All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me

 By Patrick Bringley

Simon and Schuster     2023

240 pages     Memoir

The advance readers copy of All The Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley sat on my pile of books for several months. It always looked so intriguing, and it kept reappearing on the top of the stack as if calling to me. Finally, I ditched all the books that I was meandering through and decided that this was it. I began to delve into Bringley’s ten years as a Metropolitan Museum of Art guard. And I am so glad that I did.

After a family tragedy, Bringley chose to change the trajectory of  his career. He became a guard, took notes, and has treated the reader to an intimate look at life at the Met. Early on in his job he learned that a day as a guard is “a day of perfect loneliness.” That other than sore feet, this is a perfect job. He sought to learn everything he could about the art in the museum, the way the museum is run, and most importantly who the patrons are that visit the museum. Because, after all, the job of a museum guard is to protect the patrons and the art.

All of this he shares from his unique guard’s-eye view. He chose this job because it was “the most straightforward job I could think of in the most beautiful place I knew.” This job gave him time to grieve his brother’s death, to learn all that he could, and stand still and reflect. And because of his dedication and his note-taking, we have the opportunity to learn and to grow as well.

There are a lot of facts that the reader has to wade through, including statistics about the 2000 employees and the 600 guards, many of whom come from Guyana, Albania and Russia. Bringley tells us a lot about the visitors to the museum. He outlines the three types of museum visitor: there is the sightseer who is sort of along for the ride; the dinosaur hunter who primarily is looking for entertainment and big stuff; and then there are the lovers—the art lover here for an exhibition, the art lover who really loves the museum itself; and the lovebird, who move through the museum looking for peace and joy. (I believe that I have represented every one of those types of viewers at some time in my life.)

Most importantly, Bringley tells the reader about all that he learned in his ten years at the Met, including the paintings and other art works that meant a great deal to him. Each of those art works are documented at the end of the book. He has suggestions for when to visit the museum and how to arrange a visit. He says, “You may not have words to describe your sensations, but try to notice them anyway. Hopefully, in the silence and the stillness, you’ll experience something uncommon or unexpected.”

In a much younger year of my life, we were in Paris. We got caught up in the Modern Art Museum and spent hours as lovebirds. Suddenly we realized that we had not been to the Louvre and it was getting close to closing time. We ran across the street and said breathlessly to the guard, “Ou est la Mona Lisa?” Apparently this was not the first time that breathless visitors had asked that question, and the guard personally led us to the painting. Bringley would have called us dinosaur hunters. I have also gone to art museums as a sightseer, not particularly looking for anything, but just out for the sights.  And when the Van Gogh exhibit was at the Chicago art museum, my daughter and I drove to the city for a day and only went to that exhibit, another type of art visitor, the exhibition visitor.

When you are totally engrossed in a book, you often find examples all around you. I discovered several Freakonomics episodes about art museums and stolen art. I watched The Thomas Crown Affair and focused on the museum guards who are prominent early on in the movie in red suit coats, and today I watched From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which is about a brother and sister who run away to the Metropolitan Museum. The book of the same name by E.L. Konigsburg is 55 years old, and both the book and the movie are charming.

There is so much to absorb while reading All the Beauty in the World. I felt like I just kept growing and growing, yearning and longing for such wonderful growth experiences. The NPR reviewer says that the book “reminds us of the importance of learning not ‘about art, but from it.’ This is art appreciation at a profound level.”

Patrick Bringley’s website. He even gives private tours of the Metropolitan Museum. That would be something amazing to do on a visit to New York.

Acts of Atonement

 By S.W. Leicher

Twisted Road     2021

299 pages     Literary

A lesbian couple, who live in Prospect Park South in Brooklyn, have defied many odds to establish a life together. Paloma is a tremendously respected oncological nurse. Born the only daughter of Colombian immigrants, she is connected with her brother and his children, but primarily isolated from the rest of her family. Likewise, Serach, an accountant,  has been abandoned by her Orthodox Jewish family, and when her mother dies, she faces indescribable pain and suffering because of her life choices.

Even though they love each other deeply, Paloma and Serach struggle in the face of being outcasts in their families. Have they made the right choice to renounce their past and cling to each other rather than family? Each character has a narrative, and Leicher explores complex psychological, sexual and philosophical mazes as the story line deals with the dilemmas caused by the life the two women have chosen.

I especially was taken with the narrative that unfolded when Serach’s mother dies. She desperately wants to be part of the ceremony and burial, which is so much a part of Orthodox tradition. Even her brother, whom she adored growing up, has abandoned her, and the poignancy is intense as she stands at the edge of the cemetery attempting to discretely observe the burial.

I got thrown off as I began Acts of Atonement because of the long list of character names and how they were connected with Paloma and Serach before the book began.  I got worried that I might have to keep referring to the list as I delved into the book, but Leicher did a good job of introducing each character, and I hardly ever had to refer back. Additionally, at the end of the novel is a glossary of Spanish and Hebrew words, but again, I had little trouble navigating the terminology.

Additionally, this is the sequel to an earlier novel, Acts of Assumption. Apparently in the first novel, the couple meets and begins their life together. Leicher says that Acts of Atonement is “the ongoing story of the battle between roots and desires.” One reviewer interviewed Leicher, and you can find her story of the novel’s development here.

The novel is based in New York City, and it is obvious that the author is also a New Yorker. Additionally Leicher has a deep knowledge and understanding  of Orthodox Judaism, which I very much appreciated.

S.W. Leicher’s website. Many thanks to the publicist who sent me the book to read. Acts of Atonement will be published tomorrow, June 20, 2022.

Harlem Shuffle

 By Colson Whitehead

Doubleday     2021

336 pages     Thriller/Noir

Where to start? First of all: an apology. I had not read either of Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novels, The Underground Railroad or Nickel Boys when I began Harlem Shuffle. And I can’t believe my ignorance of such an incredible author! I started the year with probably the most engaging book I will read all year.

Here is the brief synopsis from the Amazon website. “Colson Whitehead’s latest is a blisteringly entertaining novel of schemers and dreamers, mobsters and crooks, elaborate heists and furniture fronts, and the thrilling mischief of those who are up to no good and others who are just trying to make a living. Caught between his family’s penchant for shady deals and his desire to be clean, Ray Carney sits at the center of this swirling drama set in 1960s Harlem. A tribute to the city, the momentum of life, and the duality that lies in each of us, Harlem Shuffle is a lot of fun to read and another great offering by two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author Colson Whitehead”

Ray Carney is a marvelously-developed character. The moral dilemma he presents is so real, so present that the reader almost forgets that the book takes place in the 1960s. Except the 1960s are ever present in the background of the plot: the protests, the gentrification of New York City, the development of the World Trade Center. The marvelous review in The Atlantic comments on this:

“In the moral universe of Harlem Shuffle, the honest in honest work is literal. The novel privileges the perspectives of its avowed criminals—thieves, mobsters, and prostitutes, all candid about the nature of their profession—over those who have convinced themselves that their dubious machinations are ethical, which is to say bankers, real-estate developers, and the suits who work to find them loopholes.” 

I think the thing that impressed and amazed me the most is the density, creativity, and the brilliance of the writing. I found myself laughing at many of the comments of the characters or the description of a particular setting. Here is one description of Ray Carney’s career. “An outside observer might get the idea that Carney trafficked quite frequently in stolen goods, but that’s not how he saw it. There was a natural flow of goods in and out and through people’s lives, from here to there, a churn of property, and Ray Carney facilitated that churn. As a middleman. Legit.” Or the description of a waitress:  “Certainly she hadn’t quit show business, waitressing being a line of work where you had to play to even the cheapest of seats.” Whitehead describes Times Square around midnight as an” incandescent, stupefying bazaar.”

This is not your typical noir fiction because the subject is far more universal than that. Today, for instance, I greeted two acquaintances who are honest in the same way Ray and his buddies are honest—they are just trying to make a buck, feed their families, and put gas in their cars. If, on occasion, they deal in questionable behavior, well, it is all part of the gig. I recognized the characters Ray and Pepper and Freddy and Linus in the Kalamazoo characters Walt and Lawrence and Ken who call me looking for work. Vox calls Harlem Shuffle a morality play. It is indeed.

On the other hand, I found it a difficult book to get through, in part, because of the number of characters to keep track of and also because I wanted to savor every word. I’d start each reading thinking to myself, “Where was I?” I absorbed the history of New York City in the brilliant way Whitehead presented that history in the same way the citizens of Harlem and the rest of the city absorbed the history—the good, the bad, and the ugly!

I think anyone who wants to read brilliant fiction should read Harlem Shuffle, but be prepared to devote your heart and soul into the book—and also a lot of time. Harlem Shuffle demands everything you’ve got!

Astrid Sees All

 By Natalie Standiford

Atria Books     2021

272 pages     Literary

Most young adults want excitement in their lives and the home town is not the place to get that excitement. It is no different for Phoebe, a young college graduate from Baltimore in the insightful novel, Astrid Sees All. Phoebe follows her college friend, Carmen, to the crazy lower Manhattan scene of the early 1980s. She has been devasted by the death of her father, but she knows that she must find something new in her life. The two young women descend on the East Village and find themselves enmeshed in an underworld that is both exciting and frightening. Phoebe becomes the fortune teller at the “it” club in the neighborhood. She disappears into a character, Astrid the Star Girl, and tells fortunes using the ticket stubs from the movies she and Carmen have seen—a brilliant plot device, by the way.

These are young women searching for an identity in the midst of shadows of all sorts, past, present, and future. We understand Phoebe to a certain extent but many of the other characters remain very elusive, including Carmen. There are no easy answers to the dilemmas that face them and no bright future, despite the fact that they are young, full of ambition, and drive. On the other hand, as they walk into the situations that are determining their future, we mature readers are cautioning those characters to be careful, to take it easy, and to not make such stupid decisions.

Astrid Sees All serves us best as a look at the gritty side of New York in the 1980s. We touch base with celebrities and scoundrels, druggies, as well as others as fresh and innocent as Phoebe. There is a lot of grief in the novel, but the plot keeps moving and the reader keeps reading. As we watch Phoebe weathering everything that has come her way,  we root for her survival. One reviewer called the characters “damaged young dreamers”, and that is a very accurate assessment of the lives we are reading about.

The novel has resonance in part because Standiford is a person who lived that scene and describes it so vividly. The book moves along surprising well, filled as it is with yearning and insight. It’s pretty dark, but I was able to move through it quite rapidly and appreciated both the dark and light of the story. All of a sudden this morning, I recalled one character and why she was included—I had not figured it out before. She is an old woman living in the building where Phoebe and Carmen are living. Addled by dementia, she wanders around the building knocking on doors, asking “What time is it?” Phoebe is extremely annoyed by her, but I believe the old woman is the voice of reason, calling on Phoebe and the others: “What time is it?” Time to get your shit together!                                                                            

 All of my children lived in New York City in their young adult lives, with varying degrees of success and satisfaction. My oldest son and his wife left the city and moved closer to home before the arrival of their first child. The other two left when the city tanked following 9/11. I very much appreciated the crises that enveloped Phoebe and the other characters, including her mother’s anxieties, because my children suffered from some of the same discomforting situations, and I was frequently anxious for them.  On the other hand,  I missed the city’s charms when my children moved to more familiar territory and I had no reason to visit the city.

Astrid Sees All is on everyone’s radar right now. Standiford was interviewed via Zoom for our local library this week, and there are also many reviews and interviews of the author to be found online. Here is a one minute sharing of the plot by the author. After thinking about it for a couple of days, my opinion is that the book is extremely readable but surprisingly flawed.

Natalie Standiford has written several children’s and young adult novels. Astrid Sees All is her first adult novel. Here is her website.

Cornelius Sky

By Timothy Brandoff

Akashic Books     2019

224 pages     Literary

New York in 1974. Cornelius Sky (Connie) is a doorman in the building where a former First Lady and her son (think JFK Jr.) live. Connie hangs out with the teenage boy, tries to keep him safe from the prying eyes of the paparazzi, and offers him companionship and solace. Otherwise, Connie’s life is a mess.

He has estranged himself from his wife and his two young sons by his alcoholism, and finally his wife changes the locks, and Connie is out on the mean streets of the city—a city that seems to be falling apart right before his eyes. While he prides himself on his job and the great job he does buffing the marble floors, for example, he is haunted by his own past. This may be why he attaches himself to the fatherless boy and ignores his own sons.

Cornelius Sky is a superb character study, with vivid observations of Connie’s tumultuous life and the tumultuous city where he lives. Frankly, I loved Connie, in all his bruised glory. While I didn’t love the way he treated his family, I loved the way others saw the good in Connie and offered him redemption.

Most importantly, the author Timothy Brandoff is an astute observer of the human condition, and I found myself underlining entire passages of brilliant writing that moved my heart. For example, here is a description of the people in the bar Connie frequents:

“Longshoremen, mailmen, factory workers, auto mechanics, truck drivers, the unemployable, a couple of wet-brains, a misanthropic PhD or two hiding behind what they hoped people would consider academic beards of distinction, flabbergasted occupants of Chelsea’s swankier brownstones because their lives still somehow sucked despite impressive curriculum vitae and substantial earning power—all stood and drank at the bar together."

224 pages is a fairly short book but is an absolutely perfect length for Connie’s story. The Kirkus review concludes that “its detailed portrait of a self-destructive character retains a haunting power.” The reviewer is absolutely right about the “haunting power.” I read Cornelius Sky several weeks ago, and it has remained with me.

Timothy Brandoff has an interesting personal history. He wove together details from his own life as he created the character of Cornelius Sky.  He is a New York City bus driver and a former doorman, following the career path of his uncle and brother. He suggests, however, that while there are aspects of the book that follow his own life’s path, he hopes that the story is “true to itself.”

I hope that Brandoff will tell more stories of the characters he meets as he drives his bus through the city.

Speaking of Summer

By Kalisha Buckhanon

Counterpoint     2019

292 pages     Literary

I try to finish most of the books that I begin, but I had trouble getting through Speaking of Summer. Several of the reviewers mentioned that it improved about half-way through, but frankly, it’s been quite a week around here, and I was not able to get to that point. I loved the title and loved the cover, but I just couldn't get through the book. Please don't let that deter you, because I believe that Buckhanon's look at Black women's worth is well worth pursuing.

Here is a plot summary:

“On a cold December evening, Autumn Spencer’s twin sister, Summer, walks to the roof of their shared Harlem brownstone and is never seen again. With her friends and neighbors, Autumn pretends to hold up through the crisis. But the loss becomes too great, the mystery too inexplicable, and Autumn starts to unravel, all the while becoming obsessed with the various murders of local women and the men who kill them.”

At first glance, Autumn does not appear to be an unreliable narrator, but we are privileged to frequent glimpses of her mental unraveling as she deals with what she perceives to be a lack of interest in a missing black woman. This, of course, is a common perception. If Summer had been a white woman, there would have been a much more rapid response to her disappearance. Her theme is always present; “women of color don’t matter in America unless we are rich and famous.”

Kalisha Buckhanon has a marvelous way with words. Sometimes I got so caught up in the language that I forgot to pay attention to what was happening in the plot, and that may be one of the major problems with the novel—it is wordy, and we become totally enmeshed in Autumn’s thoughts and her musings. There are quite a few flashbacks and current happenings that color the plot, but everything is vague and rather ungainly. One thing I did appreciate was the portrayal of Detective Montgomery, who treats Autumn with respect, and he understands Autumn’s trauma as she searches for answers about Summer.

I realize that Speaking of Summer has garnered a great deal of press and appeared on several lists, including Time Magazine’s Best Books of Summer 2019 list. However, I have to agree with the Kirkus analysis, which closes with: “Unfortunately, a somewhat clumsy chase for mystery overshadows the accurate portrayal of one woman’s struggles with mental health.”

Kalisha Buckhanon’s website.

Fleishman is in Trouble

by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Random House     2019
384 pages     Literary

Fleishman is in Trouble is a novel about a marriage that has failed. What were the reasons? What was the cause? Why? The book is an exploration of the concept, "And the two shall become one." This debut novel is a tough look at all marriage, particularly marriages in the 21st century. It is also a meditation about the value of marriage, as well as its fragility.

Toby Fleishman is a doctor in Manhattan; his ex-wife, Rachel, the owner of a successful talent agency. Apparently in the social milleau in which they travel, being a doctor is not enough and Rachel is the chief breadwinner. When the couple are divorced, Rachel must pay the alimony and Toby is totally lost. To add to the dilemma, Rachel has disappeared, leaving Toby totally in charge of his two confused children. Most of the narrative is about Toby, his anger and his angst. We also explore his search for a new sexual partner.

The story is told by Libby, a college friend of Toby's. Libby has been a journalist, but she is now a stay-at-mom of small children. After we know more about the author, we realize that Libby is a stand- in for the author. Although she seldom inserts herself in the narrative, she is astute in her portrayal of what has happened to Toby's marriage. Although Toby is sure that the fault is all Rachel's, Libby helps us understand that there is fault on all sides. We understand from her narrative that her own marriage is on pretty firm ground. She also tells the story of their old friend Seth, who after years of philandering, has set himself on a different marriage course. We watch that marriage unfold as well.

The reviewer in the Guardian says, "But Fleishman Is in Trouble is so much smarter than a Great American Novel wannabe written by another clever man." Like that reviewer, I found it incredibly profound and nuanced on the subject of marriage. To add to my enlightenment, I was with a lot of family and extended family members, all of whom had marriages to watch and evaluate. One of the concepts that Brodesser-Akner floats is that marriage has moved beyond equal partners to two individuals who have chosen to be together. There is little of the "he completes me" or "she really compliments him" that we saw in the past. At one point, Toby, in the thick of dating and having sex with women he has met on the Internet, has the thought: "Only briefly did he think to wonder if he was doing a bad job of thinking of the women he dated as people."

I have thought about the book daily since I finished reading it two weeks ago. I looked back over all the underlining I did, all the wonderful phrasing, and the great insights, and I still marvel at its profundity. This week I am watching a grandson and his girlfriend in their blossoming relationship, and I bask in the wonder of relationships--the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a celebrity interviewer for the New York Times Magazine. I am guessing that her years of viewing relationships from the outside have weighed heavily on her insights on marriage. I highly recommend Fleishman is in Trouble--one of my favorites of the year.

Rouge: A Novel of Beauty and Rivalry

By Richard Kirshenbaum

St. Martins     2019

320 pages    Historical Fiction

This is a fun romp through the early days of the cosmetics industry, loosely based on the rivalry of Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden. Kirkus calls it “a vivid portrait of glamorous, feisty women contending for the crown of cosmetics queen.” I had just seen the musical War Paint, about the lives of Rubenstein and Arden, when the advanced copy of Rouge came to me, so I had a great time comparing plot lines. Loved War Paint; loved Rouge.

Here is the description from the publisher.

“Rouge is a sexy, glamorous journey into the rivalry of the pioneers of powder, mascara and rouge. It gives readers a rare front row seat into the world of high society and business through the rivalry of two beauty industry icons (think Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden).

This fast-paced novel examines the lives, loves, and sacrifices of the visionaries who invented the modern cosmetics industry: Josiah Herzenstein, born in a Polish Jewish Shtlel, the entrepreneur who transforms herself into a global style icon and the richest woman in the world, Josephine Herz; Constance Gardiner, her rival, the ultimate society woman who invents the door-to-door business and its female workforce but whose deepest secret threatens everything; CeeCee Lopez, the bi-racial beauty and founder of the first African American woman’s hair relaxer business, who overcomes prejudice and heartbreak to become her community’s first female millionaire. 

The cast of characters is rounded out by Mickey Heron, a dashing, sexy ladies' man whose cosmetics business is founded in a Hollywood brothel. All are bound in a struggle to be number one, doing anything to get there…including murder.”

Rouge begins in the early part of the 20^th century and closes near the end of the century. The characters are richly developed and the rivalry daunting. One interesting true fact about the cosmetics industry was that Victorian women did not wear makeup, and the inventors of the industry had to fight the stereotype that only hookers wore makeup. But under the guidance of these forthright (and also conniving) women, soon every woman in America was wearing makeup,and the novel’s two protagonists had become rich beyond measure.

Kirshenbaum is an advertising executive/author. His specialty is writing about the one percent that live in his neighborhood. Kirshenbaum must have had a great time recreating wealthy Manhattan through the eyes of Josephine, Constance, CeeCee and the others as they built their beauty empires. The reader finds herself thrust into the very heart of the city, its shops, and its nightlife. As one reviewer said, “it’s glitz, greed, and glamor.”  

Rouge is released tomorrow. Get a glass of wine, grab a lawn chair, settle down by the pool and enjoy.

The Perfume Burned His Eyes

By Michael Imperioli

Akashic Books     2018

253 pages     Literary

Well, I really goofed on this book. I didn't recognize the author's name, and I didn’t know who Lou Reed was, one of the main characters. Where have I been? If you don’t know either: Michael Imperioli, the author, is an actor, best known as a character on The Sopranos. Lou Reed, was a famous singer from the 70s and 80s, and the title, The Perfume Burned His Eyes, comes from one of his songs. 

The story takes place when the narrator, Matthew, is in his teens, and Lou Reed is at a low point in his life and career. Matthew and his mother move from Queens to an upscale apartment and an upscale school in Manhattan. Lou Reed and his girlfriend live in the same building. In the truest sense, Matthew comes of age as he relates to Lou as well as to a lovely girl from his class, Veronica, who claims to be a witch and who turns tricks for spending money. He becomes acutely aware of the way others relate to the world, and he grows in his own strength and his own wisdom. Matthew’s view of the world is very much aligned with the city, in all its gritty glory. Finally, the world becomes too much for him and he loses touch with reality for a while. The Booklist reviewer calls him “Holden Caulfield without the cynicism.”

Years later, Matthew meets up with Lou Reed again, and as he watches him perform magnificently, he realizes that they both have come far. “It made me see clear the fluid and idiosyncratic possibilities in our lives, or maybe more accurately: the fluidity and idiosyncrasy that is our lives. It made me see that there are escape routes out of hell, and if we are fortunate we can make a clean getaway and survive.”

The Perfume Burned His Eyes is told completely from Matthew’s perspective. His mother is seldom in the picture, although she does help out when Matthew falls apart. We know Lou Reed only through Matthew’s eyes. We also are aware of Matthew’s very real anguish about Veronica.   Matthew is a moral young man, and he knows that he is treading on dangerous ground as he interacts with her and with Lou Reed. 

As I read, I was reminded of another New York coming of age story that I read recently, Neon in Daylight. Inez, one of its main characters is very similar to Veronica. As a matter of fact, sometimes I got the two confused.

Michael Imperioli said in an interview that he wrote the book during a difficult time in his teenage son’s life, and he had been spending  a lot of time thinking about teenage angst. I could relate to much of it—having gotten three kids through adolescence as a single mother, and now watching teenage grandchildren deal with their own anxieties. I believe that he captured the setting, the times, and the coming of age beautifully. It was a compelling read. 

Here is Lou Reed singing Romeo Had Juliette from which the title The Perfume Burned His Eyes came.

Neon in Daylight

by Hermione Hoby

Catapult     2018

284 pages    Literary Fiction

 

Neon in daylight is a

Great pleasure 

(Frank O’Hara)

Kate arrived in New York from England to the apartment of her mother’s friend during the extremely hot summer of 2012.  Ostensibly Kate is there to take care of the friend’s cat, but more purposefully (or not) to find herself. She is in the midst of finishing her PhD and may be trying to get away from a disappointing relationship. Her mother’s friend had said to her, “Oh, my god, your mom and I had such adventures when we were your age. Because you gotta travel! You gotta live, you know?”

“And Kate didn’t know. Didn’t know what live meant, in this context.” 

Inez, a teenager who has just graduated from high school meets Kate in the unlikeliest of places, a bodega in the neighborhood. Inez is also at loose ends. Her divorced parents want her to go to college, but she can’t see herself there. She has picked a couple of highly unlikely ways to earn money—selling Aderall on the street and satisfying men’s sexual fantasies. Inez becomes Kate’s summer friend by inviting her to the frantic and frenetic activities of New York’s teenage scene.

Bill plays the pivotal role in the unfolding drama. As a young man, Bill wrote a coming-of-age novel—a kind of Catcher in the Rye—and he has lived off the proceeds of the novel and the ensuing movie into middle age. He teaches creative writing, is a purposeless drunk, and is also Inez’s father.

The plot, such as it is, focuses on these three and the intersection of their lives. Because of the skillfully drawn narrative, the reader doesn’t question the logic about how these three find each other in the midst of America’s largest city. Kate doesn’t realize that Inez is Bill’s daughter until late in the book, but she never mentions to Inez that she is having an affair with an older man. Inez never mentions her father’s name to Kate, and Bill never mentions to his daughter that he has met a young woman named Kate. There is a constant state of ennui that engulfs all the characters. 

Meanwhile, the city of New York chugs on and on. It is alive and vibrant in ways that the characters are not. My favorite scene happens when Kate follows a man lugging a grand piano into Washington Square Park, where he sits down and begins to play Rachmaninoff. The city is so skillfully drawn that it becomes a major player in the story, as is the heat of the summer of 2012. As the narrative ends, Hurricane Sandy is drawing nigh at the same time there is some resolution in the relationships between the three main characters. As the city gears up for the rapidly-approaching hurricane, the book ends—the only triumph being the triumphant city. The New York Times reviewer says, “We can see what these characters cannot. Their lives seem so particular, so painful and noisy to them. But under the city’s “merciless” skyline, in the wake of a hurricane, how similar they suddenly are, how small, how human.” 

One reviewer says “that sentiment—the way unlikelihood fosters a sense of inevitability—is the book’s engine.” None of the characters are particularly likeable, but that is not the author’s purpose. Both the reviews in the New York Times and the LA Review of Books praise Hoby’s talent, her observational ability, and her gift of language. It is a brilliant first novel.

Here is a charming interview with Hermione Hoby on the Shelf Awareness website. Scroll down to find it.