Our Little Racket

by Angelica Baker

A captivating debut about wealth, envy, and secrets: the story of five women whose lives are dramatically changed by the downfall of a financial titan

On September 15, 2008, the world of Greenwich, Connecticut, is shaken. When the investment bank Weiss & Partners is shuttered, CEO Bob D’Amico must fend off allegations of malfeasance, as well as the judgment and resentment of his community. As panic builds, five women in his life must scramble to negotiate power on their own terms and ask themselves what —if anything—is worth saving.

In the aftermath of this collapse, Bob D’Amico’s teenage daughter Madison begins to probe her father’s heretofore secret world for information. Four other women in Madison’s life —her mother Isabel, her best friend Amanda, her nanny Lily, and family friend Mina —begin to question their own shifting roles in their insular, moneyed world. 

For the adults, this means learning how to protect their own in a community that has turned against them. For the younger generation, it means heightened rebellion and heartache during the already volatile teenage years. And for Lily, it means deciding where her loyalties lie when it comes to the family in which she is both an essential member and, ultimately, an outsider. All these women have witnessed more than they’ve disclosed, all harbor secret insecurities and fears, and all must ask themselves—where is the line between willful ignorance and unspoken complicity?

With astonishing precision, insight, and grace, Angelica Baker weaves a timeless social novel about the rituals of intimacy and community; of privilege and information; of family and risk; of etiquette and taboo.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Novels, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Adult, New York

484 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 20, 2017

About the author

Angelica Baker is the author of the novels WHEN WE GROW UP and OUR LITTLE RACKET.

Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Lit Hub.

She was born and raised in Los Angeles and now lives in Eugene, OR with her husband and their two sons.

Reviews

[Erin Quinney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. It wasn't horrible but I'm not sure what I was supposed to get out of it. I thought I was supposed to look at the Wall Street bankers/investors/traders with a more sympathetic eye, but no. Or maybe sympathize with their families? Not really. I know it was too long and it read like a soap opera, but with better, but still overblown, writing. It probably could have been cut in half. I was skimming by the end. The big pivotal scene was disappointing and most of the good stuff happened off stage. It had potential. Or maybe I just wanted to be reading a different book altogether.

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know which was worse, the writing or the editing in this book. I can't imagine a book of just short of 500 pages that just wanders all over the place like this book. It alternates between the past and the future. The scenes where there is finally something happening are written so vaguely that the reader has to try and guess what actually happened. This is one of the worst books I have ever read, but like many people, once you are so far into it you think you need to keep going so maybe the book will make sense. Didn't happen and the ending was just like the rest of the book. You are like, really??? What was the point of this book? What was the book even about? It's supposed to be about the lives of five women who live in Greenwich Connecticut that are affected by the start of the 2007 crash due to bad banking practices...but really the book was about nothing.

[Katelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book kept pulling me along, but I wasn't enchanted with it. It follows a very wealthy family living in the NYC suburb of Greenwich, CT. The dad, Bob, was CEO of a big bank that declared bankruptcy after some seriously shady accounting reports. How much did Bob know? Will he go to jail? Baker follows Bob's wife Isabel, teenager daughter and twins. The wife is an ice queen who barely pays any attention to her children, holing up in her room for weeks after the bank fails and relying heavily on the nanny. The dad stays away from home for weeks, not even bothering to call his children on the phone to check in with them. To what parents would these be acceptable behaviors?

I think this book was interesting enough for me to keep reading because it felt like a tiny glimpse into the lives of a very rich family. Your picture of each family member builds throughout the book, but the parents are neglectful and clueless to their neglect, and I never got attached to any of the characters. Half the time I was reading this book, I looked forward to being done with it so I could read a book where I connect with the characters more.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried so hard to finish this in its entirety, but I just couldn't and was skimming by the end.

Yes, reading is a subjective concept. But I just could not get into the style of writing. I found it dry and awkward, especially for a book so long. The story moves very slowly, and by the time something exciting happens, it's not that exciting. Yet, I felt compelled to finish it because I had come that far. Meh.

[Penny (Literary Hoarders) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars I know, I know, here I am AGAIN with the 3.75 star rating - but it's true - this was an impressive debut, I really did enjoy it, but perhaps a tad too ambitious (I'm not sure it needed to weigh in at 500 pages).

I really did enjoy reading about the different female characters, of all different ages and about their varied ways in how this crisis affected them. It runs the gamit of self-assured, independent to the trophy wife hanging around waiting for their next "bonus payment". The daughter of the fallen financial tycoon's story and her "friends" and high school life was very good to read about. I really did enjoy this book - but it did need to wrap it up sooner than it did. :-)

The men in this story however are noticeably painted with obvious disagreeable/disdainful brushes. They are absent, agressive, only out for the trophy wife, leering, jeering, whiners, competitive...any kind of distasteful characteristic - all of these men portrayed had some or all of these traits. It was almost becoming caricature-like.

This was chosen for our in-person book club read - I think it's a great book for a book club - there will be plenty to discuss!

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor little rich girl story. Couldn't finish it because I didn't care about the characters and after awhile I couldn't stand them. Kept waiting for something to happen other than people being nasty. Soap opera stuff.

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idyllic community of Greenwich, Connecticut is shaken when the investment bank, Weiss & Partners, fails. Its CEO, Bob D'Amico--a man known throughout the banking community for his loyalty to his employees--is at the center of the storm: did Bob know this was coming? And even worse, did things fall apart due to criminal actions on his part? Meanwhile, Bob's teenage daughter, Madison, struggles to understand what this all means, both for her father and her family. She gets little help from her mother, Isabel, who offers Madison no comfort during this crazy time. Madison's nanny, Lily, is busy caring for her younger twin brothers. Isabel's best friend, Mina, wants to help, but is still too afraid of offending Isabel: a pillar of the Greenwich scene. And Madison and her best friend, Amanda, seem to be drifting further apart every day. Madison and her family are under intense scrutiny, yet she's still just a girl trying to navigate being a teen. She's sure her father didn't do anything wrong; right?

I had a tough time with this book. There were several points where I considered setting it down for others in my always growing "to be read" pile, but I soldiered on. I can't say I really enjoyed it, though I did find parts of it interesting. It's clearly influenced by the Madoff scandal, which is referenced in the novel, and there is a lot of financial lingo in the book, even if it's really a story of a troubled family at its core.

The problem is that so few of the characters are really engaging, and the story seems to drag on endlessly at points. It's a peek in the world of the truly wealthy (think household servants, golf courses at their homes, multiple residences, hired cars, etc.), but I found myself unable to care for most of the characters. None of them are very nice to each other, and Bob and Isabel come across as neglectful and awful parents for the majority of the story. Even worse is the gaggle of Greenwich women, who gossip about the situation, feel like they are unable to continue to purchase expensive clothing and wares after Bob's "situation," and generally just annoy you with their harping. They don't understand anything about what their husbands do, but they run their households (well, they delegate it all) and fear that their carefully polished way of life is in jeopardy. You understand that this is a serious event for them, but you don't really care. Was I supposed to feel sorry for them? The novel is confusing at times in this facet. Perhaps I missed a great point somewhere: is it profound or just pretentious? Hard to tell.

The one thing that kept me reading was Madison. While she could be hateful at times, the story of her coming of age in a very strange environment, with a spotlight shining on her, was the most interesting part of the novel. Her dynamic with her father, whom she clearly adored, and her cold, distant mother, was far more fleshed out than any of the other characters. You could see her struggling to find her place in the world: she was just doing it under the watchful eye of the community (and a security detail hired to keep the press away from her family). Baker deftly portrays Madison's heartbreaking forays in romance, as well as some great scenes in which the teen shows off some spunk that will have you rooting for her. I couldn't help but want to give her a hug: even though I could see that her mother was a complicated individual, her parents were pretty awful, and poor Madison was forced to confront that in some terrible ways.

Still, despite Madison's story, most of this book fell flat for me. The epilogue was interesting and tied up some loose ends, but it ended things very abruptly as well. So much of the novel was about how Greenwich was nothing but smoke and mirrors: nothing was real in this world. Yet, I would have enjoyed some characters who felt more human, whom I could relate to in some way, whom I wanted to care for and to see come out of this "crisis" intact. Rating a 3-star due to Madison and the intricate story, but probably more of a 2.5-star on the overall enjoyment level scale for me.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Edelweiss (thank you!) in return for an unbiased review; it is available everywhere as of 06/20/2017.

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[Enchanted Prose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inside an outsider’s world (Greenwich CT, Manhattan and Shelter Island NY; summer before/months during the 2008 financial crisis, and aftermath): Weighing in at roughly 500 pages, The Little Racket makes a big splash, unfolding around the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression from a psychological angle. Actually five angles: five women whose provocative narratives constitute character studies. A privileged, complicated bunch ripe for book club analysis as they’ve either remade themselves or are hiding something.

Big in the sense that these women are as multi-faceted as the factors that led us to the brink of economic collapse in 2008. A financial meltdown and reshuffling that triggers their emotional volatility and instability.

A big setting – one of the richest communities in America. The “false wilderness of Greenwich” Connecticut, where you’re whisked to a black sedan-guarded mansion: the home of a very rich CEO of a “too big to fail” fictional investment bank, Weiss & Partners. Bob D’Amico is so big he’s earned (and relishes) the nickname, Silverback, which “makes him feel big.” This shadowy Wall Street world is so big and convoluted no one really understands its “intricacies and machinations” – a big part of the problem.

Big in its electrifying prose. Biting social and cultural commentary. Like the economists still trying to figure out what went wrong, these five women are not so easy to figure out. All emit a “Greenwich whisper,” but they’re not to be stereotyped as Angelica Baker’s keen prose presents them multi-dimensional and enmeshed like America’s financial system. And while her penetrating prose offers us a lot, it hints at more. Makes us stop and think about what these women are really angling for, what makes them tick. Since 99% of us have zero experience with this ultra-wealthy crowd, we’re intrigued. The novel grips in the vein of snooping inside their massive closets, out of curiosity not approval.

So it’s also a big diversion for this blog as there aren’t any characters who enchant us. Some you’ll feel sorry for, sad for, but none you’ll fall in love with.

Unless your idea of a wife (Isabel) is to be so perfectly put together you want to scream: will the real Isabel stand up, like the mantra of the TV game show, To Tell the Truth. Unless your idea of a mother is an “ice queen,” content with your fifteen-year-old daughter (Madison) feeling “like a spy in your own house.” Madison is convinced she knows more about her father than his own wife, blind ambition resembling a younger version of Ivanka Trump. Then there’s the nanny (Lily) caught between a simmering cynical dislike of the elite (she attended Columbia University on a scholarship; Ivy Leaguers all get their due throughout) and caring for her upper-crust charges. There’s also two featured girlfriends – Mina, Isabel’s and Amanda, Madison’s – thirsting to be consequential, when/if allowed.

Mostly, you’ll likely feel a range of averse or, at minimum, ambivalent emotions for this tony lot. For their detachment, grandiosity, backstabbing, recklessness, falsehoods.

Blame is a big theme. Who is to blame for the financial crisis? Fictionally, everyone wants to blame Bob. In real life, it’s not just Wall Street that bears all the brunt. What about the homeowners who took on the burden of mortgages they couldn’t afford? Risky for them, risky for the rest of us. For other causes, see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmlhv...

Similarly, Isabel, Bob’s elegant, “measured” wife consumes much of the psychic blame. Just because her house is so big there’s a separate wing for her and Bob doesn’t mean she should bar Madison and her eight-year-old twins (Matteo and Luke) from entering. Isabel is far from a hugger. She prefers to wrap herself in MOMA charity events and the like, leaving the heart of a family’s gathering place, the kitchen, feeling “as huge and cold and silent as a mausoleum.” Is it Madison’s fault her parents named her after one of ritziest avenues in America? Lily’s fault she’s the nanny but when catastrophe strikes she needs her mother?

You sense the denouement at the opening: the summer before the historic crash when the D’Amicos are vacationing on New England-ish Shelter Island, a ferry ride from Greenport on the Long Island Sound, at the passed-down beach house of Isabel’s parents, not good enough for Bob’s highfaluting tastes. Another author might have opened with Bob’s bank failure. Baker lets us absorb the portending for 65 pages of exquisite prose that leaves some cunning on the surface and the rest buried for safekeeping.

Safety is the name of the game for these uppity, insecure women. “Fragile bonds” mimicking the fragility of the markets. Everything is knotted up; we watch the unraveling. An enormous price must be paid for the enormity of greed and egregious behavior that allowed the dominoes to tumble down on Wall Street, right into the laps of these characters. Fairly? Unjustly?

With all the animosity, anger, contempt, and injustice to go around not all the prose is gorgeous, intentionally. Notable is the vulgarity released from Isabel’s tightly-pursed lips, coarseness unbecoming of her old money pedigree. (The others are new money seekers.) Which is precisely the point. According to my count, three times this woman of “steel” exposes she’s not who she purports to be.

Madison’s a lot like her mother. She has her “goddess features” and is stoically self-contained. A perceptive young lady but not perceptive enough. So when the undoing confuses her, she lashes out, rebels. A cry for help. Who is listening?

Lily and Mina are. Though most of the time these two are oh so cool to each other, resenting the other, both competing for the fickle attention of this flip-flopping survivalist’s universe, where no one really knows whom to trust, or quite where they stand. That includes no one really knowing what Bob has done wrong. Plenty of resentment floats about.

Lily’s betwixt and between. Generously (and appreciatively) employed by the family for years, her redeeming quality is she’s mastered how “to decipher Isabel’s moods to see how she could help the children to navigate around them, and then to withdraw.” We’d like her more if she too didn’t keep secrets, and take advantage when things fall apart. Her name befits lily-white Greenwich. Another anomaly for this blog. A lovely setting from the outside, but inside it does not enchant.

You may like Mina the best. She agonizes over the choices she’s made for a lifestyle disingenuous to her Long Island roots. But we feel she must be partly to blame for her estranged daughter Jaime begging to go to boarding school (Andover, of course) at fourteen. Her husband Tom, a Princeton alum at Goldman Sachs (a fierce competitor of Bob’s as in these two don’t mix well), seems to be the cause of force-fitting Jaime into Greenwich Prep where she didn’t belong unlike Madison and her so-called friends. Mina is forever choosing Isabel over Tom, clueing us in on her unhappiness.

Madison’s angst is the most painful. For she’s the most victimized, the most hurt. Devastated that people “gamble away the things they always told me were so important.”

Which brings us to today. Banks are bigger than ever. Who is heeding the warnings to break them up? This isn’t just an entertaining novel, but an important one. Some pundits think we’re headed for another Depression. This tale was never about a little racket, but a great big one.

Lorraine (EnchantedProse.com)

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. However, it was not the insightful look into five women that I hoped. It was a somewhat interesting exploration of the largely "wealthy, privileged" world of uber-rich women who are dependent upon Wall Street men for their livelihood.

Lily, the character I was most intrigued by, fades rapidly into the background (and is largely defined by her relationship to her obnoxious boyfriend, Jackson).

Mother Isabel and daughter Madison are neither compelling nor interesting. The most defining thing about Isabel seems to be her effortless, expensive beauty, which is covered ad nauseum.

I'd skip this one in favor of Diana Henriques' fabulously researched non-fiction work about Madoff if you're intrigued by the financial crisis.

[Jaclyn Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Longer than it needed to be, but strong enough to keep pulling me through the story anyway. I wanted less Lily and more Isabel--a fascinating (though uneven) character.

[Margaret Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh I wish this book, for being nearly 500 pages, was better than what it ended up being. I give the author credit for having the sketches of 3 or 4 good plot ideas for domestic rich people drama centered on the '08 stock market crash. Unfortunately, rather than focus on one or two plot threads, all of the ideas made their way into the book, resulting in undeveloped characters and dramatic scenes that lacked a punch.

There is a good book in here somewhere, but I think the author needed a better editor to bring it out. Now, like a disillusioned Greenwich, Connecticut poor little rich girl, I'm going to sip a vodka soda and wonder what might have been...

[Marquette · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title of this book should be renamed to the Unnecessarily long book of rich people's problems. 500 pages of nothing. I can't even blame the author for subjecting me to this torture. I should have known better than to read this book when the authors of two of my least fav books from last summer (The Nest and Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty) raved about this nonsense.

[Alice · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. Hard to conjure any type of empathy for any of the characters. Motivations made no sense. Also way too long and meandering. Author definitely thought her writing deserved 450 pages, but I disagree. Hard pass.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm... I think I would have liked this more if I had read it much closer to 2008. Even if I had picked it up in 2017, I think that was too far removed to make the way Baker told this story effective. The central issue of what happed at Weiss was only vaguely referred to and so it just kinda hung like this weird dark cloud on top of everything, overshadowing what was meant to be the real story. I kept expecting things to be explored more specifically, had I realised that was never going to happen, I'd have DNFed, for sure.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to give this 5 stars as the book covers topics that intrigue me and the author has a way of describing perspective from multiple individuals in a way that is unique. I felt like 5 perspectives were probably 1-2 too many to carry through the entire book. As other reviewers have noted, the ending seemed a little bit rushed however was very plausible. I would definitely read this again as I seem to gravitate towards books about the wives of financial titans.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this. It had tons of potential. Unfortunately, it dragged a bit in spots and was definitely too long. I would be interested in trying another book by this author in the future.

[Maureen]

I gave up at 232 pages. Books that make me angry every time I think about reading them have to go. A whole lot of words about absolutely nothing.

[Lynn Sweet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hoped to like this book. It had potential...interesting subject. But I just couldn't get very enthused. The characters were over explained somehow, and not in a way that moved things along In a timely fashion. I wanted to finish the book...and I wanted it to end.

[Jeanette Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

What self importance! Ugh.

[Cdubbub · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a world I never thought I'd want to read an essay about, let alone a 500 page novel. But this author drew me in with her sharp observations and the way she made me care about these characters while never once letting them off the hook for their faults. I especially liked the way she told certain key events from multiple character's viewpoints. Not just their reactions, but what they thought in the exact moment she'd just highlighted through someone else's narrative. I've never read a book where an aurhor did that and I found it very effective. Ultimately, there aren't a lot of people to root for here, but it's fascinating enough to keep you gripped until the end.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kept me absorbed, fast read. Would compare it to Big Little Lies but with the financial crisis as a backdrop and no one is murdered. Would make a good tv series, hint hint...

[Laura Cobrinik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angelica Baker's "Our Little Racket" is one of the most entertaining and engrossing novels that I've rad in a long, long time. It takes place in "preppy," rich and "snooty" Greenwich, Connecticut. The book centers around the D'Amico family, mainly Bob, the father of four children, and the CE) of an Investment Bank on Wall street. The book takes place in 2008 when the stock market almost crashed.
Other families in Greenwich who appear in "Our Little Racket" are the neighbors who had been hired to work in Bob's firm.
When the company fails, we see how the once neighborly and friendly town starts to reject the D'Amico family, his children at college and mainly his daughter, Madison, who is still in High School. We see how Bob's wife "disappears" to bed for many months, and that she leaves the struggles of Madison and her two twin boys, who are around 7 years-of age to the Nanny, Lily, who it appears, "came from the other side of the Greenwich tracks" has this job as payback to a favor that she once did for Bob.
Madison seems to be the major character in the book, trying to cope with how the people in town start to reject her, and the change in her parents' feelings. (Which could be interpreted as "they don't care," and she starts to prove this as the book progresses. With all her friends turning against her, Madison starts skipping classes, traveling into New York by train to visit the bars in the Wall Street neighborhoods to try to find a reason as to what really happens. We also see at the beginning that Madison's older sister stops coming home from college during the Christmas and Spring breaks. At lease Madison has Lily on her side....And Lily hopes that Madison and her mother can "work things out."
Highly recommended! A real page turner! A "modern" Peyton Place.
Laura Cobrinik,
Boonton Township, NJ

[Heli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Financial ruin and wealthy families make this a great read. I did not like the characters so the author met the challenge of making me want to know what happens to them.

[Mandy Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

i thought this was just going to be some fluffy gossip for the subway commute, but it was so well written and had thoughtfully composed characters - and just the right amount of gossip.

[Marilyn Boyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel was not what I expected from the title. It was fiction showing the main players' families' reactions to the recession in 2008. It focuses on the fifteen year old daughter of the first CEO to be let go from his bank. Madison is the best drawn character within the novel, and her emotional journey is well documented by the end. This, unfortunately, is the only thing I can praise about this work. It is overwritten for the first 3/4 of the novel, detail after detail added to no affect. Characters' names are brought in at times without explanation and then switched, creating confusion when trying to figure out who is with whom. For example, on p. 99, we have switched from the perspective of Mina (whose husband is Tom) to the perspective of Suzanne: "Suzanne's husband had once worked with Bob...until Brad left to start his own fund...the Welshes were nominally included...." I knew Isabel was married to Bob (the CEO). No problem, but in the middle of the next paragraph we find out Suzanne had married Bill, which left me scooting back to find out who Brad was. No luck until later in the book!

Much of the dialogue is muddy, with characters alluding to things with vague phrasing, but no real detail. The reader is supposed to fill in the blanks. No financial detail is given as well, although the author acknowledges that she researched this area.

I did keep reading as I hoped there would be a little racket by the end, but no luck there either. So....forget the title. Maybe a big racket??

I'm not sure why the novelist was compelled to write this book, and I think the idea to show the families behind the "criminals," as they were thought of at the time, is a good one, but this book did not succeed in doing it. The last quarter was more compelling than the rest, but I didn't feel and empathy was created for any of the 35+ characters in this book but Madison.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once I saw The Big Short, I almost understood the financial crisis. It's the ten year anniversary since things fell apart. Now that I've read Our Little Racket, all I understand is that arrogant people did boneheaded selfish things but it was hard to care about any of the women under pressure that their life in Greenwich CT, while their men worked on The Street, was about to be blown sky high. Everyone seemed to have bargained for what they got. All in all, the months of suspension regarding whether crimes would be proven in the financial sector ended the way in did in real life. Lots of people taken advantage of and almost no one going to jail.

Centered primarily on one family, The D'Amicos. Due to the implosion the dad was pretty much hold up in his study drinking and trying to figure out which documents to shred.

The novel tried to bring in a layer or different strata beyond the limo drivers, gardeners, and doormen, in the character of Lily, the D'Amico family nanny. It didn't work. She was a graduate of Columbia, bright, and somehow we were meant to accept that this wonderful family was worth her time and attention for over ten years. Sure, people get attached to their charges, daughter Madison and a couple of twins. But...I don't know. It didn't gel for me.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The lives of four women in wealthy Greenwich Connecticut begin to unravel when an investment bank goes under in 2008. Isabel D'Amico with her old money elegance finds her spot as the woman to envy in town usurped when her Brooklyn born husband's bank fails. Her best friend Nina is there to lend support and Xanax, but finds herself caught up in the gossip as rumors of bankruptcy and criminal charges follow Bob D'Amico. Fifteen year old Madison has always been a daddy's girl, but she begins to uncover some secrets Bob has kept hidden. Meanwhile her best friend Amanda's father focuses his newspaper column of exposing Bob. A story about the American dream, secrets and having and losing it all.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Our Little Racket! The scandal, gossip, and back-stabbing played out by the wealthy elite makes the novel a fun summer read, but it is also a unique and thoughtful view of the financial crisis fallout. And I love the compelling portrayal of the relationships among the five women it follows, and how they each consider their options and their own self-preservation...

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some lovely writing. This one got me thinking about the impacts that money and power can have on families and communities.

[Christian Caminiti · Rating 5 out of 5]

smart, subtle and quietly disturbing. the opening of blue velvet in book form: a slow zoom-in on some handsomely manicured lawns that doesn't stop until you see everything rotting just beneath the surface. a must read for ppl interested in contemporary fiction.