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Carousel Court
Following the breakout success of his “searing” (The New York Times Book Review) debut novel The Delivery Man, Joe McGinniss Jr. returns with Carousel Court: a bold, original, and exhilarating novel of marriage as blood sport that reads like Revolutionary Road for the era of The Unwinding.
Nick and Phoebe Maguire are a young couple with big dreams who move across the country to Southern California in search of a fresh start for themselves and their infant son following a devastating trauma. But they move at the worst possible time, into an economic crisis that spares few. Instead of landing in a beachside property, strolling the organic food aisles, and selecting private preschools, Nick and Phoebe find themselves living in the dark heart of foreclosure alley, surrounded by neighbors being drowned by their underwater homes who set fire to their belongings, flee in the dead of night, and eye one another with suspicion while keeping twelve-gauge shotguns by their beds. Trapped, broke, and increasingly desperate, Nick and Phoebe each devise their own plan to claw their way back into the middle class and beyond. Hatched under one roof, their two separate, secret agendas will collide in spectacular fashion.
A blistering and unforgettable vision of the way we live now, Carousel Court paints a darkly honest portrait of modern marriage while also capturing the middle-class America of vanished jobs, abandoned homes, psychotropic cure-alls, infidelity via iPhone, and ruthless choices.
Nick and Phoebe Maguire are a young couple with big dreams who move across the country to Southern California in search of a fresh start for themselves and their infant son following a devastating trauma. But they move at the worst possible time, into an economic crisis that spares few. Instead of landing in a beachside property, strolling the organic food aisles, and selecting private preschools, Nick and Phoebe find themselves living in the dark heart of foreclosure alley, surrounded by neighbors being drowned by their underwater homes who set fire to their belongings, flee in the dead of night, and eye one another with suspicion while keeping twelve-gauge shotguns by their beds. Trapped, broke, and increasingly desperate, Nick and Phoebe each devise their own plan to claw their way back into the middle class and beyond. Hatched under one roof, their two separate, secret agendas will collide in spectacular fashion.
A blistering and unforgettable vision of the way we live now, Carousel Court paints a darkly honest portrait of modern marriage while also capturing the middle-class America of vanished jobs, abandoned homes, psychotropic cure-alls, infidelity via iPhone, and ruthless choices.
368 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 2, 2016
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2424 people want to read
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February 12, 2020
SEE MY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JOE MCGINNISS, JR. HERE!
“He was a thirty-two-year-old, college-educated father drowning his family in debt but energized by a simple prospect: proving to Phoebe that he alone, not a New York banker or some handsome young physician, was the winning play still.”
Oh, my God. I can’t remember the last time I was so satisfied with a read and applauding of its ending! It was so well done; the writing was just phenomenal. It never came off as corny or cliché, over-embellished or melodramatic. Just real. Honest and real. Fearless and foreboding, raw and sharp at the edges, McGinniss’ Carousel Court was like staring into a mirror with no makeup, no fluff.
Nick and Phoebe Maguire are the everyman: He remembers when they were both fresh out of college, full of ambition, energetic and in love. He remembers before he lost his way and she met JW. Now they’re 32—not old at all—but what has happened to them? So they decide to go for it:
“…it seemed that everyone had a house or was buying one…young married professionals buying and selling houses for six-figure profits. So why not them? Of course them, finally them…they quickly negotiated an interest-only, zero-down, 125 percent renovation mortgage on the house in Serenos.” And so it began.
The first thing I thought when I opened this one was: The Big Short. Carousel Court takes that to a whole other level, to a personal level that you can feel. It reaches inside of the macrocosm that was our economy in 2008 and pulls out a first-hand story of people who could’ve been your neighbors, who could’ve been your friends.
And if we’re going to get one thing straight, it’s this: McGinniss’ voice is unique, his writing style distinctive. It’s filled with a sort of nervous energy—ideas hopping around but somehow all fitting nicely together—that is magnetically kinetic. It was almost like free hand, jumping from topic to topic and scene to scene sometimes frantically, creating a brilliantly fast pace set in the California suburbs. It was a lens punctuated with short, curt lines that hit home right in the gut and blunt observations that rang so true that they could only be that. Honestly, I found it hard to follow in the beginning—until I didn’t. At some point, a few pages in, I relaxed into the writing style and let it carry me away. If you’re resistant to an unconventional voice, one that’s punctuated with terseness and modern-day, suburban grit (think the movie Closer, 2004) this read might take a second to sink into, but that’s okay. You’ll get there. Keep going. Though I had to re-read some of the passages in the beginning to find my footing with them, I found it intriguingly refreshing and immersive.
My sole qualm was a minute one: I’m still not sure if it was my own misunderstanding, but I found inconsistencies with Phoebe’s character, which nagged at me but didn’t ruin the read or bog me down with the necessity of clarity: is she fair-haired or brunette, 30 or 32 years old? (I feel like I read all of these about her and wasn’t sure which was correct.) But those perceived incongruences didn’t make her any less appealing to watch or any less deserving of my attention.
I rooted for Nick and Phoebe every step of the way, right up to the very last page. Every wrong move, every fight and sharp remark, every scathing text message furiously tapped out on an iPhone and every feeling of self-doubt—I felt it with them, and it felt genuine. They were people I wouldn’t mind grabbing a beer with, and I know I’d love every second of it if I could. I was behind them the whole way, and I wanted them to win.
“Fall, Daddy, fall…”
In Carousel Court, McGinniss truly captured the rhythms and fine grooves of our lives, of college-educated, middle classers right on the line of Gen X and Millennial. He tackles the question, without ever explicitly stating it, that we must all ask ourselves from time to time in this day and age: “How did I go from walking the stage, the world at my feet, full of conquering ambition, to this? How did I get here? And can I get back?” If life has ever dealt you a sobering, swift slap in the face, if you’ve ever asked yourself these questions, pick this one up. And if you haven’t, still pick this one up: you might need a little dose of reality. With that in mind, Carousel grabbed a well-deserved, happily-given 5 stars. *****
I received an advance-read copy of this book from the publisher, Simon & Schuster, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR: Behind the Name: Joe McGinniss, Jr. Talks Life, Writing and the American Way
FOLLOW ME HERE:
Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram | Get a Copy of My Book | Book Editing, Author Coaching, Submit Your Book to Me
“He was a thirty-two-year-old, college-educated father drowning his family in debt but energized by a simple prospect: proving to Phoebe that he alone, not a New York banker or some handsome young physician, was the winning play still.”
Oh, my God. I can’t remember the last time I was so satisfied with a read and applauding of its ending! It was so well done; the writing was just phenomenal. It never came off as corny or cliché, over-embellished or melodramatic. Just real. Honest and real. Fearless and foreboding, raw and sharp at the edges, McGinniss’ Carousel Court was like staring into a mirror with no makeup, no fluff.
Nick and Phoebe Maguire are the everyman: He remembers when they were both fresh out of college, full of ambition, energetic and in love. He remembers before he lost his way and she met JW. Now they’re 32—not old at all—but what has happened to them? So they decide to go for it:
“…it seemed that everyone had a house or was buying one…young married professionals buying and selling houses for six-figure profits. So why not them? Of course them, finally them…they quickly negotiated an interest-only, zero-down, 125 percent renovation mortgage on the house in Serenos.” And so it began.
The first thing I thought when I opened this one was: The Big Short. Carousel Court takes that to a whole other level, to a personal level that you can feel. It reaches inside of the macrocosm that was our economy in 2008 and pulls out a first-hand story of people who could’ve been your neighbors, who could’ve been your friends.
And if we’re going to get one thing straight, it’s this: McGinniss’ voice is unique, his writing style distinctive. It’s filled with a sort of nervous energy—ideas hopping around but somehow all fitting nicely together—that is magnetically kinetic. It was almost like free hand, jumping from topic to topic and scene to scene sometimes frantically, creating a brilliantly fast pace set in the California suburbs. It was a lens punctuated with short, curt lines that hit home right in the gut and blunt observations that rang so true that they could only be that. Honestly, I found it hard to follow in the beginning—until I didn’t. At some point, a few pages in, I relaxed into the writing style and let it carry me away. If you’re resistant to an unconventional voice, one that’s punctuated with terseness and modern-day, suburban grit (think the movie Closer, 2004) this read might take a second to sink into, but that’s okay. You’ll get there. Keep going. Though I had to re-read some of the passages in the beginning to find my footing with them, I found it intriguingly refreshing and immersive.
My sole qualm was a minute one: I’m still not sure if it was my own misunderstanding, but I found inconsistencies with Phoebe’s character, which nagged at me but didn’t ruin the read or bog me down with the necessity of clarity: is she fair-haired or brunette, 30 or 32 years old? (I feel like I read all of these about her and wasn’t sure which was correct.) But those perceived incongruences didn’t make her any less appealing to watch or any less deserving of my attention.
I rooted for Nick and Phoebe every step of the way, right up to the very last page. Every wrong move, every fight and sharp remark, every scathing text message furiously tapped out on an iPhone and every feeling of self-doubt—I felt it with them, and it felt genuine. They were people I wouldn’t mind grabbing a beer with, and I know I’d love every second of it if I could. I was behind them the whole way, and I wanted them to win.
“Fall, Daddy, fall…”
In Carousel Court, McGinniss truly captured the rhythms and fine grooves of our lives, of college-educated, middle classers right on the line of Gen X and Millennial. He tackles the question, without ever explicitly stating it, that we must all ask ourselves from time to time in this day and age: “How did I go from walking the stage, the world at my feet, full of conquering ambition, to this? How did I get here? And can I get back?” If life has ever dealt you a sobering, swift slap in the face, if you’ve ever asked yourself these questions, pick this one up. And if you haven’t, still pick this one up: you might need a little dose of reality. With that in mind, Carousel grabbed a well-deserved, happily-given 5 stars. *****
I received an advance-read copy of this book from the publisher, Simon & Schuster, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR: Behind the Name: Joe McGinniss, Jr. Talks Life, Writing and the American Way
FOLLOW ME HERE:
Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram | Get a Copy of My Book | Book Editing, Author Coaching, Submit Your Book to Me
September 17, 2016
If you're feeling the slightest bit down or depressed with the direction your life is currently heading, I'd suggest you skip this book. While certainly well-written, Joe McGinniss Jr.'s
Carousel Court
is a tremendously dark, almost brutal depiction of how the American Dream can slip out of your fingers, and its effect on a marriage and the psyches of both parties.
Phoebe and Nick Maguire are tired. They're tired of slaving away at their jobs, they're tired of their Boston neighborhood, and most of all, as parents of young Jackson, they're just physically tired. When Nick gets offered a production job in Southern California, they jump at the chance to restart their lives, and dream of a house near the beach.
As with many dreams, their reality falls short. They make the decision to buy a McMansion in a newer neighborhood, and they add many extras—granite countertops, a pool, even a rock-climbing wall—which will double their money once they sell it. The problem is, they've bought at the height of market, and it's not soon after that they find themselves stuck with this house, in a neighborhood replete with foreclosed house after foreclosed house, where their neighbors light their belongings on fire and patrol the chaos with guns.
Nick is desperate to be the provider for his family, which is no easy task amidst economic chaos, but he comes up with a scheme that may put them back on the track they've wanted to follow. Phoebe is surviving on an immense amount of drugs, and is becoming less and less motivated to continue her pharmaceutical sales job, a field in which she had stellar success back in Boston. She mostly uses her body and her sexuality to convince doctors they should prescribe the drugs she's selling, but even that power doesn't satisfy her. As she becomes increasingly self-destructive, she, too, is toying with ways to regain her financial independence, even if they put her at odds with Nick.
The threat of violence and unlawfulness is pervasive, as Nick's new scheme catches the attention of people with very little to lose. And as Phoebe's downward spiral continues, Nick realizes he may have to choose between his marriage and his son, and protect him before Phoebe's careless disregard causes them all harm.
This is really a depressing book, but I believe for those whose desperation grew during the financial crisis of the late 2000s, it's not that far from truth in some cases. You feel a sense of impending doom and danger, and it almost makes you want to read the book with your hands over your eyes because you don't know if you want to see what's going to happen. (For those who react viscerally to reading about animals being mistreated or harmed, you may want to skip this book.)
The dissolution of Phoebe and Nick's marriage is really brutal as well. I saw a blurb for this book compare it to Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road , and it definitely has a similar feel, particularly to the Leonardo DiCaprio/Kate Winslet film adaptation. After a while the whole thing got to be too much for me—too much of the same behaviors over and over again, too many days of prescription drug abuse and alcohol, too much unhappiness.
I'd never read anything by McGinniss Jr. before, but I was really impressed at how well he portrayed a toxic marriage in the midst of economic disaster. It was a little hard to take after a while, much like Revolutionary Road , but I was still impressed with his artistry.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
Phoebe and Nick Maguire are tired. They're tired of slaving away at their jobs, they're tired of their Boston neighborhood, and most of all, as parents of young Jackson, they're just physically tired. When Nick gets offered a production job in Southern California, they jump at the chance to restart their lives, and dream of a house near the beach.
As with many dreams, their reality falls short. They make the decision to buy a McMansion in a newer neighborhood, and they add many extras—granite countertops, a pool, even a rock-climbing wall—which will double their money once they sell it. The problem is, they've bought at the height of market, and it's not soon after that they find themselves stuck with this house, in a neighborhood replete with foreclosed house after foreclosed house, where their neighbors light their belongings on fire and patrol the chaos with guns.
Nick is desperate to be the provider for his family, which is no easy task amidst economic chaos, but he comes up with a scheme that may put them back on the track they've wanted to follow. Phoebe is surviving on an immense amount of drugs, and is becoming less and less motivated to continue her pharmaceutical sales job, a field in which she had stellar success back in Boston. She mostly uses her body and her sexuality to convince doctors they should prescribe the drugs she's selling, but even that power doesn't satisfy her. As she becomes increasingly self-destructive, she, too, is toying with ways to regain her financial independence, even if they put her at odds with Nick.
The threat of violence and unlawfulness is pervasive, as Nick's new scheme catches the attention of people with very little to lose. And as Phoebe's downward spiral continues, Nick realizes he may have to choose between his marriage and his son, and protect him before Phoebe's careless disregard causes them all harm.
This is really a depressing book, but I believe for those whose desperation grew during the financial crisis of the late 2000s, it's not that far from truth in some cases. You feel a sense of impending doom and danger, and it almost makes you want to read the book with your hands over your eyes because you don't know if you want to see what's going to happen. (For those who react viscerally to reading about animals being mistreated or harmed, you may want to skip this book.)
The dissolution of Phoebe and Nick's marriage is really brutal as well. I saw a blurb for this book compare it to Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road , and it definitely has a similar feel, particularly to the Leonardo DiCaprio/Kate Winslet film adaptation. After a while the whole thing got to be too much for me—too much of the same behaviors over and over again, too many days of prescription drug abuse and alcohol, too much unhappiness.
I'd never read anything by McGinniss Jr. before, but I was really impressed at how well he portrayed a toxic marriage in the midst of economic disaster. It was a little hard to take after a while, much like Revolutionary Road , but I was still impressed with his artistry.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
November 1, 2016
Carousel Court by Joe McGniniss Jr. is a 2016 Simon & Schuster publication.
This novel absolutely nails the dark, depressing, and desolate desperation that befell the upwardly mobile college educated classes after the economic fallout of 2008.
Phoebe and Nick are parents to a toddler named Jackson, living in a home at Carousel Court, both working night and day, to keep their heads above water, but drowning, just like their neighbors who are taking desperate measures too, while Jackson spends more time with his nanny than he does his parents.
Nick and Phoebe’s marriage has broken down, with Phoebe addicted to a myriad of prescription medications, which nearly got her and Jackson killed, and threw the couple into an even deeper tailspin, leading up to their current day issues. They are deeply in debt now after moving to California at the wrong moment in time.
To ease the pressure of their financial burdens, each of them privately schemes to dig their way of debt, but neither plan is a good one, or an honest one, and could come with a heavy price, not to mention all the risks involved, on all fronts.
Sure enough, things go from bad to worse as their plans blow up spectacularly, which will lead to a do or die decision.
Will Phoebe and Nick make it as a couple or are they too damaged to recover?
Well, I’m afraid I’m sort of at a loss for words here. This novel is very dark, disturbing on a many, many levels, and while I watched this couple crash and burn, I kept holding on to this ridiculous hope they could somehow manage to wake up and smell the coffee before it was too late, for them and for their son, who is as much a victim of this as anyone.
Be warned, this book is very raw, disheartening, and not just dark, but almost black, it is so very bleak. But, it’s like a train wreck. I couldn’t keep myself from watching it happen. There is very little joy in this feverish portrait of the modern -day rat race, the pursuit of the failing American dream, the pressure that robs couples of anything resembling respect and takes the biggest toll on their children.
The quirky, and sometimes sinister neighbors, combined with other threats from wild animals, as well as the constant presence of cicadas, help build the atmosphere around Phoebe and Nick as the speed increases toward an inevitable head on collision.
But, after all was said and done, the ending was ultimately satisfying and I will admit, I actually heard myself exhale.
I’m not sure which audience to recommend this book to. It is not a cheerful novel to be sure, but one many of you can certainly appreciate, remembering the hard times endured during the financial crisis, while highlighting the habits of our times, with Starbucks and iPhones playing a large role in the story, alongside the troubling abuse of prescription drugs.
So, overall, I commend the author and his skill as a writer, for capturing the essence of the times so perfectly, for creating such vivid, conflicted, and flawed characters, building such incredible tension, and for his ability to draw it all together with a conclusion I could appreciate and respect.
4 stars
This novel absolutely nails the dark, depressing, and desolate desperation that befell the upwardly mobile college educated classes after the economic fallout of 2008.
Phoebe and Nick are parents to a toddler named Jackson, living in a home at Carousel Court, both working night and day, to keep their heads above water, but drowning, just like their neighbors who are taking desperate measures too, while Jackson spends more time with his nanny than he does his parents.
Nick and Phoebe’s marriage has broken down, with Phoebe addicted to a myriad of prescription medications, which nearly got her and Jackson killed, and threw the couple into an even deeper tailspin, leading up to their current day issues. They are deeply in debt now after moving to California at the wrong moment in time.
To ease the pressure of their financial burdens, each of them privately schemes to dig their way of debt, but neither plan is a good one, or an honest one, and could come with a heavy price, not to mention all the risks involved, on all fronts.
Sure enough, things go from bad to worse as their plans blow up spectacularly, which will lead to a do or die decision.
Will Phoebe and Nick make it as a couple or are they too damaged to recover?
Well, I’m afraid I’m sort of at a loss for words here. This novel is very dark, disturbing on a many, many levels, and while I watched this couple crash and burn, I kept holding on to this ridiculous hope they could somehow manage to wake up and smell the coffee before it was too late, for them and for their son, who is as much a victim of this as anyone.
Be warned, this book is very raw, disheartening, and not just dark, but almost black, it is so very bleak. But, it’s like a train wreck. I couldn’t keep myself from watching it happen. There is very little joy in this feverish portrait of the modern -day rat race, the pursuit of the failing American dream, the pressure that robs couples of anything resembling respect and takes the biggest toll on their children.
The quirky, and sometimes sinister neighbors, combined with other threats from wild animals, as well as the constant presence of cicadas, help build the atmosphere around Phoebe and Nick as the speed increases toward an inevitable head on collision.
But, after all was said and done, the ending was ultimately satisfying and I will admit, I actually heard myself exhale.
I’m not sure which audience to recommend this book to. It is not a cheerful novel to be sure, but one many of you can certainly appreciate, remembering the hard times endured during the financial crisis, while highlighting the habits of our times, with Starbucks and iPhones playing a large role in the story, alongside the troubling abuse of prescription drugs.
So, overall, I commend the author and his skill as a writer, for capturing the essence of the times so perfectly, for creating such vivid, conflicted, and flawed characters, building such incredible tension, and for his ability to draw it all together with a conclusion I could appreciate and respect.
4 stars
August 2, 2016
This book is, or at least should be, a sleeper hit this summer. It has shades of Gone Girl (but, boy, am I sick of making that comparison. Enough already with Gone Girl!) but is a much more relatable story of a marriage that frays and frays and frays. . .Ok, the couple in question here is a little off to start with -- the wife works for a drug company, and will do just about anything to make a sale to a doctor; the husband is so desperate for cash he basically becomes a criminal -- but the way McGinniss tells the story, you can see how economic pressure makes their lives explode. In that ways it reminds me of a book called The Financial Lives of the Poets, by Jess Walter, a kind of elegy to screwed up, suburban 30somethings whose lives don't go as planned.
March 14, 2017
Enjoyable is not the word I would use to describe Joe McGinniss's second novel, Carousel Court. It is dark, seriously dark, and the characters are, for the most part, odious. But, man was I impressed. This is a story of a couple that goes completely off the rails in the housing crash/financial collapse. The setting is a new-construction community (exurb of Los Angeles) that feels like an apocalyptic wasteland. The story of their spiral into a moral cesspool is told with remarkable tautness and finesse. I didn't like either of the main characters at all. But they are well-drawn and complex, satisfying in their way, and McGinnis is a talented writer.
In one sense Carousel Court is a critique of America and its belief in the get-rich quick scheme and the grand plan that will fix everything at once and the hail Mary pass that will surely be caught. The belief that you deserve more than you have. Particularly searing was Phoebe's rejection of the regular life that Nick could have offered when they lost it all. She was betting on him and he didn't pay off. Even as I found Nick and Phoebe awful people, I still rooted for them, still hoped one of their disastrous ideas would work for them and they would rise above their circumstances and the ugliness of their relationship. This book filled me with anxiety! It was a tense page-turner.
I did have some critiques. The son, who is supposed to be 2 close to 3, seems more like 1 and a half. He doesn't have a personality or much of a presence. And the ending, although a welcome relief in some ways, was hard for me to fully embrace. But I give this five stars because it felt masterful. (It was picked by Kirkus as one of the best books of the year.) And it is also timely and important in the make-America-great-again era.
In one sense Carousel Court is a critique of America and its belief in the get-rich quick scheme and the grand plan that will fix everything at once and the hail Mary pass that will surely be caught. The belief that you deserve more than you have. Particularly searing was Phoebe's rejection of the regular life that Nick could have offered when they lost it all. She was betting on him and he didn't pay off. Even as I found Nick and Phoebe awful people, I still rooted for them, still hoped one of their disastrous ideas would work for them and they would rise above their circumstances and the ugliness of their relationship. This book filled me with anxiety! It was a tense page-turner.
I did have some critiques. The son, who is supposed to be 2 close to 3, seems more like 1 and a half. He doesn't have a personality or much of a presence. And the ending, although a welcome relief in some ways, was hard for me to fully embrace. But I give this five stars because it felt masterful. (It was picked by Kirkus as one of the best books of the year.) And it is also timely and important in the make-America-great-again era.
September 20, 2016
This is one raw and real read! The ending was great!
February 28, 2023
I'm done.
I feel like I deserve a medal.
I feel like I deserve a medal.
November 13, 2019
I must secretly be a sadist because why else would I have continued to read and finish this book when I realize there was nothing worthy to glean from it?
Warning!!! Adultery abounds within these sordid pages!
Carousel Court tells the tale of Nick and Phoebe Maguire, a couple with a son who are drowning in debt and fail to meet their own high expectations of life, love and living.
They are also morally abject, detestable and pathetic.
Phoebe is a closet drug addict who whores herself out to a former boss because of serious daddy issues, not because she's seeking an escape from the money pit she and Nick have found themselves in.
After being cuckolded once while Phoebe was pregnant with their son Jackson, Nick remains married to her, even after almost killing herself and said son in a traffic accident months earlier, because he doesn't want to leave Jackson and its so much healthier that a child have two deficient parents who can't stand each other than have him be raised by a single parent.
Then, there's some side stuff about allowing people to rent homes illegally, blah blah blah.
You know what? I don't care.
You all still with me so far?
No? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Is the recap of a failing marriage about two educated, privileged people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions an honest depiction of our society today?
I don't blame people for making mistakes. We all make mistakes. We're human.
Hopefully, some of us learn from them. But I do expect you to hold yourself accountable for the choices you make.
Instead, Nick and Phoebe blame each other for the mistakes they've made; for not being man enough, for not holding up their end of the marriage bargain, for losing respect for one another and thereby driving each other into the arms of their respective adulterous partners.
I call bullshit.
Carousel Court is pretentious drivel that pretends to be...well, something better, what that could possibly be I have no idea because the only thing I wanted to do with its pages was throw it into recycling.
You want a realistic tale of how the collapse of the housing market affected innocent people, uprooted families and wrecked lives?
Check out 99 Homes starring Michael Shannon and Andrew Garfield.
A sad, bitter tale about the housing market and the tragic effects the housing collapse had on families.
You won't regret watching the movie but I can assure you, you will regret reading Carousel Court.
Warning!!! Adultery abounds within these sordid pages!
Carousel Court tells the tale of Nick and Phoebe Maguire, a couple with a son who are drowning in debt and fail to meet their own high expectations of life, love and living.
They are also morally abject, detestable and pathetic.
Phoebe is a closet drug addict who whores herself out to a former boss because of serious daddy issues, not because she's seeking an escape from the money pit she and Nick have found themselves in.
After being cuckolded once while Phoebe was pregnant with their son Jackson, Nick remains married to her, even after almost killing herself and said son in a traffic accident months earlier, because he doesn't want to leave Jackson and its so much healthier that a child have two deficient parents who can't stand each other than have him be raised by a single parent.
Then, there's some side stuff about allowing people to rent homes illegally, blah blah blah.
You know what? I don't care.
You all still with me so far?
No? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Is the recap of a failing marriage about two educated, privileged people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions an honest depiction of our society today?
I don't blame people for making mistakes. We all make mistakes. We're human.
Hopefully, some of us learn from them. But I do expect you to hold yourself accountable for the choices you make.
Instead, Nick and Phoebe blame each other for the mistakes they've made; for not being man enough, for not holding up their end of the marriage bargain, for losing respect for one another and thereby driving each other into the arms of their respective adulterous partners.
I call bullshit.
Carousel Court is pretentious drivel that pretends to be...well, something better, what that could possibly be I have no idea because the only thing I wanted to do with its pages was throw it into recycling.
You want a realistic tale of how the collapse of the housing market affected innocent people, uprooted families and wrecked lives?
Check out 99 Homes starring Michael Shannon and Andrew Garfield.
A sad, bitter tale about the housing market and the tragic effects the housing collapse had on families.
You won't regret watching the movie but I can assure you, you will regret reading Carousel Court.
September 23, 2016
Nick and Phoebe Maguire have a beautiful home on Carousel Court, a property they had plans to flip in the ultra hot housing market of the mid-aughts. Having uprooted their young family from Boston and used all of their savings on that property, the Maguires have had nothing but trouble since. First, the job offer for which the family relocated was rescinded before they even made it to Southern California. Then, Phoebe, a very successful pharmacy rep in Boston finds herself in the bottom third for sales, her job hanging in the balance. And of course there's the housing market, initial signs of instability rapidly becoming evidence of a historic collapse.
The Maguire's marriage is more toxic than the housing market. Phoebe has not adjusted well to the changes, relying increasingly on drugs like Klonapin to get her through the day. Nick, instead of pursuing work in the field for which he's trained, is cleaning out foreclosed homes for a pittance. Phoebe harbors ill will, wanting a husband with drive, who will succeed even in these troubled times. Someone who will fight. Nick is increasingly dissatisfied with Phoebe's drug use, lapses in parenting, and the ghost of a former lover whom he worries may not be out of the picture.
Carousel Court is a fascinating look at the collapse of the housing market and refreshingly, it is not told through a family seemingly duped into a bad loan by evil bankers. Instead it is told through a family whose selfishness and greed is on full display. Only they lack the self-awareness to see things as clearly as the reader does. Each spouse, under mounting pressure, makes increasingly damaging choices both for themselves and for their young son until the marriage seems destined to burst almost as visibly as that housing bubble did.
Joe McGinniss Jr. takes on marriage and money by creating situations that now seem almost absurd, but looking back to those times of uncertainty many of those actions feel at least plausible (though Phoebe's are at times over the top). Carousel Court is about a marriage put through the wringer, much of which is self-inflicted, and holds a mirror to what many might call the American Dream.
Note: ARC provided free from publisher via NetGalley
The Maguire's marriage is more toxic than the housing market. Phoebe has not adjusted well to the changes, relying increasingly on drugs like Klonapin to get her through the day. Nick, instead of pursuing work in the field for which he's trained, is cleaning out foreclosed homes for a pittance. Phoebe harbors ill will, wanting a husband with drive, who will succeed even in these troubled times. Someone who will fight. Nick is increasingly dissatisfied with Phoebe's drug use, lapses in parenting, and the ghost of a former lover whom he worries may not be out of the picture.
Carousel Court is a fascinating look at the collapse of the housing market and refreshingly, it is not told through a family seemingly duped into a bad loan by evil bankers. Instead it is told through a family whose selfishness and greed is on full display. Only they lack the self-awareness to see things as clearly as the reader does. Each spouse, under mounting pressure, makes increasingly damaging choices both for themselves and for their young son until the marriage seems destined to burst almost as visibly as that housing bubble did.
Joe McGinniss Jr. takes on marriage and money by creating situations that now seem almost absurd, but looking back to those times of uncertainty many of those actions feel at least plausible (though Phoebe's are at times over the top). Carousel Court is about a marriage put through the wringer, much of which is self-inflicted, and holds a mirror to what many might call the American Dream.
Note: ARC provided free from publisher via NetGalley
July 31, 2016
Carousel Court by Joe McGinniss Jr. is a bleak, unflinching look at a contemporary marriage falling apart. It is recommended for only a select group of readers - those who appreciate dark, disturbing literary fiction with overtones of hopelessness and plenty of self-medication. It was a so-so read for me, but the writing is very good.
Nick and Phoebe Maguire are a young married couple who have relocated with their young son from Boston to Southern California to live their dream. Instead Nick's job offer was withdrawn once they arrived and Phoebe (let's just call her Klonopin) is (hardly) working as a pharmaceutical drug rep. They had bought an expensive home, expecting to ride the tide of buying and flipping houses for a profit. Instead they joined the ranks of those who are upside down in their mortgages in a neighborhood full of abandoned homes and foreclosures. Their neighborhood is one of civil disorder and financial ruin, where neighbors set fire to their belongings and one lives, well-armed, in a tent in the front yard.
Nick is working for EverythingMustGo!, a company where movers/employees clean out foreclosed homes for banks. This leads him to a plan to make money. Simultaneously, Klonopin (Phoebe), who is constantly popping pills and maintaining a drugged out high, is in contact with JW, her previous boss/lover in Boston. Their son, Jackson, lives at daycare or with a sitter most of the time.
For those of you, like me, who have no idea what Klonopin is, it is the brand name of the drug Clonazepam which is a medication used to prevent and treat seizures, panic disorder, and for the movement disorder known as akathisia. It is a tranquilizer of the benzodiazepine class. It is also mentioned on almost every page, and Klonopin (Phoebe) is constantly popping multiple tablets, often with alcohol. This constant mention of her taking Klonopin became annoying. Very annoying. Distractedly annoying.
Combining the explosive, turbulent, abusive, and combative relationship of Nick and Klonopin with the neglect of their son, and add the bleak, hopeless, dangerous and almost surreal atmosphere and you have a novel with some extremely unlikable, damaged people in an setting the mirrors and magnifies their worst traits. She's high all the time and regards Nick with contempt and disdain. He obsesses over grabbing her jaw, which sort of creeped me out. They aren't good together and have absolutely no moral compass or sense of working together to overcome anything.
The quality of McGinniss's prose managed to keep me reading with a sense of disgust and urgency about these two people I loathed, a major feat. I have to give kudos for establishing their characters and keeping them true to form with the inevitable approaching train wreck. He left me thinking, "People suck." Three stars for the writing, but don't read this without being warned about the ominous tone.
Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher for review purposes.
Nick and Phoebe Maguire are a young married couple who have relocated with their young son from Boston to Southern California to live their dream. Instead Nick's job offer was withdrawn once they arrived and Phoebe (let's just call her Klonopin) is (hardly) working as a pharmaceutical drug rep. They had bought an expensive home, expecting to ride the tide of buying and flipping houses for a profit. Instead they joined the ranks of those who are upside down in their mortgages in a neighborhood full of abandoned homes and foreclosures. Their neighborhood is one of civil disorder and financial ruin, where neighbors set fire to their belongings and one lives, well-armed, in a tent in the front yard.
Nick is working for EverythingMustGo!, a company where movers/employees clean out foreclosed homes for banks. This leads him to a plan to make money. Simultaneously, Klonopin (Phoebe), who is constantly popping pills and maintaining a drugged out high, is in contact with JW, her previous boss/lover in Boston. Their son, Jackson, lives at daycare or with a sitter most of the time.
For those of you, like me, who have no idea what Klonopin is, it is the brand name of the drug Clonazepam which is a medication used to prevent and treat seizures, panic disorder, and for the movement disorder known as akathisia. It is a tranquilizer of the benzodiazepine class. It is also mentioned on almost every page, and Klonopin (Phoebe) is constantly popping multiple tablets, often with alcohol. This constant mention of her taking Klonopin became annoying. Very annoying. Distractedly annoying.
Combining the explosive, turbulent, abusive, and combative relationship of Nick and Klonopin with the neglect of their son, and add the bleak, hopeless, dangerous and almost surreal atmosphere and you have a novel with some extremely unlikable, damaged people in an setting the mirrors and magnifies their worst traits. She's high all the time and regards Nick with contempt and disdain. He obsesses over grabbing her jaw, which sort of creeped me out. They aren't good together and have absolutely no moral compass or sense of working together to overcome anything.
The quality of McGinniss's prose managed to keep me reading with a sense of disgust and urgency about these two people I loathed, a major feat. I have to give kudos for establishing their characters and keeping them true to form with the inevitable approaching train wreck. He left me thinking, "People suck." Three stars for the writing, but don't read this without being warned about the ominous tone.
Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher for review purposes.
January 9, 2018
Before I polish my thoughts; who slipped me the hallucinogenic? This book feels like coming out of a drugged dream state, running barefoot over crushed glass just a half step ahead of snarling demons. Reality is a hazy scene on the other side of a veil of graffiti, smoke and flames. Is this reality somewhere? Have I just been sitting with Alex and his droogs at the Korova Milkbar ?
Carousel Court reads like a dystopian action film more than the story of a young couple trying to make it through the financial crisis of 2000-ish. Lucky Nick and Phoebe got the last ticket on the final boat to Pleasure Island, took their dreams and bet high on their sudden good fortune and the phenomenal rise of the financial climate. When the bottom falls out and the jobs dissolve, the couple is sucked down, financially trapped in the lavish dream home they built to flip.
The neighborhood is riddled with similar dreamers, foreclosure signs and looters, swimming pools choked with green slime. An armed neighbor sleeps in a tent in his yard to ward off the bank-sanctioned home invasions, keeping a raging bonfire fueled with furniture and electronic equipment; aggressive coyotes prowl the half-vacant cul-de-sacs silhouetted by the blazing California canyon fires; mothers pack loaded pink pistols; swarms of cicadas seem to have crawled out of their hibernation to witness the urban apocalypse. Helicopters flying low overhead, the whirring and chirp of cicadas, the crackling of fires, gun shots and coyote howls...the soundtrack of Carousel Court. Inside their breathless home, Phoebe spirals into a self-medicating routine of fistfuls of Klonopin gulped down with bottles of booze. It's Escape from LA -- or at least some part of the Southern California dreamscape turned nightmare. It's Eurydice and Orpheus descending into Hell.
McGinniss Jr. keeps it on a low-burn for a good portion of the book taking you through this wreckage of the American Dream at a rubbernecker's pace. The stress poisons the marriage, as you would expect. Arguments between the couple are as frequent as collection calls, escalating in toxicity and revenge sex. But tangled in the degradation, drugs and adultery, McGinniss Jr. gives us moments of tenderness that hover just below the tension. The moments are like a life-saving breath of fresh oxygen in a toxic cloud.
Almost battered by the abuse and depravity created by the author, I wondered if I could finish the book. [I've been known to toss aside a read 400 pages in with only 25 pgs. to go.] I had to go on. One of the author's father's [Joe McGinniss Sr.] students was Bret Easton Ellis, an author whose style several critics mention when reviewing McGinniss Jr. Carousel Court had that same dark surreal sense as Less Than Zero, a book I loved, but it was a painful read. You almost surrender yourself to finish -- that's the power contained in this novel. If I see 1 * reviews, I'll understand as well as I do the 5* reviews.
Carousel Court reads like a dystopian action film more than the story of a young couple trying to make it through the financial crisis of 2000-ish. Lucky Nick and Phoebe got the last ticket on the final boat to Pleasure Island, took their dreams and bet high on their sudden good fortune and the phenomenal rise of the financial climate. When the bottom falls out and the jobs dissolve, the couple is sucked down, financially trapped in the lavish dream home they built to flip.
The neighborhood is riddled with similar dreamers, foreclosure signs and looters, swimming pools choked with green slime. An armed neighbor sleeps in a tent in his yard to ward off the bank-sanctioned home invasions, keeping a raging bonfire fueled with furniture and electronic equipment; aggressive coyotes prowl the half-vacant cul-de-sacs silhouetted by the blazing California canyon fires; mothers pack loaded pink pistols; swarms of cicadas seem to have crawled out of their hibernation to witness the urban apocalypse. Helicopters flying low overhead, the whirring and chirp of cicadas, the crackling of fires, gun shots and coyote howls...the soundtrack of Carousel Court. Inside their breathless home, Phoebe spirals into a self-medicating routine of fistfuls of Klonopin gulped down with bottles of booze. It's Escape from LA -- or at least some part of the Southern California dreamscape turned nightmare. It's Eurydice and Orpheus descending into Hell.
McGinniss Jr. keeps it on a low-burn for a good portion of the book taking you through this wreckage of the American Dream at a rubbernecker's pace. The stress poisons the marriage, as you would expect. Arguments between the couple are as frequent as collection calls, escalating in toxicity and revenge sex. But tangled in the degradation, drugs and adultery, McGinniss Jr. gives us moments of tenderness that hover just below the tension. The moments are like a life-saving breath of fresh oxygen in a toxic cloud.
Almost battered by the abuse and depravity created by the author, I wondered if I could finish the book. [I've been known to toss aside a read 400 pages in with only 25 pgs. to go.] I had to go on. One of the author's father's [Joe McGinniss Sr.] students was Bret Easton Ellis, an author whose style several critics mention when reviewing McGinniss Jr. Carousel Court had that same dark surreal sense as Less Than Zero, a book I loved, but it was a painful read. You almost surrender yourself to finish -- that's the power contained in this novel. If I see 1 * reviews, I'll understand as well as I do the 5* reviews.
November 3, 2016
Capturing the fall-out from the foreclosure crisis in Southern California, Author Joe McGinniss, Jr., takes readers deep into the unsteady relationship of Nick and Phoebe, two of its victims. Worse, this couple has just moved there from Boston in order to re-start their rocky marriage. With dreams of house flipping and time off for Phoebe to enjoy their young son, it soon becomes clear that the hostile economic environment will offer up nothing to help their dreams prosper.
Before they've even landed in LA, Nick finds out his film production job has fallen through. Phoebe must resume her tireless and degrading life as a pharmaceutical sales rep, spending hours a day driving the California freeways in the hot sun instead of taking their child to the beach as she envisioned. Nick ends up becoming part of the foreclosure economy, clearning out abandoned homes instead of making films.
Then there's their "dream" house, located in a foreclosure alley, where any remaining neighbors are just as economically crazed or more so. One neighbor burns his possessions in his swimming pool at night. Another patrols the neighborhood's streets at night to prevent any looting of local property. It's grim and getting more so all the time.
It's little surprise that Phoebe blames Nick and is using drugs to dull her pain. Soon, each partner in the marriage comes up with a "way out" of their economic struggles. Phoebe ends up trying to trade sex for a better job (even as her drug use becomes worse and worse), while Nick comes up with a way to scam his situation, rehousing foreclosure victims in houses he doesn't own.
Can this couple save their marriage? While McGinniss has written a novel on the darker side, he's an excellent talent and has a lot to say about the country at one of its bleakest moments. This is a book well worth reading if you can stomach the subject matter.
Thanks to Simon and Schuster and Off the Shelf for allowing me to read this wonderful book.
Before they've even landed in LA, Nick finds out his film production job has fallen through. Phoebe must resume her tireless and degrading life as a pharmaceutical sales rep, spending hours a day driving the California freeways in the hot sun instead of taking their child to the beach as she envisioned. Nick ends up becoming part of the foreclosure economy, clearning out abandoned homes instead of making films.
Then there's their "dream" house, located in a foreclosure alley, where any remaining neighbors are just as economically crazed or more so. One neighbor burns his possessions in his swimming pool at night. Another patrols the neighborhood's streets at night to prevent any looting of local property. It's grim and getting more so all the time.
It's little surprise that Phoebe blames Nick and is using drugs to dull her pain. Soon, each partner in the marriage comes up with a "way out" of their economic struggles. Phoebe ends up trying to trade sex for a better job (even as her drug use becomes worse and worse), while Nick comes up with a way to scam his situation, rehousing foreclosure victims in houses he doesn't own.
Can this couple save their marriage? While McGinniss has written a novel on the darker side, he's an excellent talent and has a lot to say about the country at one of its bleakest moments. This is a book well worth reading if you can stomach the subject matter.
Thanks to Simon and Schuster and Off the Shelf for allowing me to read this wonderful book.
October 18, 2016
2.5 because i can see if i had stuck it out i would agree that the writing is good and the story probably unfolded in a satisfying way but I'm just finding it too hard to keep picking it up. It's just not for me. Sorry book... i will not lead you on as an attentive reader... Also I have been cheating on you with Larry McMurtry. He's great in bed....great to read in bed, i mean.
August 18, 2016
A contemporary domestic thriller of the 2008 real estate crash, Carousel Court follows a young couple, Nick and Phoebe, whose plans of living large spring a leak as the market spirals down. Nick moves the family from Boston to Los Angeles to work in the film business, buying a house with the intention of flipping it. But when that job fails to materialize, and foreclosure stalks the land, he becomes a trash-out man, one step from home breaking, cleaning out foreclosed houses with a team of almost-criminals for 'the boss', and devises a plan to bail himself and his family out of their mortgaged predicament. Meanwhile Phoebe, an up and coming drug rep with secrets of her own, finds herself increasingly desperate as she loses her edge professionally while becoming more dependent on the meds she pushes, pursues her own personal line of salvation.
It's been called quite accurately a "Gift of the Magi" for the underwater generation, but O. Henry's couple never imagined such desperate measures in the toppling chaos of the McMansionized suburbs during a real estate implosion. The urgency and danger keeps the plot moving at roller-coaster speeds, and the pressure on these two unlocks psychological cracks that hurtle the car forwards. Relentlessly engaging.
It's been called quite accurately a "Gift of the Magi" for the underwater generation, but O. Henry's couple never imagined such desperate measures in the toppling chaos of the McMansionized suburbs during a real estate implosion. The urgency and danger keeps the plot moving at roller-coaster speeds, and the pressure on these two unlocks psychological cracks that hurtle the car forwards. Relentlessly engaging.
August 28, 2016
This is the view of The Big Short from inside one of the families affected by the 2008 crisis. Millennials Nick and Phoebe move with their young son from the Boston area to Southern California, thinking their problems will be solved but finding themselves in the hottest of hot waters. I wont give away any more of the plot because the real story is within their characters and their all too human reactions as life and circumstance collapse around them. Outside forces come into play, but also their misguided choices, and while I admit to not having a lot of sympathy for either of them at times, still kept riveted.
December 18, 2016
This is a book about failed investments. Not just one couple's doomed investment in a suburban California home, but the different ways that we become invested in the various aspects of our lives—whether it's a marriage or a career—and the ease with which it can all fall apart.
Carousel Court is a scathing, brutal account of the modern American Dream. At its center is a couple who loathe each other to a truly vicious degree. It sort of has a Bret Easton Ellis vibe to it: in McGinniss's world of contemporary suburban America, everyone is selfish and horrible, everyone lies and cheats, excess and depravity are rampant. It's an extreme level of cynicism and nihilism that isn't entirely realistic, but it works as a caricature of the most degenerate people and scenarios.
Everything about it is just downright nasty and vile, from the savage dialogue between Phoebe and Nick to the tiny details: juicy cicadas everywhere, always; dead animals; green sludge accumulating in the in-ground pool. The vibe is dark and ominous: nothing can possibly end well for these two.
Most of us have, at one point of another, experienced the letdown of failing to realize our ambitions, desires and expectations. And that's what makes Carousel Court so uncomfortable: it reminds us that any of us could ostensibly become Phoebe and Nick, spiraling on a collision course into relentless despair.
Yeah. It's not a happy book by any means. It's raw and it's vicious, save for a glimmer of hope for redemption. Like a trainwreck, you want to look away, but you can't.
Carousel Court is a scathing, brutal account of the modern American Dream. At its center is a couple who loathe each other to a truly vicious degree. It sort of has a Bret Easton Ellis vibe to it: in McGinniss's world of contemporary suburban America, everyone is selfish and horrible, everyone lies and cheats, excess and depravity are rampant. It's an extreme level of cynicism and nihilism that isn't entirely realistic, but it works as a caricature of the most degenerate people and scenarios.
Everything about it is just downright nasty and vile, from the savage dialogue between Phoebe and Nick to the tiny details: juicy cicadas everywhere, always; dead animals; green sludge accumulating in the in-ground pool. The vibe is dark and ominous: nothing can possibly end well for these two.
Most of us have, at one point of another, experienced the letdown of failing to realize our ambitions, desires and expectations. And that's what makes Carousel Court so uncomfortable: it reminds us that any of us could ostensibly become Phoebe and Nick, spiraling on a collision course into relentless despair.
Yeah. It's not a happy book by any means. It's raw and it's vicious, save for a glimmer of hope for redemption. Like a trainwreck, you want to look away, but you can't.
October 6, 2019
An excellent story about how achieving the American Dream has become synonymous with a fight for survival in this modern age. It's hard look at how people's relationships and quality of life can suffer significantly in the pursuit of happiness. Expectations clash with reality, and reality is something less and less people are prepared to deal with in the new millennium. We've all been told to live our lives and chase our dreams, but no one has mentioned the crippling costs involved. The piper must be paid one way or another. Sometimes "Gotta do what you gotta do" is as ugly as it is necessary.
Exciting, unsettling, and upsetting, 'Carousel Court' is a quick-paced read that keeps you turning the pages and asks questions we might be unprepared to even consider.
Exciting, unsettling, and upsetting, 'Carousel Court' is a quick-paced read that keeps you turning the pages and asks questions we might be unprepared to even consider.
August 13, 2016
I felt the manic tension building in the relationship and knew at some point there would be a monumental event where it all came crashing down, and a large part of it was quite believable. I am disappointed in the pivotal moment with JW. He loses his veracity when he suddenly shifts into being over Phoebe because she asked for something. Things continue to unravel for me when Nick and Phoebe are magically healed as individuals and with each other following her psychosis and brief stint in treatment. It felt cheap and a disservice to the story and characters McGinniss had created.
I don't recommend it for readers less than college-age.
I don't recommend it for readers less than college-age.
Read
December 14, 2016If I was meant to passionately hate the protagonists of this book and find it brutally depressing then McGinniss Jr. has been successful. It's another financial crisis book but by far the most brutal I have read. Financial ruin has never been written about with such furious rage and raw humanity. I absolutely hated it but I couldn't stop reading it and I'm now full of anger and fire. I need to sit with this for a while as I'm completely raw. Only read this if you want a harrowing, infuriating but very real read. The writing is stunning. People are horrid. I have no idea what to rate this book. I'm broken.
August 17, 2016
I feel really torn about this book. On the one hand, it was brilliantly written, and as I step back I realize how much it just captures relationships in such a raw, complex way. But I felt mad reading it. Just full on angry. So I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book as a whole.
December 1, 2016
A modern day Revolutionary Road, about a marriage crumbling along with The American Dream set on foreclosure alley in California's Inland Empire. Marred, in my view, by a pat ending but otherwise searing, caustic, brilliant.
May 17, 2017
I did not even finish the book. That doesn't happen often with me but at halfway through the book I just could not take anymore. On and on it went, and who even cared about these 2 unlikeable main characters.
September 7, 2016
This one took a little while for me to get into. The author has a stilted way of writing that takes some getting used to. I thought I was going to give up after about 50 pages but I ended up sticking it out. Still not sure if I'm happy about that or not.
Among the many issues that I had with this book was that we're given absolutely no basis for their relationship. At no point is there a mention of a time when Nick and Phoebe were in love, what they saw in each other, how Nick got over the fact that she was sending nude pictures to her clients or why he would deal with her consistent cheating. Add on the fact that nobody in this book was remotely likable and it's a tough sell.
Another criticism I have is that everybody in this book speaks in the exact same way. Be it 32 year old addict, 50 year old mogul, or 19 year old stoner, they all have the same particular way of speaking and texting. It really drives home the lack of character development and the fact that they're all utterly repulsive humans.
The ending really blew it for me. It felt like one of those cases where the author wrapped everything up in a neat little box despite the fact that it was totally unbelievable. After reading about Nick and Phoebe's severe disfunction for far too many pages, it's a slap in the face to ask a reader to believe that everything was all good after she goes to rehab for a month.
Among the many issues that I had with this book was that we're given absolutely no basis for their relationship. At no point is there a mention of a time when Nick and Phoebe were in love, what they saw in each other, how Nick got over the fact that she was sending nude pictures to her clients or why he would deal with her consistent cheating. Add on the fact that nobody in this book was remotely likable and it's a tough sell.
Another criticism I have is that everybody in this book speaks in the exact same way. Be it 32 year old addict, 50 year old mogul, or 19 year old stoner, they all have the same particular way of speaking and texting. It really drives home the lack of character development and the fact that they're all utterly repulsive humans.
The ending really blew it for me. It felt like one of those cases where the author wrapped everything up in a neat little box despite the fact that it was totally unbelievable. After reading about Nick and Phoebe's severe disfunction for far too many pages, it's a slap in the face to ask a reader to believe that everything was all good after she goes to rehab for a month.
December 17, 2017
This relentlessly bleak and grim novel follows Nick and Phoebe as they move from Boston to California where they hope to take advantage of the property bubble. They’re already on shaky ground due to Phoebe’s reliance on prescription drugs and her relationship with her boss, and as the market collapses and they are faced with financial pressures way beyond their ability to cope, their lives and their marriage begin to disintegrate. Set against the searing heat, drought and wildfires of Southern California, the sense of threat and danger ramps up and the tension builds. It’s a raw and troubling portrait of a deeply dysfunctional couple and a deeply dysfunctional society, and unflinching look at what happens when the American Dream turns sour. There’s some really powerful writing here and I found it a gripping and compelling, if deeply unsettling, read. It’s a bit too long and repetitive, however, and Phoebe’s constant drug-taking soon becomes tedious. And although much of the dialogue is authentic, there’s rather too much reliance on texting to move the action forward. However, these minor faults are outweighed by the novels strengths and as the marriage becomes increasingly toxic, the reader feels almost as trapped as Nick and Phoebe are, and just as unable to turn away, like watching a car crash you can do nothing to avoid.
September 8, 2016
Hmmm. I don't know how to explain this one. I love psychological suspense, and this kinda was, but also not. It's more of a dirty unflinching look behind the curtain of a marriage that is falling apart. If you're looking for a fast paced twisty plot, maybe choose something else. This book is a slow burn, an in depth character study about how far people will go when driven to the edge. The characters are pretty unlikable, and this book has a dark tone that some may not appreciate (but l do!).
This wasn't quite what l was expecting, yet l am not disappointed.
Not for everyone, but 5 bright, shiny stars from me.
This wasn't quite what l was expecting, yet l am not disappointed.
Not for everyone, but 5 bright, shiny stars from me.
October 21, 2016
Full review at:
Carousel Court is one amazingly bleak book.
The novel, by Joe McGinniss Jr., is about a couple – Phoebe and Nick – who move from Boston to Southern California in search of a better life. In Boston, Phoebe was a pharmaceutical sales rep and Nick a documentary filmmaker. They lived in a cramped apartment with their toddler, Jackson. Lured by the promise of sunny weather, an easier pace of life, and the untold riches that would come from flipping a suburban LA house, they make plans to leave it all and head west. Just before they are scheduled to leave, Nick learns that the job he has been promised in California has fallen through. So by the time they arrive in LA, they are already stressed and under the gun.
LA is nothing like what they hoped it would be. The real estate crash has left the economy decimated, with no jobs and suburbs full of empty, bank-owned houses. Phoebe, who had hoped to take a few months off to be with Jackson, just resumes her pharma job on the west coast. Nick, unemployed and increasingly desperate, takes on work cleaning out abandoned houses so that the banks can take them over. He works during the night, filling dumpsters with furniture and trying to avoid roving bands of pillagers who break into empty homes and pillage them during those same dark hours.
Bleak, huh? Well, the real bleakness of Carousel Court comes from Phoebe and Nick themselves. Phoebe, furious at her husband for his failure to provide for them, increasingly relies on anti-anxiety meds, sleeping pills and alcohol to get her through her long days of driving on LA freeways, calling on doctors’ offices to push her company’s medicine. She belittles her husband and carries on a sexually charged long distance text relationship with her former boss (and flame), a finance guy in Boston who toys with her, promising to swoop in and save her with a new job, a new house. Relations between Nick and Phoebe grow increasingly more hostile as he suspects her affair and has to compensate for her inability to parent Jackson or be supportive in any way.
The stress level of the book is ratcheted even higher by the constant threat of violence that surrounds this fractured family – from looters, from coyotes, from wildfires, from the next door neighbor who is staked in a tent with a gun on his front lawn all night long.
Plus there’s the fact that both Phoebe and Nick are both pretty hateful people.
And all of the bleakness. Is. Unrelenting. It’s not cyclical, because it never ebbs. It just flows, constantly.
If you want to learn more about the real estate crisis, watch The Big Short, which is just as illuminating but more enjoyable. Carousel Court was too long, too bleak, too tense.
Carousel Court is one amazingly bleak book.
The novel, by Joe McGinniss Jr., is about a couple – Phoebe and Nick – who move from Boston to Southern California in search of a better life. In Boston, Phoebe was a pharmaceutical sales rep and Nick a documentary filmmaker. They lived in a cramped apartment with their toddler, Jackson. Lured by the promise of sunny weather, an easier pace of life, and the untold riches that would come from flipping a suburban LA house, they make plans to leave it all and head west. Just before they are scheduled to leave, Nick learns that the job he has been promised in California has fallen through. So by the time they arrive in LA, they are already stressed and under the gun.
LA is nothing like what they hoped it would be. The real estate crash has left the economy decimated, with no jobs and suburbs full of empty, bank-owned houses. Phoebe, who had hoped to take a few months off to be with Jackson, just resumes her pharma job on the west coast. Nick, unemployed and increasingly desperate, takes on work cleaning out abandoned houses so that the banks can take them over. He works during the night, filling dumpsters with furniture and trying to avoid roving bands of pillagers who break into empty homes and pillage them during those same dark hours.
Bleak, huh? Well, the real bleakness of Carousel Court comes from Phoebe and Nick themselves. Phoebe, furious at her husband for his failure to provide for them, increasingly relies on anti-anxiety meds, sleeping pills and alcohol to get her through her long days of driving on LA freeways, calling on doctors’ offices to push her company’s medicine. She belittles her husband and carries on a sexually charged long distance text relationship with her former boss (and flame), a finance guy in Boston who toys with her, promising to swoop in and save her with a new job, a new house. Relations between Nick and Phoebe grow increasingly more hostile as he suspects her affair and has to compensate for her inability to parent Jackson or be supportive in any way.
The stress level of the book is ratcheted even higher by the constant threat of violence that surrounds this fractured family – from looters, from coyotes, from wildfires, from the next door neighbor who is staked in a tent with a gun on his front lawn all night long.
Plus there’s the fact that both Phoebe and Nick are both pretty hateful people.
And all of the bleakness. Is. Unrelenting. It’s not cyclical, because it never ebbs. It just flows, constantly.
If you want to learn more about the real estate crisis, watch The Big Short, which is just as illuminating but more enjoyable. Carousel Court was too long, too bleak, too tense.
February 13, 2019
*yawn* 'nuf said
August 8, 2016
Carousel Court is a difficult book to explain. A bit of surrealism mixed with literary satire, it is either going to be hit or miss with the audience. The best way to describe it is as a metaphorical piece filled with symbolic themes that deal with contemporary issues. It is very similar to Don DeLillio's style of writing where there are plenty of underlying topics that are presented which allows the reader to ponder what the whole purpose of the novel is. Again, this is book for savvy readers that can handle something cerebral and might not be everyone's cup of tea. However, there is target audience for this particular genre.
At the core of the story is the recession of 2008. The housing market has imploded and the main characters, Nick and Phoebe have moved to the struggling neighborhood Carousel Court to start fresh with their toddler son in California. Things have gotten out of control. Banks are now seizing properties. Foreclosures are happening and everyone has completely crossed the line by stocking firearms, doing just about anything to secure employment, and participate in illegal activities. For Nick, he gets involve in petty crimes of housing scams and theft while Phoebe drifts into an affair with her boss. Just about everyone does not come out unscathed as they engage in some form moral dilemma that almost culminates into an almost dystopian-type, lawless situation out of desperation and Carousel Court suddenly claims more victims due to their circumstances.
One of the reviewers here mentioned a Gone Girl reference and certainly it does have that element. As the pressure to hold a marriage together builds, the reader observes the demise of a union deteriorate and how it slowly devolves into a violent event. If anything, I see the relationship more along the lines of Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies where Nick and Phoebe have completely gone downhill and their son becomes caught in the middle of their petty conflict.
Carousel Court has plenty of themes for the reader to meditate over from marriage, economics, and ethical crisis. Again, it uses a bit of a surreal approach to capture the essence of these concepts in a crazy out of control novel filled with violence and acts of immorality. It might not be for everybody but I'm sure there is an audience for it.
At the core of the story is the recession of 2008. The housing market has imploded and the main characters, Nick and Phoebe have moved to the struggling neighborhood Carousel Court to start fresh with their toddler son in California. Things have gotten out of control. Banks are now seizing properties. Foreclosures are happening and everyone has completely crossed the line by stocking firearms, doing just about anything to secure employment, and participate in illegal activities. For Nick, he gets involve in petty crimes of housing scams and theft while Phoebe drifts into an affair with her boss. Just about everyone does not come out unscathed as they engage in some form moral dilemma that almost culminates into an almost dystopian-type, lawless situation out of desperation and Carousel Court suddenly claims more victims due to their circumstances.
One of the reviewers here mentioned a Gone Girl reference and certainly it does have that element. As the pressure to hold a marriage together builds, the reader observes the demise of a union deteriorate and how it slowly devolves into a violent event. If anything, I see the relationship more along the lines of Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies where Nick and Phoebe have completely gone downhill and their son becomes caught in the middle of their petty conflict.
Carousel Court has plenty of themes for the reader to meditate over from marriage, economics, and ethical crisis. Again, it uses a bit of a surreal approach to capture the essence of these concepts in a crazy out of control novel filled with violence and acts of immorality. It might not be for everybody but I'm sure there is an audience for it.
September 13, 2016
This book was just GRIM. The writing was good, but it set up such a miserable world. Two people who may care for each other but are too caught up in their own personal hellish situations to care anymore, living in a dystopian Los Angeles suburb, where fires burn in the distance at all times, hot winds blow, helicopters crisscross overhead, and everyone is going a little bit mad. I couldn't actually tell if any of the characters wanted any part of this life they were fighting to build/save, or if they just lost sight of any other choices.
A little less than halfway through, I realized that I was literally grimacing every time I picked up the book, and had a revelation that I didn't actually have to read anymore. It's so rare that I don't finish a book - I had to create a new shelf just for this book! (and I'm not sure I did it correctly) - but at some point I have to choose happiness - something the characters in this book hadn't seen in a long time.
A little less than halfway through, I realized that I was literally grimacing every time I picked up the book, and had a revelation that I didn't actually have to read anymore. It's so rare that I don't finish a book - I had to create a new shelf just for this book! (and I'm not sure I did it correctly) - but at some point I have to choose happiness - something the characters in this book hadn't seen in a long time.
October 8, 2016
Sharp, tense and terrifying, it's the American Dream gone bad for a couple of 30-somethings and their family. The Maguires are caught up in living the good life when they move out to SoCal, but what that entails during the end of the 2000's as they face the economic downturn, is basically selling your soul.
I expect this will make an amazing movie one day.
I expect this will make an amazing movie one day.
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