astute observation andgenerosity. Both hilarious and heartbreaking, Reproduction is the Flaw ofLove is a startlingly original, profoundly moving debut novel.