May 25, 2015
Alcott’s (The Dangers of Proximal Alphabets) new novel takes place in a sprawling Brooklyn brownstone, offering a peek into the complicated lives of the tenants who have come to live in it. The inhabitants include landlord Edith, sliding into senility; Paulie, a gentle man with Williams syndrome, and his sister, Claudia, who takes care of him; Thomas, a struggling artist; and the beautiful, sensitive Adeleine. The future of these characters, and the brownstone itself, is put at risk when Edith’s money-grubbing son, Owen, attempts to foreclose the building and force the tenants out. The threat of eviction—and Edith’s slow, alarming drift from reality—inspires the tenants to seek out a way to save the property with urgency, as the story culminates in a Little Miss Sunshine–style road trip. Alcott’s writing has an acute sensory quality, and she’s at her imaginative best when describing the small, quotidian moments of her characters’ lives: when Thomas gets a headache, it takes hold “with the swift efficiency of a team of movers: whole parts of his body emptied in minutes.” The writing is dreamy and easy to inhabit, but is occasionally undermined by its tendency toward abstraction, when it would benefit more from precise plot development. Nevertheless, Alcott’s writing is generous, and her peculiar cast of characters memorable.
Starred review from June 1, 2015
Under the right circumstances, even a dilapidated Brooklyn brownstone can save a collection of wounded souls. Ensemble novels often strain to stay true to all their voices, especially when those voices range across genders, ages, ethnicities, and mental capacities. In her quietly wonderful second book, Alcott (The Dangers of Proximal Alphabets, 2012) displays a deft hand with every one of her odd and startlingly real characters. The story centers on a trio of relationships: between Adeleine, a lovely recluse, and Thomas, a damaged artist; between Paulie, a charming 30-something with a mind stuck in youth, and his anxious sister; and between Edith, their ailing landlady, and all the tenants whose daily lives she nurtures before dementia and an estranged son intervene. Alcott's debut novel was skillful but tempered by a thick layer of surrealism. Here, she allows only glimpses of that dreamscape, and it works to much greater effect. The residents of Edith's building are united first by geography, then by evident personal flaws, and ultimately by a powerful desire to save their compromised caretaker-and the only place these out-of-sorts people feel they belong. As their lives weave together more tightly, we feel more drawn to them individually and as a family of sorts. Their situation may not be enviable, but Alcott's handling of it is. The voices in this book speak volumes. A luminous second novel from a first-class storyteller.
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March 15, 2015
Raised in the mid-1950s by his beloved grandmother in Montana's Two Medicine Country, orphaned Donal Kyle feels as if he's been tossed into cold water when Gram, recovering from surgery, sends him to live with her bossy and mean-spirited sister in Wisconsin. Aunt Kate is so put out with Kyle that she sends him back, to be placed in the custody of the authorities. Gratifyingly, though, Kate's harassed husband slips away to join him.
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
June 1, 2015
In a funky Brooklyn apartment building, where each door is painted a different color, widowed landlord Edith mourns her long-dead husband, Declan; misses her long-gone daughter, Jenny; and cowers in fear during rare visits from her son, Owen. The misfit tenants living around her are aware of all this, as well as Edith's deteriorating mental and physical condition. Ex-comic Edward teams with erstwhile lodger Claudia, whose mentally challenged brother, Paulie, worships them both. Upstairs, recovering stroke victim Thomas gives up his art to draw the reclusive Adeline out of her agoraphobic shell, across the hall, and into his bed. When the tenants receive an eviction notice from Owen, each tries, in his or her own way, to save their home, Edith, and ultimately themselves. Alcott reveals stories of each character through staccato pacing that builds from whimsy to woe to redemption through the course of a delectably subtle yet sublimely fierce study of many forms of bravery and loyalty.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)