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Buy Me Love
Described by Publishers Weekly as Cooley's "sharp latest", "Cooley has a sure hand in probing the intersection of artistic ambition and money. This hopeful take is sure to move readers."
In Brooklyn, New York, in 2005, Ellen Portinari buys a lottery ticket on a whim; not long after, she realizes she’s won a hundred-million-dollar jackpot. With a month to redeem the ticket, she tells no one but her alcoholic brother—a talented composer whose girlfriend has died in a terrorist attack abroad—about her preposterous good luck.
As the clock ticks, Ellen caroms from incredulity to giddiness to dread as she tries to reckon with the potential consequences of her win. She becomes unexpectedly involved with a man and boy she’s met at her local gym. While she grapples with the burden of secret-keeping and the tug of a new intimacy, a Brooklyn street artist named Blair Talpa is contending with her own a missing brother, an urge to make art that will “derange orbits,” and a lack of money.
En route to redeem the lottery ticket, Ellen finds her prospects entwining by chance with Blair’s—which allows Ellen to reimagine luck’s relation to loss, and the reader to revel in surprise.
In Brooklyn, New York, in 2005, Ellen Portinari buys a lottery ticket on a whim; not long after, she realizes she’s won a hundred-million-dollar jackpot. With a month to redeem the ticket, she tells no one but her alcoholic brother—a talented composer whose girlfriend has died in a terrorist attack abroad—about her preposterous good luck.
As the clock ticks, Ellen caroms from incredulity to giddiness to dread as she tries to reckon with the potential consequences of her win. She becomes unexpectedly involved with a man and boy she’s met at her local gym. While she grapples with the burden of secret-keeping and the tug of a new intimacy, a Brooklyn street artist named Blair Talpa is contending with her own a missing brother, an urge to make art that will “derange orbits,” and a lack of money.
En route to redeem the lottery ticket, Ellen finds her prospects entwining by chance with Blair’s—which allows Ellen to reimagine luck’s relation to loss, and the reader to revel in surprise.
272 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2021
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78 people want to read
About the author
Martha Cooley
10 books63 followersMartha Cooley lives in Forest Hills, Queens (New York City) and Castiglione del Terziere, Italy--a tiny medieval village populated mainly by cats. A Professor of English at Adelphi University, she formerly taught in the Bennington Writing Seminars, and she leads workshops in creative writing in Tuscany. With her husband Antonio Romani, she translates fiction and poetry from Italian.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 6, 2022
Martha Cooley's Buy Me Love is a quick-witted reflection on middle-aged life cracked open by a stroke of luck.
Ellen is a poet living in Brooklyn who has written poetry in seven years. Raised by a gay father who abandoned her and a mother who drank herself to death, Ellen spends most of her days concerned for her brilliant but alcoholic composer brother and trying to find freelance gigs to fill her time. Lucky for her, her days become more varied when she meets Roy and Ennio at the gym one day and then has a mad stroke of luck that has the potential to change her life forever. But this potential acts as yet another mental hurdle for her: is she willing to embrace the change - good and bad - that will surely come from her own moment of good fortune?
Buy Me Love does an incredible job of interweaving multiple stories and building up complex, compelling characters. But at the same time so many unbelievable things happen throughout the book that the story itself becomes, in the end, a bit too unbelievable, which just did not fit the arc of the book. Nonetheless, this is a fun read that I read quickly and thoroughly enjoyed.
Ellen is a poet living in Brooklyn who has written poetry in seven years. Raised by a gay father who abandoned her and a mother who drank herself to death, Ellen spends most of her days concerned for her brilliant but alcoholic composer brother and trying to find freelance gigs to fill her time. Lucky for her, her days become more varied when she meets Roy and Ennio at the gym one day and then has a mad stroke of luck that has the potential to change her life forever. But this potential acts as yet another mental hurdle for her: is she willing to embrace the change - good and bad - that will surely come from her own moment of good fortune?
Buy Me Love does an incredible job of interweaving multiple stories and building up complex, compelling characters. But at the same time so many unbelievable things happen throughout the book that the story itself becomes, in the end, a bit too unbelievable, which just did not fit the arc of the book. Nonetheless, this is a fun read that I read quickly and thoroughly enjoyed.
December 6, 2025
It definitely made me think about art, music, love, money, and their relationship to each other, but the story dragged, and the ending felt like a joyless allegory.
June 14, 2021
Buy Me Love, Martha Cooley
I always feel recognized when I read books where the main character is having hot flashes. Here, Ellen Portinari, has more than menopause to contend with. A poet not writing poems but instead finding one editing gig after another to support herself, Ellen struggles with money issues, self worth issues, shitty father issues, neglectful mom issues, and a falling apart brother issue. Luckily, she has a small group of nice friends and two sweet cats.
On a summer day trudge to her temporary museum job in Brooklyn, Ellen is convinced by the friendly bodega owner to buy a mega millions lottery ticket, something she never does. Days later she finds out she's won a hundred million dollars! What! Overwhelmed, appalled, afraid, disgusted and totally unsure of what to do, Ellen tells no one but her brother, and he's no help. She knows she has a month to think about how to deal with this windfall before claiming her prize, and begins to sink into all the confusion and trepidation the spotlight and money managers and lawyers the winning will bring. So Ellen decides to put off presenting her ticket. She’d rather let her fear and fantasy fester.
At the same time this is happening, Ellen, for the first time in years, has met a man. A really good man. And their time together is sexy, sensual, connected and more than she's expected would befall her.
Meanwhile, parallel to Ellen’s outrageous and sublime story is the story of Blair, a young, underground street artist, struggling as well with brother and parent issues, who wants her art to really shake things up. Blair memorizes way too much Camus.
As Blair steals art supplies to get her art work installed, and moves on to more dangerous thievery to continue making statements, her path comes closer and closer to crossing with Ellen and her lover.
A book elegantly written about artist’s constant struggle with their art, money, family and love, Cooley does a terrific job of bringing her main character, with all her idiosyncrasies, to life. You can't help but like Ellen, want to shake her, and then grab her hand and pull her to the place where she turns in her winning lottery ticket. Ellen has had it rough, but you see her over and over again, stand up for herself and her brother when it's most important. You also see her giving love a try, and it seems to be the right time for her to do so.
Such a gentle, unpretentious, sexy and passionate look at a complex woman’s life. Really terrific.
I always feel recognized when I read books where the main character is having hot flashes. Here, Ellen Portinari, has more than menopause to contend with. A poet not writing poems but instead finding one editing gig after another to support herself, Ellen struggles with money issues, self worth issues, shitty father issues, neglectful mom issues, and a falling apart brother issue. Luckily, she has a small group of nice friends and two sweet cats.
On a summer day trudge to her temporary museum job in Brooklyn, Ellen is convinced by the friendly bodega owner to buy a mega millions lottery ticket, something she never does. Days later she finds out she's won a hundred million dollars! What! Overwhelmed, appalled, afraid, disgusted and totally unsure of what to do, Ellen tells no one but her brother, and he's no help. She knows she has a month to think about how to deal with this windfall before claiming her prize, and begins to sink into all the confusion and trepidation the spotlight and money managers and lawyers the winning will bring. So Ellen decides to put off presenting her ticket. She’d rather let her fear and fantasy fester.
At the same time this is happening, Ellen, for the first time in years, has met a man. A really good man. And their time together is sexy, sensual, connected and more than she's expected would befall her.
Meanwhile, parallel to Ellen’s outrageous and sublime story is the story of Blair, a young, underground street artist, struggling as well with brother and parent issues, who wants her art to really shake things up. Blair memorizes way too much Camus.
As Blair steals art supplies to get her art work installed, and moves on to more dangerous thievery to continue making statements, her path comes closer and closer to crossing with Ellen and her lover.
A book elegantly written about artist’s constant struggle with their art, money, family and love, Cooley does a terrific job of bringing her main character, with all her idiosyncrasies, to life. You can't help but like Ellen, want to shake her, and then grab her hand and pull her to the place where she turns in her winning lottery ticket. Ellen has had it rough, but you see her over and over again, stand up for herself and her brother when it's most important. You also see her giving love a try, and it seems to be the right time for her to do so.
Such a gentle, unpretentious, sexy and passionate look at a complex woman’s life. Really terrific.
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October 19, 2023I bought this at a book fair on a whim and I am surprised I finished it. The characters, excluding Roy, were all infuriating. There was sexual abuse that did not seem to serve a compelling purpose to the narrative. The war comments felt a bit out of place and really the only thing that made it clear it was the early 2000s. I don’t know that any character had any real growth throughout. And the number of coincidences was a bit much—I almost threw my hands up when I got to the last chapter.
May 2, 2022
Buy Me Love, Martha Cooley’s 2021 novel, is a tale of mid-life romance, longing, and—possibly—a lot of money. It will leave you contemplating what would I do if it were me long past the final paragraph!
August 16, 2021
A very believable romance lies at the heart of this novel, but in the depths lurks the tangled bond between brothers and sisters, and into the air rises an aria of love to Brooklyn.
October 2, 2023
Lackluster…not a good read for me
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews