Malaise

"Fleming Ford is an Alabama girl exiled to the West Coast, where she is torn between devotion to her husband and a dangerous love for an older Englishman who seems to embody the formality and culture lacking in her new home. California is to Fleming a desert of many kinds, but ultimately she is reluctantly drawn into the culture that she satirizes - its beautiful vistas, its citizens' endless quest for wellness, the narcotic effect of its perpetual sun. She soon finds herself at the mall or with a botanist, facialist, yoga instructor, or visceral manipulator. She must come to terms with the…