Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles

Tennessee Williams called it "my favorite book" and Truman Capote called it "a modern legend." Since 1943, Jane Bowles' only novel Two Serious Ladies has been wowing readers with its oddball characters and highly original style. Now Ecco has reissued this quirky masterpiece about the devil-may-care thrillseekers Miss Goering (who, as a child, "had been very much disliked by other children") and the more-than-meets-the-eye married matron, Mrs Copperfield. The former, an heiress, leaves her splendid mansion for a seedy dive and its semi-squalid denizens, while the latter, on a trip to Panama, abandons her husband to live in a brothel with a fading prostitute named Pacifica. Obviously, the humor is not for everyone but it's been a queer favorite for 70 years.