Product Description

As can only happen in New York, two strangers find themselves railroaded into an anger-management class, where they soon become fast friends. Iris is there because of an eminently justifiable meltdown on a crowded flight, whereas Ken got caught defacing library books with rude (but true!) messages about his former boyfriend. The boyfriend that he caught in bed with another man.

Needless to say, Iris and Ken were cosmically destined to be friends. What follows is a strikingly original comedy as Ken enlists Iris to infiltrate his ex-boyfriend’s life in the hope of discovering that he’s miserable. And Iris reciprocates, dispatching Ken to work himself into the confidence of her own boyfriend, whom she suspects of cheating. But what if Ken’s ex isn’t crying himself to sleep? What if he’s not the amoral fiend Ken wants to believe he is? And what should Iris do when her worst suspicions start to come true? Exactly how perfect do we have the right to expect our fellow human beings to be?

Anger, betrayal, loyalty, and friendship—Design Flaws of the Human Condition explores these universal themes with wisdom, compassion, and a wickedly irreverent sense of humor.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #555173 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-17
• Released on: 2007-07-17
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 8.01" h x .76" w x 5.21" l, .55 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Former lawyer Schmidtberger delivers a promising debut about love, friendship and anger-management. Iris Steegers is with Jeremy Eberle. Likewise, Ken Connelly is with Brett Manikin. After an unseemly incident on a plane flight in which Iris loses control, she is ordered to attend an anger management class and incidentally discovers that Jeremy might be carousing. Meanwhile, the day Ken's flippancy gets him fired from his proofreading job at a law firm, he finds Brett in bed with another man. The fallout from his bad day lands him next to Iris in the anger management class at Manhattan's West Side Y. What follows is a not always realistic but assuredly entertaining romp as Ken and Iris enlist each other to spy on their significant others, or ex in Ken's case. The results: a bit about what happiness really is, whether or not staying in a relationship guarantees happiness, and a whole lot about how friendships form and shape who we become. Though the narrative suffers from a surfeit of trite dialogue, Schmidtberger handles his characters with a sympathetic grace. (July)
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Review
“Design Flaws of the Human Condition contains the kind of pitch-perfect observations that make you want to phone the author, crying, “Yes! Yes! Yes! I feel exactly the same way!” A searing satire of every imaginable inconvenience and indignity, Schmidtberger’s novel of ill manners shimmers with wit, whimsy, and wisdom.”
—Marc Acito, author of How I Paid for College

“In New York—a city of coincidence and contradictions—Iris and Ken are the quintessential couple, the straight woman and her gay best friend. And what a pair they make. Their adventures bubble with humor but never become absurd, and the story of their friendship charms without becoming sentimental.”
—Shari Goldhagen, author of Family and Other Accidents

About the Author
PAUL SCHMIDTBERGER was born and raised in Schooley’s Mountain, New Jersey, and currently lives in Paris. He is a graduate of Yale College and Stanford Law School, and is a member of the California State Bar. This is his first novel.