Wow, what a really unique voice in suburban fiction. Alan and Vivian are living the dream, the ad agency that he founded manages keep them in the most luxurious suburb of New York, modeled on Greenwich, Connecticut. Vivian has a chance to join the Queen Anne Society, which is an elitist ladies group for entertaining.
Then Alan loses the bid for the latest milk campaign. He has sort of a lightning bolt moment, and decides that his entire industry, the idea of capitalism in general, and over consumption, to be lacking. He stops showering, starts eating off the land, and sleeping in their backyard.
“Mom come home. Dad is having a menty b.”
This book is well written and wildly entertaining, even if at times it is heavy-handed in the messaging. I truly enjoyed the family characters and found myself relating heavily to Alan’s dilemma. Not long ago, I went with my high school aged son to visit the top university for creative writing in the country. When we were in the breakout session with other students and parents interested in the writing major, one of the parents asked about job rates post graduation. And most of us parents were also thinking the same, am I going to spend all this money for my child to become educated, and then they can’t get a job? The head of the department said something that stayed with me. She said, without really answering the question, “well, 60% of all jobs in the United States are marketing.“
I think it was her way of saying that, although our children may spend for a year studying writing at the best college in America, they would probably end up selling. Alan’s advertising firm and really his whole existence is driven by the prospect of getting people to over consume. This book could almost be a companion piece to Pixar’s Wall-E. It’s helping the reader think about that same lesson.
Thanks to Netgy and Little Brown for the ARC- Book to be published June 3, 2026.
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