THE FAMILY MAN is classic Elinor Lipman - irresistible, incisive and pure pleasure to read. Henry Archer's ex-wife is unhinged. And impossibly demanding. And recently widowed. A hysterical phone call from her is the last thing his calm, well-ordered life needs. But there is one happy side-effect: the chance to get back in contact with his beloved step-child, her daughter, with whom he lost touch when their wildly misbegotten marriage ended long ago. Henry is a lawyer, an old-fashioned man, gay, successful, lonely. Thalia is now twenty-nine, a would-be actress, estranged from her crackpot mother and about to embark on a risky plan to further her career by posing as the girlfriend of a struggling actor down on his romantic luck. When Thalia and her complicated social life move into the basement of Henry's Manhattan home, she finds a champion in her long-lost father, and Henry finds that out of chaos comes life, and maybe even love.