Andrew Ridker

This novel begins in the summer of 2013, in the pleasant, upscale community of Brookline, Massachusetts, where Scott and Deborah Greenspan are throwing a dinner party, a dinner party that is abruptly ended when Scott receives a phone call that signals the downfall of the Greenspan family. Taking place over the following year, Ridker follows each member of the Greenspan family, from Scott, watching his career and his marriage collapse when he is caught cheating on signing up his patients for a medical study; to Deborah, who runs to her lover, a woman who runs a chain of charter schools and who may be less compatible with Deborah than she had initially thought; to their two adult children, Gideon, whose hero-worship of his father is taking a serious beating, and Maya, whose past has just grabbed her and forced her to reassess what happened to her in high school.

This is a traditionally structured novel, well-told and well-written, which means that it was a very enjoyable book to read. I like experimentation and authors trying new things, but there is little more satisfying than a well-executed traditional novel. As in his previous novel, The Altruists, the characters are all a little silly, their conflicts a little exaggerated, but here it holds together better, as Ridker finds his feet as a novelist. There's a lot of heart here, and even thought it takes place a scant decade ago, it feels almost like a historical novel, the Obama years feel so far away now.… (lisätietoja)