Preview of Gerald's Party Summary:

At its most obvious level, Gerald's Party is about the insensitivity and cruelty of certain modes of social interaction. The entire novel covers a party given by the narrator, whose last name and occupation are never revealed, and his amazingly docile wife. During the evening, couples pair off in unexpected groupings, pretentious discussions of art and theater take place, a teenager loses both her virginity and her father, an actress is murdered, a painter commits suicide, a woman dying of cancer breaks a leg and must go to the hospital, a man is bludgeoned to death by police using croquet mallets, another is shot by an overzealous cop then put out of his misery by his best friend Gerald, a plumber is called in to fix a broken toilet, and a dwarf who cannot possibly have committed the murder is arrested for it. While...