Adriane on the Edge Author:Paul Mandelbaum Adriane Gelki wants desperately to cultivate a life of devil-may-care, transcendent abandon-the kind personified by her hero, Thelonious Monk. So far she has yet to manage it-to be completely abandoned-except by other people. Like her father, who killed himself when she was fourteen, and her mother, who followed suit ten years later. Now staring... more » down thirty, Adriane's about to embark on a series of misadventures destined to change her life. In very short order, she manages to: get herself busted for flashing an undercover cop, break her court-appointed therapist's ribs, and ruin a perfectly pleasant orgy. For Adriane Gelki, things are finally starting to look up. This charming and incisive novel revels in the tragicomic journey of life-wherever it may lead.« less