THE THEORY OF THE SOFA
A Novel by Jess Shapiro
In the summer of 1969 the world was not just spinning around, it was turning upside down.
THE THEORY OF THE SOFA presents three very different perspectives of this seminal period in American history. As the main characters navigate the turbulent times, their separate coming- of-age paths cross and diverge, and a slow- burning plot grows into a full-blown inferno.
ABOUT JESS SHAPIRO
I was born in Brooklyn in 1947 and raised on Long Island. My wife and I graduated from Penn State in 1969 and got married in 1970. After two years we quit our teaching jobs and “Turned On/Tuned In/Dropped Out” to a commune in Oregon. When we returned east we bought an old farmhouse in New Hampshire and, no longer willing to work for “The Man,” started our own school. The assimilation of a couple of liberal city kids into a conservative small town was eye-opening, and an idea for a novel began to percolate. After we retired to Martha’s Vineyard I got serious and finished The Theory of the Sofa in 2025.