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The Unfortunates
This extraordinary debut novel by Sophie McManus is a contemporary American tragedy of breathtaking scope: a dramatic story of pharmaceutical trials and Wall Street corruption; of pride and prejudice; of paranoia and office politics; of inheritance, influence, class, and power.
Cecilia Somner's fate hangs in the balance. A larger-than-life heiress to a robber baron's fortune, once known as much for her cruel wit as for her tremendous generosity, CeCe is now in opulent decline. Afflicted with a rare disease and touched by mortality for the first time, she finds her gilded, by - gone values colliding with an unforgiving present. Along with her troubled son, George, and his out - sider wife, Iris, CeCe must face the Somners' dark legacy and the corrupting nature of wealth. As the Somner family struggles to find a solution to its troubles, the secrets and lies between CeCe, George, and Iris grow entangled. CeCe's world topples, culminating in a startling turn of events that is as unforgettable as it is life-changing.
While no riches can put things right for the unfortunate Somners, when all is lost, they learn what life beyond the long, shimmering shadow cast by the Somner dynasty may become. Sophie McManus' The Unfortunates,hilarious and heartbreaking by turns, is most of all a meditation on love: as delusional obsession, as transformation, and ultimately as a coming to grace.
Cecilia Somner's fate hangs in the balance. A larger-than-life heiress to a robber baron's fortune, once known as much for her cruel wit as for her tremendous generosity, CeCe is now in opulent decline. Afflicted with a rare disease and touched by mortality for the first time, she finds her gilded, by - gone values colliding with an unforgiving present. Along with her troubled son, George, and his out - sider wife, Iris, CeCe must face the Somners' dark legacy and the corrupting nature of wealth. As the Somner family struggles to find a solution to its troubles, the secrets and lies between CeCe, George, and Iris grow entangled. CeCe's world topples, culminating in a startling turn of events that is as unforgettable as it is life-changing.
While no riches can put things right for the unfortunate Somners, when all is lost, they learn what life beyond the long, shimmering shadow cast by the Somner dynasty may become. Sophie McManus' The Unfortunates,hilarious and heartbreaking by turns, is most of all a meditation on love: as delusional obsession, as transformation, and ultimately as a coming to grace.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published June 2, 2015
67 people are currently reading
2593 people want to read
About the author
Sophie McManus
3 books50 followersSophie McManus is the author of the novel The Unfortunates, published by Farrar Strauss and Giroux. Her work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Memorious, Tin House, and other publications. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Saltonstall Foundation, and the Jentel Foundation. She teaches writing and literature in Brooklyn, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 179 reviews
September 18, 2018
okay, we're going to ease back into this whole "reviewing" thing with something that is more of an excuse than a review. here's the thing - i have absolutely nothing useful to say about this book. it's very unlike me to walk away from a book and have no opinion on it whatsoever. and maybe it is because i read this in the middle of a lot of very exhausting personal crises, and i had to keep picking it up and putting it down and forcing myself to stay engaged and not finding anything in the book to hold tight to, but whatever the reason, this one left absolutely no mark on me.
it follows the lives and circumstances of an old-money family living in the bit of connecticut that affluent people who still maintain a manhattan presence live in with their fancy cars and boats and the protection that only money can buy. cece is the elderly matriarch, still holding on to the antiquated etiquette of a bygone time in a bubble of noblesse oblige and well-manicured lawns. her grown son george lives in the house next door - a weak and petulant man who has been insulated by wealth his whole life, unable to hold down a real job, counting on his mother and his family name to pave his way through life. and so far, so good. he is married to iris, a woman completely outside of his social sphere whom he met when she was a coat check girl at the country club, and of whom his mother disapproves, despite iris' genuine goodheartedness and sweet awkwardness. cece has covered up george's lifetime of missteps, be they financial, criminal, or involving his frequent employment terminations, but when she suddenly becomes very sick with a disease similar to parkinson's, and removes herself to a clinical research institute, which she calls a "sanatorium," for a pharmaceutical trial, george is finally allowed the freedom to ruin his life.
the story moves from the POVs of cece left all alone at the institute facing her gilded past and her own mortality, george and his "I don't want to be a grown-up" attitude as he takes advantage of the maternal absence to fulfill (and finance) an artistic pipe dream, and iris, a down-to-earth woman who has somehow stumbled into the distorted funhouse mirror of the ultra-rich.
i think the problem i had with this book was the tone. i couldn't tell if it was meant to be a tragedy or a satire. it has elements of both, but it's definitely not funny enough to work as a satire, and for it to be tragic, the reader has to give a shit about the characters, and i just didn't. george is just reprehensible in every way, but he's not reprehensible in an interesting way, he's just an overindulged manchild who expects the world to bow down to him and cannot handle criticism or resistance. cece is somewhat less reprehensible because she at least grows as a character. left to her own devices in the clinic, abandoned by george and forced to mingle with other patients; people she considers "vulgar," and weakened by illness, she at least manages to let go of some of her brittleness and cruelty and develop some genuine humanity. iris is the only likable character - an outsider who is made uncomfortable by her husband's wealth and perfectly capable of doing without the trappings that come with it, yet she still shields george from his own bad judgment and is as emotionally indulgent as cece is financially indulgent towards him. their relationship is completely inexplicable, and doubly so because she's the only character who is sensible, or practical.
i thought a story about a family in "opulent decline" would be right up my alley, but this was just a big bowl of beige unpleasantness. maybe it's just wrong book, wrong time, but yeah - unfortunate indeed.
come to my blog!
it follows the lives and circumstances of an old-money family living in the bit of connecticut that affluent people who still maintain a manhattan presence live in with their fancy cars and boats and the protection that only money can buy. cece is the elderly matriarch, still holding on to the antiquated etiquette of a bygone time in a bubble of noblesse oblige and well-manicured lawns. her grown son george lives in the house next door - a weak and petulant man who has been insulated by wealth his whole life, unable to hold down a real job, counting on his mother and his family name to pave his way through life. and so far, so good. he is married to iris, a woman completely outside of his social sphere whom he met when she was a coat check girl at the country club, and of whom his mother disapproves, despite iris' genuine goodheartedness and sweet awkwardness. cece has covered up george's lifetime of missteps, be they financial, criminal, or involving his frequent employment terminations, but when she suddenly becomes very sick with a disease similar to parkinson's, and removes herself to a clinical research institute, which she calls a "sanatorium," for a pharmaceutical trial, george is finally allowed the freedom to ruin his life.
the story moves from the POVs of cece left all alone at the institute facing her gilded past and her own mortality, george and his "I don't want to be a grown-up" attitude as he takes advantage of the maternal absence to fulfill (and finance) an artistic pipe dream, and iris, a down-to-earth woman who has somehow stumbled into the distorted funhouse mirror of the ultra-rich.
i think the problem i had with this book was the tone. i couldn't tell if it was meant to be a tragedy or a satire. it has elements of both, but it's definitely not funny enough to work as a satire, and for it to be tragic, the reader has to give a shit about the characters, and i just didn't. george is just reprehensible in every way, but he's not reprehensible in an interesting way, he's just an overindulged manchild who expects the world to bow down to him and cannot handle criticism or resistance. cece is somewhat less reprehensible because she at least grows as a character. left to her own devices in the clinic, abandoned by george and forced to mingle with other patients; people she considers "vulgar," and weakened by illness, she at least manages to let go of some of her brittleness and cruelty and develop some genuine humanity. iris is the only likable character - an outsider who is made uncomfortable by her husband's wealth and perfectly capable of doing without the trappings that come with it, yet she still shields george from his own bad judgment and is as emotionally indulgent as cece is financially indulgent towards him. their relationship is completely inexplicable, and doubly so because she's the only character who is sensible, or practical.
i thought a story about a family in "opulent decline" would be right up my alley, but this was just a big bowl of beige unpleasantness. maybe it's just wrong book, wrong time, but yeah - unfortunate indeed.
come to my blog!
June 18, 2015
Just often enough, some unknown writer darts from the forest of little magazines to publish a novel that blows away the gathering shades of cultural despair. Last year, there was Smith Henderson’s “Fourth of July Creek,” about a social worker in Montana. In April, Viet Thanh Nguyen published a cerebral spy thriller called “The Sympathizer.” This month, that invigorating surprise comes from a 37-year-old New Yorker named Sophie McManus. Her first novel, “The Unfortunates,” merges Old World elegance and modern irony in a brilliant social satire of life among the 1 percent of the 1 percent. The result is a novel about money and how having too much or too little can twist the spine and the spirit. It’s such a trenchant vision of American aristocracy that copies should be printed on Crane stationery and delivered by a white-gloved chauffeur.
McManus attended Vassar and Sarah Lawrence, and her father was the editor in chief of Time Warner, but. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/enterta...
McManus attended Vassar and Sarah Lawrence, and her father was the editor in chief of Time Warner, but. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/enterta...
July 23, 2015
I’m a bit surprised that little has been said about this novel. It’s on a couple summer must read lists, and it should be on more.
This is a story of the mega rich: the 1% of the 1% where money means nothing and everything. It’s a story of a family, who is accustomed to so much wealth that they’ve lost all manners. It’s like “The Great Gatsby” only a satire on the elite. Sophie McMannus writes beautiful sentences. Her prose are a delight to read. Her humor is dark, dry and bountiful. I found myself re-reading sentences because there was a lot packed into them. McMannus is able to make a sad story comical.
If you ever wondered: how does the mega rich get away with so much? This book provides the method. If you ever wonder how mega rich children get away with destruction and assaults? McMannus provides the light.
It’s a saga, and it’s funny. I’m not sure it’s for everyone. It’s an intelligent read about the corruption of money on a family. I recommend it for the avid reader.
This is a story of the mega rich: the 1% of the 1% where money means nothing and everything. It’s a story of a family, who is accustomed to so much wealth that they’ve lost all manners. It’s like “The Great Gatsby” only a satire on the elite. Sophie McMannus writes beautiful sentences. Her prose are a delight to read. Her humor is dark, dry and bountiful. I found myself re-reading sentences because there was a lot packed into them. McMannus is able to make a sad story comical.
If you ever wondered: how does the mega rich get away with so much? This book provides the method. If you ever wonder how mega rich children get away with destruction and assaults? McMannus provides the light.
It’s a saga, and it’s funny. I’m not sure it’s for everyone. It’s an intelligent read about the corruption of money on a family. I recommend it for the avid reader.
January 23, 2024
The Unfortunates by Sophie McManus is a great novel about nowadays filthy rich. The story is great and interesting.
June 20, 2015
One of the worst books of recent memory. Ron Charles's Washington Post review should have come with a warning about its unsavory contents. Three characters, an imperious patrician woman dying of a progressive neurological disease (could not have happened to a nicer person), her psychopathic son, and his naive wife. Character is plot, adorned with satirical trappings of royalty, but almost everything happens inside these disturbed characters' heads. Henry James, with some sympathy, succeeded where McManus slumps. She tells much and shows little. It seems as if Ron Charles, like so many current critics, mistook loathsomeness for merit. Older women, beware!
April 29, 2015
NOPE!
I just could not finish this.
Just not my cup of tea.
I just could not finish this.
Just not my cup of tea.
Read
May 15, 2016I really don't know how to rate this book. I love / hated it, was blown away and frustrated by it in equal measure.
I started reading The Unfortunates ahead of a reader's retreat at which I would be meeting the author. When I arrived at Booktopia, I was about half-way finished, and having trouble. The book is densely language driven, and character driven, and the characters are slightly absurd, caricatures almost, of themselves - a super-rich, NY family living in a mansion on the sound in CT.
The matriarch, CeCe, is the most ridiculous, but in the end, also the most endearing. She has an illness similar to Parkinson's and is admitted into a phase 2 drug trial. While she is away at the treatment facility, her adult son, whom she keeps on a short trust-fund leash, produces an awful opera, and in doing so, sets his family, on a swift path to financial ruin and embarrassment.
The last third of the book makes up for the lack of action in the first two thirds and is dizzying in its swift portrayal of a downward spiral. The last events, like the early character portrayals, also seem absurd, but make for a pleasurable (watching a car wreck?) race to the finish.
McManus is a really good writer, and while I found the book frustrating at times, I suspect CeCe and the rest of the Somner's will stay with me for a long time.
I started reading The Unfortunates ahead of a reader's retreat at which I would be meeting the author. When I arrived at Booktopia, I was about half-way finished, and having trouble. The book is densely language driven, and character driven, and the characters are slightly absurd, caricatures almost, of themselves - a super-rich, NY family living in a mansion on the sound in CT.
The matriarch, CeCe, is the most ridiculous, but in the end, also the most endearing. She has an illness similar to Parkinson's and is admitted into a phase 2 drug trial. While she is away at the treatment facility, her adult son, whom she keeps on a short trust-fund leash, produces an awful opera, and in doing so, sets his family, on a swift path to financial ruin and embarrassment.
The last third of the book makes up for the lack of action in the first two thirds and is dizzying in its swift portrayal of a downward spiral. The last events, like the early character portrayals, also seem absurd, but make for a pleasurable (watching a car wreck?) race to the finish.
McManus is a really good writer, and while I found the book frustrating at times, I suspect CeCe and the rest of the Somner's will stay with me for a long time.
October 2, 2015
Beautifully written literary novel explores the lives of three members of an ultra-rich family: an aging matriarch, determined to hide her illness and keep up appearances, her spoiled, damaged and delusional son and his naive, working-class wife. The author skillfully straddles a line between wit and tragedy, while creating an atmosphere of impending doom. With unlikable, yet occasionally sympathetic characters, flashes of humor, and a dark tone, there is almost an epic quality to the story. Given all that, I can understand how polarizing it is to readers. I was just lucky enough to be in the right mood for this unique book.
February 2, 2016
Really tried on this one but ultimately gave up after 75 pages. The writing style was too clunky and choppy for me. Almost felt like a translation from another language. As for plot, no sense that it was going anywhere- cranky rich old woman and her unpleasant, possibly criminal son living out their lives. Moving on...
August 18, 2015
The rich are different. They may put their pants on one leg at a time, just like everyone else, but that is where the similarity ends.
Sophie McManus has created a story of an imploding family of wealth and privilege. The matriarch, CeCe, is suffering from a neurological disease that her vast resources cannot cure. Her daughter Pat will not talk to her. Her entitled son George never learned responsibility, but he did learn how to use his family name and money to open doors for himself. Her daughter-in-law Iris is from the working class and does not understand the rules of the rich. The vast fortune was inheriteted from a rubber robber baron. The unsavoriness of how the fortune was created seems to have also been passed on the descendants.
This was a hard book to read. The characters are not particularly likeable or sympathetic. George’s unhappiness is self-created and his levels of hubris make him downright despicable. CeCe is cruel to others and sees her rude behavior as her right. In the middle of the book, where it begins to bog down when George’s life begins to mirror that of a Greek tragedy, I thought about giving up. What kept me going was the writing and the women, Iris and CeCe. The contrast in how each woman problem solves is dictated by socioeconomic class. Each experiments with behaviors of the other. I am glad I finished the book. The ending was satisfying.
Sophie McManus has created a story of an imploding family of wealth and privilege. The matriarch, CeCe, is suffering from a neurological disease that her vast resources cannot cure. Her daughter Pat will not talk to her. Her entitled son George never learned responsibility, but he did learn how to use his family name and money to open doors for himself. Her daughter-in-law Iris is from the working class and does not understand the rules of the rich. The vast fortune was inheriteted from a rubber robber baron. The unsavoriness of how the fortune was created seems to have also been passed on the descendants.
This was a hard book to read. The characters are not particularly likeable or sympathetic. George’s unhappiness is self-created and his levels of hubris make him downright despicable. CeCe is cruel to others and sees her rude behavior as her right. In the middle of the book, where it begins to bog down when George’s life begins to mirror that of a Greek tragedy, I thought about giving up. What kept me going was the writing and the women, Iris and CeCe. The contrast in how each woman problem solves is dictated by socioeconomic class. Each experiments with behaviors of the other. I am glad I finished the book. The ending was satisfying.
January 8, 2016
Put this beside the genius social "revolutionary" Russell Brand…
Compassion for the rich because they suffer from the same pains as the rest of us (but in their royalty induced, penthouse apartments) does in fact show us our somewhat cynical side. No I do not empathize with the rich, no I do not love them, no I do not have compassion for my oppressors. Asking me to do any of these things is asking me to kiss and love the boot that suffocates me.
This would be a joke if it didn't attempt in vain to adhere to the populism of modern literature. Sympathy for a character due to a mortal disease; a situation you can't get out of (the wealth is secondary to this 'brilliant' storytelling). Give me a break. Can you buy me time? With your wealth and your compassion for the poor and the much needed plead to respect the rich because they're human too, can you buy back the 3 days you stole from me with this hogwash?
As Tolstoy would say: "the peasants, what about the peasants?" Well Leo, we're told to love the aristocrats because they can get sick and die just like the rest of us, they just get buried in gold while we get buried in the dirt they put us in.
Compassion for the rich because they suffer from the same pains as the rest of us (but in their royalty induced, penthouse apartments) does in fact show us our somewhat cynical side. No I do not empathize with the rich, no I do not love them, no I do not have compassion for my oppressors. Asking me to do any of these things is asking me to kiss and love the boot that suffocates me.
This would be a joke if it didn't attempt in vain to adhere to the populism of modern literature. Sympathy for a character due to a mortal disease; a situation you can't get out of (the wealth is secondary to this 'brilliant' storytelling). Give me a break. Can you buy me time? With your wealth and your compassion for the poor and the much needed plead to respect the rich because they're human too, can you buy back the 3 days you stole from me with this hogwash?
As Tolstoy would say: "the peasants, what about the peasants?" Well Leo, we're told to love the aristocrats because they can get sick and die just like the rest of us, they just get buried in gold while we get buried in the dirt they put us in.
July 17, 2015
The Unfortunates
Lately I’ve found that too many page turners manipulate me. I want to find out what happens but don’t actually enjoy reading the book. Finishing becomes an unpleasant compulsion. This is a page turner in which every page is sheer delight. The writing is exquisite as are the plot and character development. There are three main characters. Ce Ce is a very wealthy philanthropist who discovers she may be dying of a serious illness. George, CeCe’s son is a cross brilliantly developed cross between Frasier Crane and the brilliant Hitchcock/ Patricia Highsmith character Bruno Anthony from “Strangers on a Train”. Georges wife Iris is perhaps the most sympathetic character. She is an innocent , plunging into the dysfunction of Georges family. The first two thirds are brilliant in their sardonic wit and excruciating psychological violence. The book edges slowly to a dark yet elegiac conclusion. It ends with pathos replacing satire. Sophie McManus is a writer of breathtaking virtuosity. This is a terrific achievement, especially for for a first novel.
Lately I’ve found that too many page turners manipulate me. I want to find out what happens but don’t actually enjoy reading the book. Finishing becomes an unpleasant compulsion. This is a page turner in which every page is sheer delight. The writing is exquisite as are the plot and character development. There are three main characters. Ce Ce is a very wealthy philanthropist who discovers she may be dying of a serious illness. George, CeCe’s son is a cross brilliantly developed cross between Frasier Crane and the brilliant Hitchcock/ Patricia Highsmith character Bruno Anthony from “Strangers on a Train”. Georges wife Iris is perhaps the most sympathetic character. She is an innocent , plunging into the dysfunction of Georges family. The first two thirds are brilliant in their sardonic wit and excruciating psychological violence. The book edges slowly to a dark yet elegiac conclusion. It ends with pathos replacing satire. Sophie McManus is a writer of breathtaking virtuosity. This is a terrific achievement, especially for for a first novel.
September 5, 2015
Fell apart a bit at the end, which was very disappointing, but I enjoyed it until that point!
October 25, 2020
A poignant story with some beautiful writing. Some insight into how the "other half" live. I really felt for the characters and was curious to see how it would wind up. Money changes everything and it's curious to see its effect on otherwise "normal" people, of which anything can happen depending on behavior.
Thanks to Goodreads for a copy to read and review, honestly. A worthy, insightful read.
Thanks to Goodreads for a copy to read and review, honestly. A worthy, insightful read.
November 16, 2015
I couldn't finish this. Made it to 165. There was nothing else to read and it was still an unfortunate use of time.
April 23, 2015
I had a problem connecting to the characters. They are a selfish bunch of entitled people and to me, I don't find it shocking the wealthy are 'just as bad as the rest of us.' They are people I wouldn't care to know. Money exonerates, many of us know this and George certainly uses his wealth. Oddly, the bitterness from Cecilia Somner is fitting, made her more realistic. George is pitiful and I wanted to like his wife Iris, who will all know will never really fit in but I didn't. I did like 3D, the dog- and the writing is good so I would certainly read her next book. I absolutely recognized the type of person "George" represents and McManus writing of the encounter with Victor, when he says "If a man of the country like you isn't well, we're all in trouble" and eventually Victor says "A man of the country?" The reader feels so much in that flippant phrase. The 'working class', the 'peons' who could never attain the wealth of the educated pen pushers, those cave men who just sweat outdoors and do the heavy work for peanuts... there is such a condescending feeling so of course, Victor takes offense. It's such a small moment and yet stuck in my mind. I remember eye rolling and thinking 'what an entitled arse George is.' While I wasn't in love with the characters, it's still a good read.
June 8, 2015
A beautifully wrought literary novel, THE UNFORTUNATES is the polar opposite of a beach book. It is designed for readers who appreciate leisurely lingering in an intricate narrative net that sinks down deeply into the mental stirrings of three characters: an old wealthy woman (whose body and social power are waning), an elite son (whose eccentric take on himself and world results in bad judgments) and the non-elite son’s wife (whose hopes and dreams are yet to be realized). Overall these minds exhibit a wave-like rhythm, with small crests and troughs, but slowly some bigger tension builds among them toward the book’s end that breaks like a sudden rogue wave that permanently alters the landscape of these characters’ lives. The patient reader who surrenders to McMannus’ skill in artistically depicting the nature of plotless yet eventful human consciousness will be carried away while reading and (then later) will not soon forget the characters they shared life with so intimately.
November 19, 2015
A Nice Surprise!
I choose books for the weirdest of reasons, a title, a book cover , mention of an author's first novel. I seldom read reviews (though I hope you are reading this one), I pick, I choose and I read cover-to-cover.
The Unfortunates is a "comfortable" novel. I do not mean "simply written." In fact, it is filled with twists and turns, nuances. By "comfortable" I mean I cared about the characters- even those who were broken. I cared about the misunderstandings that made up life for Iris and George. I cared about mother CeCe, the old curmudgeon.
I never tell the story in any review I write, I think we each should experience the book in our own way...I liked this book, I liked spending time with Iris, George, CeCe, Pat, Victor, Yassar-real folks making their way through life with all they had been given...or not.
I choose books for the weirdest of reasons, a title, a book cover , mention of an author's first novel. I seldom read reviews (though I hope you are reading this one), I pick, I choose and I read cover-to-cover.
The Unfortunates is a "comfortable" novel. I do not mean "simply written." In fact, it is filled with twists and turns, nuances. By "comfortable" I mean I cared about the characters- even those who were broken. I cared about the misunderstandings that made up life for Iris and George. I cared about mother CeCe, the old curmudgeon.
I never tell the story in any review I write, I think we each should experience the book in our own way...I liked this book, I liked spending time with Iris, George, CeCe, Pat, Victor, Yassar-real folks making their way through life with all they had been given...or not.
July 29, 2015
Loved the beginning and loved the ending, but slogging through the middle was tough work. I scanned a lot of it. Lost interest in the son completely, stupidly unrealistic plot line there. Cece was great. This book tries to tie a lot of themes together, many of them unsuccessfully. Good writing, just too rambly and odd in the middle.
August 23, 2015
Excellent book. I picked it up based solely on the cover. I highly recommend this book. The characters were endlessly entertaining especially CeCe. Extremely talented author and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
April 12, 2016
I can't say that I liked any of the characters, but the writing was good but occasionally confusing (stream of consciousness). The ending seemed abrupt, but I was glad the book was done.
October 5, 2021
George is meant to be insufferable but jfc was reading about his life and descent into psychosis and delusion truly obnoxious. The book is incredibly effective at conveying the emotions I’m meant to be feeling and I did like Iris quite a lot but George sucked up all the air in the room to the point that I was rooting against him. Felt for Cece and really enjoyed how George demonstrates the corrupting power of wealth.
September 25, 2021
I really liked this book about an extremely wealthy, dysfunctional family. The author's writing was so good. While I often skip some text when I read books, I didn't on this one. She has an amazing way of putting a sentence together that made me not want to skip a word. I felt for all the characters and thought they were well drawn. So glad this was recommended to me.
September 29, 2017
It was not a pleasant book to read. I thought the author wasted my time by going on and on. The character was just dreaming or something. A total waste of my time.
January 13, 2016
Hmm. This book, in terms of my enjoyment of it, had a sort of bell curve. It took a while to draw me in, but by the middle I was having a good time--when I wasn't reading it, I was eager to find out what happens next. Then it gradually descended from there.
Some have termed the novel a satire. To me it's not that. What is is is a very polished and sincere work, extremely competent on the sentence level, with a sprinkling of very fine sentences indeed. I am sure McManus is capable of knocking our socks off. But she hasn't knocked mine off yet.
This novel has so much terrific material, but it does so little with it. For one thing, I was keen on reading about a person (the matriarch and main character, the very wealthy seventy-some CeCe) taking part in a long-term clinical trial for a new drug. But we get precious little insight into the corporate or medical byways, and CeCe's period as a resident in the treatment center comes to seem little more than a device to get her off her estate and out of her son George's hair so he can pursue his delusional dreams of storming the opera world with his deeply horrible opera. For sure, the horrible opera and George's development of it are my very favorite part of the book, all Schadenfreude and delicious humor. But this too is squelched, ultimately, as we move sedately past the crisis point without the pleasure of witness. I also had hoped for some sort of damning hijinks in the "rubber baron" empire that is CeCe's family history. No such luck.
But you have a clear arc for each of the three POV characters (CeCe, George, and George's wife, the hapless and basically normal Iris, in way over her head). Tick, tick, and tick. But you don't feel all that much. I wanted more.
Some have termed the novel a satire. To me it's not that. What is is is a very polished and sincere work, extremely competent on the sentence level, with a sprinkling of very fine sentences indeed. I am sure McManus is capable of knocking our socks off. But she hasn't knocked mine off yet.
This novel has so much terrific material, but it does so little with it. For one thing, I was keen on reading about a person (the matriarch and main character, the very wealthy seventy-some CeCe) taking part in a long-term clinical trial for a new drug. But we get precious little insight into the corporate or medical byways, and CeCe's period as a resident in the treatment center comes to seem little more than a device to get her off her estate and out of her son George's hair so he can pursue his delusional dreams of storming the opera world with his deeply horrible opera. For sure, the horrible opera and George's development of it are my very favorite part of the book, all Schadenfreude and delicious humor. But this too is squelched, ultimately, as we move sedately past the crisis point without the pleasure of witness. I also had hoped for some sort of damning hijinks in the "rubber baron" empire that is CeCe's family history. No such luck.
But you have a clear arc for each of the three POV characters (CeCe, George, and George's wife, the hapless and basically normal Iris, in way over her head). Tick, tick, and tick. But you don't feel all that much. I wanted more.
July 8, 2015
My heavens, what a book. I completely understand all the Goodreads reviewers who are giving it one or two stars. This is not an easy book to get into, nor does it offer you sympathetic and vulnerable characters. (Well, vulnerable they may be, but sympathetic they are - mostly - not.) Instead, McManus gives us a portrait of a family imploding, try as the matriarch will not to allow it.
I experienced difficulty starting it, but around page 75, something seemed to turn for me, and I thought I started to see where the book was going. The characters became more than an assemblage of odd, privileged quirks and became people on a disastrous road that none of them seemed to appreciate until it was almost too late.
I thought McManus did a wonderful job of moving the action forward while creating a deep sense of foreboding that had me turning virtual pages rapidly, my heart pounding. By the end of the book, the family has fallen apart, but new families have formed. There's not what you'd call a happy ending, but a highly satisfactory one. I'm glad I stayed with it until the end.
My only quibble is with the use of multiple system atrophy as the disease that fells the matriarch, Cecilia. I had a friend with MSA, and it is truly a horrible disease. However it is not at all represented accurately in the book, which the author does acknowledge in the afterword. This disease needs to be publicized, so I hope someone will write a book (soon) that is a more accurate portrayal. People need to understand what it is like when the mind remains vibrant, but the body's involuntary systems shut down, one by one.
I experienced difficulty starting it, but around page 75, something seemed to turn for me, and I thought I started to see where the book was going. The characters became more than an assemblage of odd, privileged quirks and became people on a disastrous road that none of them seemed to appreciate until it was almost too late.
I thought McManus did a wonderful job of moving the action forward while creating a deep sense of foreboding that had me turning virtual pages rapidly, my heart pounding. By the end of the book, the family has fallen apart, but new families have formed. There's not what you'd call a happy ending, but a highly satisfactory one. I'm glad I stayed with it until the end.
My only quibble is with the use of multiple system atrophy as the disease that fells the matriarch, Cecilia. I had a friend with MSA, and it is truly a horrible disease. However it is not at all represented accurately in the book, which the author does acknowledge in the afterword. This disease needs to be publicized, so I hope someone will write a book (soon) that is a more accurate portrayal. People need to understand what it is like when the mind remains vibrant, but the body's involuntary systems shut down, one by one.
May 8, 2016
"Each day, a ghost of the day before. Where is there proof that any given moment belongs to her, and not to a stranger down the hall?"
Author Sophie McManus is the Edith Wharton of the digital age, and "The Unfortunates" is her satirical (and sad) critique of the upper class and their miseries. Among the broader brushstrokes she makes are that wealth cannot buy health or well-being -- although it can buy an exquisite recovery room overlooking a lake (mother Cecilia) or let you indulge your mental illness in an overblown opera (son George) that leaves your working class wife (Iris) trying to pick up the financial pieces before your mother swoops in and solves all your woes.
This is a complex, multi-layered tale, where achieving the financial dream, be it through inherited money (George), Wall Street (Bob), or real estate (Iris) leaves any number of victims in its wake. McManus is also good at twisting the tale, depending on perspective and letting her readers uncover the fact that no one is blameless, and the biggest villain of the opening act (George's mother, Cecilia) becomes the opposite near the book's close.
She is also talented at letting readers come to the realization that the surface calm, as with George or his friend Bob, is but an illusion, and much deeper, unsettling problems reside below that calm facade. In fact, perhaps that's where the author's talents ring most true: She is able to create an uncomfortable environment for her readers, yet enable us to see the humor and the pathos of their situations. Often her most eminently unlikable characters have the most to say about life.
Thanks to Good Reads and Picador for letting me read this book.
Author Sophie McManus is the Edith Wharton of the digital age, and "The Unfortunates" is her satirical (and sad) critique of the upper class and their miseries. Among the broader brushstrokes she makes are that wealth cannot buy health or well-being -- although it can buy an exquisite recovery room overlooking a lake (mother Cecilia) or let you indulge your mental illness in an overblown opera (son George) that leaves your working class wife (Iris) trying to pick up the financial pieces before your mother swoops in and solves all your woes.
This is a complex, multi-layered tale, where achieving the financial dream, be it through inherited money (George), Wall Street (Bob), or real estate (Iris) leaves any number of victims in its wake. McManus is also good at twisting the tale, depending on perspective and letting her readers uncover the fact that no one is blameless, and the biggest villain of the opening act (George's mother, Cecilia) becomes the opposite near the book's close.
She is also talented at letting readers come to the realization that the surface calm, as with George or his friend Bob, is but an illusion, and much deeper, unsettling problems reside below that calm facade. In fact, perhaps that's where the author's talents ring most true: She is able to create an uncomfortable environment for her readers, yet enable us to see the humor and the pathos of their situations. Often her most eminently unlikable characters have the most to say about life.
Thanks to Good Reads and Picador for letting me read this book.
July 24, 2015
A breathtaking debut
What a remarkable book written by Sophie McManus. Normally a fast, but careful reader, I savored every word. As I neared the final chapters, I realized that I was reading at a snail's pace, not wanting the book to end. The Unfortunates harkens back to the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edith Wharton. Anyone who has a love of language and impeccable writing will be, I suspect, in awe as I was.
The story is as complex as its characters. Cecilia Somner, daughter of a robber baron; George, her troubled and eccentric son; Iris, George's wife and former coat check girl; and Patricia, Cecilia's lesbian daughter; may sound like the makings of a typical "son-marries-unsuitable-girl-I-will-destroy-the-marriage plot. On the surface, this is an element of the story, but the underpinnings are deliciously far more complicated.
Schadenfreude, hubris, bathos, pathos, privilege, illness, Wall Street corruption, pharmaceutical clinical trials and side-splitting humor each make an appearance in The Unfortunates. For Seinfeld fans, George often brings to mind an amalgamation of Cosmo Kramer and George Costanza with their grandiose ideas that always lead to disaster.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I hope that Sophie McManus is writing her second book now because I cannot wait to read it.
What a remarkable book written by Sophie McManus. Normally a fast, but careful reader, I savored every word. As I neared the final chapters, I realized that I was reading at a snail's pace, not wanting the book to end. The Unfortunates harkens back to the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edith Wharton. Anyone who has a love of language and impeccable writing will be, I suspect, in awe as I was.
The story is as complex as its characters. Cecilia Somner, daughter of a robber baron; George, her troubled and eccentric son; Iris, George's wife and former coat check girl; and Patricia, Cecilia's lesbian daughter; may sound like the makings of a typical "son-marries-unsuitable-girl-I-will-destroy-the-marriage plot. On the surface, this is an element of the story, but the underpinnings are deliciously far more complicated.
Schadenfreude, hubris, bathos, pathos, privilege, illness, Wall Street corruption, pharmaceutical clinical trials and side-splitting humor each make an appearance in The Unfortunates. For Seinfeld fans, George often brings to mind an amalgamation of Cosmo Kramer and George Costanza with their grandiose ideas that always lead to disaster.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I hope that Sophie McManus is writing her second book now because I cannot wait to read it.
July 28, 2015
On a whim I put THE UNFORTUNATES in my carry-on for a recent plane trip. I opened it while the plane was taxi-ing to the runway, thinking that I would be buying a wireless pass and getting some work done in the air. But Sophie McManus' beautiful incisive prose hijacked my trip... before I knew it, the plane was landing and I was being forced by baggage claim, rental cars and other obligations to shrug off the world of the 1% of the 1% so sharply realized within THE UNFORTUNATES pages. McManus is a fabulous writer, with a keen sense of precisely which details will most humanize and yet also lampoon her characters. George in particular is fantastically realized as his inner thoughts construct and then reconstruct his history to fit with his artistic, sensitive self image. This is Gatsby stripped of his romance and about damn time.
August 31, 2015
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Appropriately titled, the story of these seemingly fortunate people is an engrossing read. Identifying and sympathizing with characters has always been a signal to me that I will enjoy a book, but these characters are anything but sympathetic. On first glance mother CeCe and son George are privileged and invulnerable because of the family fortune, enabling them to live in the lap of luxury. A masterful exploration of how these two and others in their set react to challenges faced by all human beings, regardless of their social station, results. Sophie McManus is a skillful, accomplished writer, able to bring these characters to life. Highly recommended.
Appropriately titled, the story of these seemingly fortunate people is an engrossing read. Identifying and sympathizing with characters has always been a signal to me that I will enjoy a book, but these characters are anything but sympathetic. On first glance mother CeCe and son George are privileged and invulnerable because of the family fortune, enabling them to live in the lap of luxury. A masterful exploration of how these two and others in their set react to challenges faced by all human beings, regardless of their social station, results. Sophie McManus is a skillful, accomplished writer, able to bring these characters to life. Highly recommended.
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