Trade Paperback Original
ISBN 10: 1-932961-33-X
ISBN 13: 978-1-932961-33-1
5½ x 8¼ / 256 Pages / $14.95
/ May 2007
Summary | Praise | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Widgets | Bio | Events
A failed erotic novelist; a hostess of prim sex-toy parties; an artist and a bookshop owner pursued by a demented if harmless stalker; wives, lovers, twin sisters, daughters—all members of the artsy crowd in Omaha, try to hold their families, friendships and personal lives together as they face damaged and broken marriages, and mid-life crises during one whirlwind day that may only be saved by their own children, a timely fire, and a return to their senses.
Ashley, a frustrated novelist, teaches a community college class in the writing of erotica, which only seems to turn a magnifying glass on her own marriage woes. June has become filthy rich by selling marital aides at Tupperware-like home parties for a company called Sugar Shop Inc., but despite her wealth, she still longs to reunite with her impoverished ex-husband. Viv, an artist, learns to find creative inspiration, and maybe even a better understanding of herself, from a dirty-minded stalker who reliably sends her startling pictures in the mail every day. Peach and Plum, twin sisters, own a bookstore called Mermaids Singing, where together they attempt to unravel the knots of their own neuroses. All the while, the words and questionable wisdom of a tough-love motivational speaker, known only as Sybil the Guru, echoes throughout all their lives.
The day ends with a few raucous parties that threaten, or promise, to challenge the ways these various women continue to live. As the women struggle for guidance in the face of sheer lunacy, they come to realize that the most useful answers are likely the ones they come up with all on their own.
"Think 'Sex and the City.' Now make the city…Omaha….setting aside, can a novel still be called chick lit if (a) it’s written by a guy and (b) most of the chicks in question are in their late 30’s to early 40’s and not especially interested in shoes? When the characters spend as much time as these do searching for love, sipping cocktails and seeking comfort in one another’s company, the answer is yes, though Schaffert’s version of it is a good deal smarter and funnier than most of the disposable volumes cluttering up this genre’s walk-in closet.”—The New York Times Book Review
"This novel of desire, longing,
love, and enduring friendship is like an expensive box of chocolates: each
silken morsel is luscious and approvingly decadent, and with every bite you
don't necessarily know what you're going to get." -Library Journal, Starred Review
"Schaffert (The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God) walks an uneasy tightrope between the amusingly sexy and the scabrous... but Schaffert's bohemian Omaha is consistently surprising and vibrant." - Publishers Weekly
"[A] non-stop comic delight.”—Books to Watch Out For
"The lives of an erotic creative writing teacher, twin booksellers, an adult-toy party hostess and a myriad of equally colorful characters intertwine as the result of a cryptic email. Although Schaffert writes coolly, with no hint of sentimentality, his traditional themes of family friendship, loyalty and discovery explode off the pages. No sugar coating on these pages… just lives laid bare for us to enjoy and to ponder. Don’t let the author’s breezy style and quirky characters fool you, there is a lot here to keep you reading to the very last, juicy syllable." - Bev Denor, LaDeDa Books & Beans (WI)
"Schaffert keeps the pages turning with his wonderfully real characters, clever quips and unique details. . . . This is sure to be a novel on several book club and summer reading lists." - Silent City
“[A] wonderfully offbeat and surprisingly original novel… a hilarious and smart tale that begs for a sequel. And maybe even a Showtime series.” - In Los Angeles Magazine
"Schaffert has a good eye for the myriad ways we allow ourselves not to see our complicity in the difficulties of relationships, whether sexual or parental, and he's able to mine this with good humor and wit." - PopMatters
"Readers and Book people will delight in the bookstore banter of Peaches, Plum and their eclectic collection of customers, lovers and writers. Devils in the Sugar Shop delights and affirms the nature of the human heart." - Sarah Bagby, Watermark Books & Cafe (Kansas)
"You’ll be surprised to find out what goes on in the suburbs especially on Sugar Party night. This was a delightful, funny book and I laughed and laughed. You can be sure I’ll recommend it to my book club." - Andra Tracy, Out Word Bound Books (Indiana)
"I made the mistake of reading Devils in the Sugar Shop with a bad case of whiplash. Timothy Schaffert had me in agony and loving every minute. What a poignant, hilarious, deliciously perverse twist on the old school of Southern charm. Men should not be allowed to write women this well."—Joni Rodgers, author of BALD IN THE LAND OF BIG HAIR
"Timothy Schaffert has written about small Nebraska towns, where a pair of parentless sisters embarked on a journey of self-discovery. He's traveled rural, dusty Nebraska roads, where a country music-writing bus driver battled alcoholism while working to rebuild his shattered family." - Omaha World-Herald
Timothy Schaffert grew up on a farm in Nebraska and currently lives in Omaha. His short fiction has been published in several literary journals and he's won numerous awards, including the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award and the Nebraska Book Award.
He is the author of two previous critically-acclaimed novels,
The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters and The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God.
Timothy Schaffert's Website
Timothy of Flickr
Timothy on MySpace
Unbridled Aloud featuring Timothy Schaffert (Fall 2006)
Unbridled Aloud featuring Timothy Schaffert (Summer 2007)
Schaffert Interview with LitMinds
The bark and shriek of a domestic dispute slipped in from the street, through a window at the front of the store opened a crack to let in gusts of cool air. The shop was frequently sweltering, as the condos upstairs were overrun with the elderly. In particular there seemed to be a surfeit of septuagenarian divorcees in greasy fur coats succumbing to mange, always flaunting their grandfathered-in kitty cats (pets were no longer allowed), and constantly complaining to maintenance of the cold. Because of the onion-thin skin of this slow parade of battleaxes, Plum and Peach sweltered in the winter months.
“Ooh, it looks like an ugly one,” Peach said, walking to the front to watch the couple pass. She stood at the door on tiptoes to see over the blue-finned, red-nippled mermaid (reading Colette) painted on the glass.
“An ugly what?” Plum said. She walked to the window seat and raised a slat of the blinds. “An ugly husband? An ugly wife?”
“An ugly fight. Look how he’s getting in her face like that.”
“But she can’t just walk away, can she?” Plum murmured. “Is he going to slug her? Should we call the police?”
“No, he won’t slug her,” Peach said. “At least not until they get home. Then bap, a knuckle sandwich.”
“But maybe not,” Plum said. “Maybe things are different when they’re at home. In the dark of their kennel. At home, they just break open a bottle of us-against-the-world and anesthetize. Maybe it’s only when they’re out in the city, faced with everything they don’t got, that they turn on each other.”
After a silence, Peach said, “What am I doing, Plum?”
“That little lover’s tango got you thinking,” Plum said, sitting on the cushions of the window seat, drawing her knees up, putting her arms around them. “It’s like a metaphor. For your affair.”
“Oh, stop,” Peach said. She sat next to Plum. Peach’s skin was all goose-bumpy, and Plum reached over to rub some warmth into her arms. “Everything can be a metaphor for an affair,” Peach said. “Because, our feelings for other people, that’s all anybody’s ever really thinking about, at any given minute, isn’t it? Am I happy alone? Am I happy married? Am I having enough sex? Am I having too much? Is he unhappier than I am?”
