An Unexpected Exile

An Unexpected Exile

 

Sheryl  Sorrentino's second novel, An Unexpected Exile, tells the story of Risa Weinberg, a fairly attractive and mostly independent junior merchandiser for Nordstrom’s flagship San Francisco store. Nearly thirty, she dreams of someday being promoted to fashion buyer. But with no other romantic prospects on the horizon, Risa becomes unexpectedly smitten with Arturo, a recent Nicaraguan immigrant whom she meets on the bus one morning. In spite of a riotous culture-clash, Arturo’s captivating life story and arresting sensuality soon overwhelm Risa as Arturo, a self-described Sandinista insurgent, cunningly muscles his way into Risa’s good graces. With a conscious but faulty deliberation, Risa manages to ignore (or make excuses for) Arturo’s possessive behavior; instead, she succumbs to the allure of romance and falls deeper and deeper under his spell in her misguided pursuit of passion. Meanwhile, her passive-aggressive rapport with her widowed father grows increasingly strained, and her career aspirations derail, as she stumbles into what quickly becomes a highly charged and subtly abusive relationship.

Faced with the prospect of Arturo's deportation, Risa reluctantly agrees to marry him against her better judgment. She then becomes so caught up in planning the perfect wedding that she cannot see beyond the ephemeral appetizer of flowers and photographers to the enduring main course of being married to this most unsuitable man. Set in the aftermath of the Nicaraguan contra war, An Unexpected Exile takes a comedic-yet-serious look at how a woman can become consumed by feverish sexual obsession while sacrificing her professional ambition and self-worth in the process.