Gray, Alexandra

PERSONAL: Female.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, 4th Fl., New York, NY 10003.

WRITINGS:

Ten Men (novel), Atlantic Monthly Press (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Alexandra Gray's first novel, Ten Men, allows her to address a variety of professions. The jet-setter actress heroine moves from relationship to relationship, each man coming from a different profession. She dubs these men variously as the Schoolmaster, the Lawyer, the Director, as well as the Virgin, and the Lover. Gray uses these relationships to describe the heroine's changing tastes and maturity as she searches for her perfect match. In a review for Library Journal, contributor Andrea Y. Griffith found the novel lacking, commenting that "the characters are flimsy caricatures, and the plot drags along." However, Hillary Frey, in a review for Salon.com, compared the book to the popular television series Sex and the City, calling it "a sort of celebration of singlehood; at the end of the novel, our heroine is an unmarried actress, still trawling the waters. And she's pretty happy, too." Frey concluded that "somewhere, in our heroine, is a little bit of each of us. And somewhere, in all the men she loved, is one we'll recognize."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2005, review of Ten Men, p. 374.

Library Journal, May 1, 2005, Andrea Y. Griffith, review of Ten Men, p. 72.

ONLINE

Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/ (June 6, 2005), Hillary Frey, review of Ten Men.