Les altruistes

by Andrew Ridker, Olivier Deparis (Translator)

Andrew Ridker, 25 ans, est la nouvelle sensation du roman américain. Vendu dans 20 pays en à peine deux semaines, LES ALTRUISTES combine le génie d'un Franzen pour les portraits de famille et l'esprit satirique des premiers livres de Philip Roth. Mais si Ridker se place dans les pas de ses pères littéraires (on pense aussi à Updike, Salinger et d'autres...), il le fait avec un sens de l'humour et du rythme totalement inédits. Les irrésistibles membres de la famille Alter deviennent les antihéros d'une époque tiraillée entre deux aspirations contradictoires : l'individualisme triomphant et l'empathie nécessaire. De ce combat entre les cyniques et les candides, Ridker a fait un roman aussi drôle qu'attachant. Une révélation qui a suscité l'engouement de 9 éditeurs français. Bataille remportée par Rivages. 

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Family, Book Club, Audiobook, Drama, Literary Fiction

460 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 5, 2019

About the author

Andrew Ridker is the author of the novels Hope and The Altruists.

The Altruists was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a Paris Review staff pick, an Amazon Editors’ Pick, and the People Book of the Week. Translated into more than a dozen languages, it won the Friends of American Writers Award and was longlisted for the Prix du Meilleur livre étranger and the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Prize.

Hope, also a New York Times Editors’ Choice, was named a Best Book of the Year by the New Yorker, the Boston Globe, the Forward, and the Times of Israel. Longlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, it is currently in development with a major streaming service as a limited series.

He is the editor of Privacy Policy: The Anthology of Surveillance Poeticsm and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, Le Monde, Bookforum, Guernica, Boston Review, and elsewhere. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Andrew lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ho-Hum - I Really struggled to finish reading this disappointing book.

One of the reviews on the back cover says this is “super brilliant and super funny.” Really? Are they praising this one and the same book? 🤔 Because I’m not seeing it or feeling it.

Basically, this is a story about a self centered middle class Jewish family. They are an unlikeable, droll cast of characters; faulty in shape and form and in figuring out and achieving their life aspirations. Some kids never grow up. Some adults never grow up.

Family dynamics are out all over the place. The timeline jumps around, revealing early childhood / marriage dysfunctions, illusions / entitlement and personal sacrifices. And then the timeline jumps into the current time period, which tries to explain how those former events can possibly shape or change a future life.

The story just plugged along like a train in “drive” on a long straight track on flat plains land. Once in a while you might see a tree or a cluster of birds or a cow in the field. So, like common objects observed here and there , this was not exciting or remarkable at any point to me. It just chugged along and when the train (story) finally got to the end of the line, it stopped. The end.

Ask me again in a few hours what this book was all about and I would robotically repeat the sentence from the start of my review: “This basically is a story about a self centered middle class Jewish family.” Nothing was very impactful, memorable or enlightening to me about this clan or their stories.

[Brandice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arthur Alter finds himself in a dilemma at 60 years old - Life hasn’t turned out how he planned. His wife Francine passed away, his relationship is distant with his 2 adult children, he hasn’t been offered tenure at the university where he teaches, and he owes a lot on the mortgage for the family home. As such, Arthur decides to invite his children, Ethan and Maggie, back home to St. Louis, to request their financial assistance in saving the house, via the inheritance their mother gifted them (but not Arthur). This is The Altruists.

Portions of the book focus on the family’s present day reunion weekend in St. Louis and others detail flashbacks of Arthur and Francine’s relationship, as well as Alter family memories. I’m certainly not opposed to unlikable characters in a good story and must say I didn’t find Arthur, Ethan, or Maggie particularly likable.

I’m torn on the rating for this one - There were parts I enjoyed and parts that were just ok. As I got closer to the conclusion of the story, based on what was happening, I was sure I was going to be letdown, but was pleasantly surprised further toward the end. Ultimately The Altruists is an interesting family drama with some dry humor - Decent but not a favorite.

[Michael Ferro · Rating 5 out of 5]

My full review is now up at Fiction Writers Review later this month: https://fictionwritersreview.com/revi...

Folks, this is the real deal. Read this book.

What would happen if we took an unsympathetic, aging male character—comparable to those frequently spotted in the masterworks of, say, Jonathan Franzen—and plopped them into the middle of our current #MeToo era of heightened social awareness and cultural responsibility? Or, simply put, what would it be like for a selfish, hopelessly misguided male archetype from literary yesteryear to be confronted by a “woke” world? This is the fascinating and deeply compelling vision employed so well in Andrew Ridker’s debut novel, The Altruists (Viking)...

(Full Review at link above.)

[Fabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The American Family Saga is alive & well in literature in the late 2010s. And what it all boils down to is: everyone is hella selfish, the push-and-pulls of family ties are severe, your life is your family's, or, destiny is dictated in large part by.

We do hear a few "I deserve"s, modern instances of privilege, and we even meet siblings who live in NYC but are estranged. Basically, spoiled!

But what a beautiful novel! We've seen it all before (trust!), we know how it will end... But it is the best family tale since Franzen's "Corrections." It basically took 2 decades to get so good an experience by so confident a new American voice.

[SueKich · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you don’t care about the characters, how can you care for the book?

This is Andrew Ridker’s debut novel and it tells the now familiar story of a dysfunctional Jewish-American middle-class family. We read plenty of books, do we not, where we dislike the main character intensely yet still manage to enjoy the book itself? Admittedly, it does help if one or more of the subsidiary characters has some appeal but here in The Altruists none of the characters has any appeal whatsoever.

Arthur Alter, the father and an academic with a waning career, is a self-centred, miserable and unappealingly selfish figure. Francine, the dead mother, was a college counsellor who hovers over much of the book and attracts a modicum of empathy but she is not sufficiently interesting. Equally tiresome are the son Ethan, a gay out-of-work loner who has squandered his mother’s inheritance. And daughter Maggie, the would-be do-gooder who wants to shed herself of the money she inherited. I failed to care a jot about any of them.

There are moments of insight as here when students are about to leave college: “The future, it seemed, was closer than it had ever been.” And humour, during a family debate: “Catholic guilt comes from disappointing God,” said Ethan. “Jewish guilt is when you disappoint your parents.”

But the narrative style is slowed down by rather more “tell” than “show” and this detracts from a sense of immediacy. Apart from a moderately interesting detour to Zimbabwe in Arthur’s youth where he embarks on a (not wholly selfless) mission to improve the country’s sanitation, there are rather too many tedious and unilluminating flashbacks. In the end, one is left to wonder what the underlying purpose of this novel could be. If Andrew Ridker intended it to entertain, then I’m afraid that for me it falls short. If one doesn’t care about the characters, why should one care about what happens to them?

My thanks to Vintage for the review copy courtesy of NetGalley.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ridker has written one of the finest novels I have read about a family, highly dysfunctional, dealing with the death of the matriarch. Despite Francine Klein's death, she is the center of the novel and as a reader I identified very strongly with her.

Her husband Arthur is a cheat, a liar and a failure. He had never been a good father but after her death, he becomes more entrenched in his own narcissistic world. He has a girlfriend, clearly there to replace Francine since he cannot live without a caregiver and needs another woman to keep him company.

Her son, Ethan, becomes reclusive and turns inward. He is no longer able to work, or do much that is normal. Daughter, Maggie, punishes herself by taking demeaning jobs and starving herself to the point of fainting. She has lost her friends and has no goals, other than turning herself towards altruistic martyrdom.

Finally they come together in a scene that is the climax of the novel, but the author manages to make this dramady so much more that even this becomes a catalyst for the 3 characters to move on and find closure.
It reminded me of "This is Where I Leave You" by Jonathan Tropper in the way the family deals with death, but within their own quirky personalities. There is drama, but always humor.

The reader is transported back to their earlier lives and the 4 are well-developed, without extraneous characters, just the necessary sketches as those around them, as they are viewed by the central characters, Somehow this is all woven together seamlessly, beautifully written. The author makes extensive use of foreshadowing, which I found made the book even more engrossing.

I look forward to recommending this to all my book groups and to those seminars that deal with grief and mourning. This was truly a marvelous read, thank you NetGalley for this opportunity. I look forward to more novels by this author.

[Ends of the Word · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do not envy comic novelists. Besides the challenges facing any novel writer, they have to elicit a smile, chuckle or smirk from their readers at regular intervals. Then - if and when they get it right - they face the risk of seeing their work dismissed as ‘(s)light’ fare. A case in point, in my opinion, was Andrew Sean Greer’s Less, which I greatly enjoyed and which I think really did deserve the Pulitzer, but which was slated in some quarters, including by friends and reviewers whose opinion I greatly respect.

It is therefore great news that a fresh talent has now joined the ranks of comic novelists. Andrew Ridker was born in 1991 (which makes me feel terribly old), and his debut novel The Altruists is published later this year. Admittedly, on the cynicism/bleakness scale, this novel is closer to Richard Ford than to Andrew Sean Greer, which might make it more palatable to the literati. Indeed, it’s already attracting glowing advance reviews. As for me, I admired most of it, although I find it harder to actually like it.

The protagonists of The Altruists are the Alters, a Jewish middle-class family from St Louis. The mother, Francine, haunts the novel, despite being dead for most of it. Indeed, it is her inheritance which serves as the catalyst of the plot. Incensed at the fact that her sixty-something professor husband Arthur has taken up a much younger lover whilst she is dying of cancer, Francine bequeaths a secret fortune to her two children, Ethan and Maggie. Faced with the prospect of losing his girlfriend and also his heavily mortgaged house, Arthur invites his children back to St Louis for a reconciliatory weekend, hoping to convince them to bail him out.

But Ethan and Maggie have their own problems. Ethan (whose homosexuality Arthur has never quite accepted) is out of a job, and is now living off his mother’s money in Brooklyn, whilst trying to sort out his messy love life. On her part, Maggie is a hard-headed would-be altruist, whose obsession with causes and ideals often leads her to actually overlook the needs of the people who surround her. Although Arthur’s plans seem to be failing miserably (but quite entertainingly for us readers), they do lead the Alters to come to term with their history and to understand that they are possible more like each other than they like to think.

To be honest, I found it hard to symphatize with any of the characters, who are complexly drawn but seem to have few, if any, redeeming features. If likable rogues exist, Arthur Alter is certainly not one of them. And his children are, frankly, chips off the old block. This ultimately detracted from my enjoyment of the novel. At the same time, however, there is much that is brilliant about The Altruists – it is an undeniably insightful work, it has some crisply humorous dialogue, and memorable set pieces. I particularly enjoyed the final showdown between the Alters and Arthur’s young lover, and the Zimbabwe episode feels like something out of Evelyn Waugh. If this debut is anything to go by, Ridker is certainly an author to look out for.

[Evi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Πρωταγωνιστεί ο Άρθουρ Άλτερ, που χήρεψε πρόσφατα και έκτοτε αντιμετωπίζει οικονομικά προβλήματα. Τα δύο ενήλικα παιδιά του, ο αντικοινωνικός Ίθαν και η ακτιβίστρια Μάγκι που αυτοεπιβάλλεται να ζει στη φτώχεια έχουν κληρονομήσει όλη τη μητρική περιουσία. Καθώς όμως ο Άρθουρ είναι στα πρόθυρα της οικονομικής κατάρρευσης και είναι απομακρυσμένος από τα παιδιά του, τα καλεί στο σπίτι με το πρόσχημα της συμφιλίωσης. Με αυτό τον τρόπο όμως ανοίγει το κουτί της Πανδώρας και απελευθερώνονται συσσωρευμένες αναμνήσεις γεμάτες πίκρα και σκόνη.
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Πρόκειται για το χρονικό μιας οικογένειας, στην ιστορία της οποίας διεισδύει ο συγγραφέας με ασυνήθιστο χιούμορ και διορατικότητα. Μέσα από αυτή την ιστορία αποτυπώνονται τα παράδοξα της αμερικανικής σύγχρονης κοινωνίας.
Μια οικογένεια που δυσλειτουργεί και δυσκολεύεται να ισορροπήσει, ώστε να επικρατήσει η τρυφερότητα που θα έπρεπε. Θα επέλθει άραγε η προσωπική λύτρωση που ο κάθε ήρωας ξεχωριστά αναζητά;

[Ashley Humphrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ridker is a good writer and this is a good, but not great, debut. He writes from the perspectives of 4 characters and excels at the son and flounders with the daughter (who has a scene that displays such a lack of self-awareness that she comes across as a 7 year old and it's not very believable).

It's your typical dysfunctional family novel and there's nothing too exciting here, though a subplot that takes place in Zimbabwe is pretty stellar. Some great prose, though, and I'll be curious to see what Ridker does next.

[Brett G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply hilarious and deeply moving. I couldn't put it down (finished it at about 4:30am one morning because after starting to read 6 hours earlier, I couldn't stop myself til I was done). Very likely the best novel I've read in the last few years.

[Offbalance · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never know if I should be impressed by or annoyed by someone who creates characters who manufacture such utter and complete loathing in me. I wanted to smack the shit out of each of the leads in this book. Between Ethan's pathological passiveness, Maggie's masochism masquerading as magnanimity, or Arthur's assholishness, I just couldn't even deal with this family anymore. But, if they were well-rounded enough for me to hate them this intently, then my hat's off to you, Mr. Ridker.

[James B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice debut novel about a father, brother and daughter who slowly come undone in their lives with the death of the mother. Smart and sharp and told with a wealth of humor throughout.

[Alison Hardtmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arthur Alter is in a tight spot. He took the visiting professor job at Danforth College, convinced he'd quickly be hired full-time and be given tenure. Despite moving his family across the country and derailing his wife's more successful career, he never moves into a permanent posting, instead being given fewer classes to teach over the years, so that now he's down to one. His children live far away and don't speak to him. And his wife may have had money when she died, but she left it all to the children. Maybe because Arthur coincidentally started an affair the same day Francine received her diagnosis? Arthur prefers not to think about that. He's got a bigger problem. When they first moved to St. Louis, they bought a house in keeping with Arthur's aspirations, and not his circumstances, which are that he's making a little less each year. And his girlfriend in thinking of taking a better paying offer elsewhere. But Arthur can fix it all if he can get his son and daughter to come and visit. He'll convince them to give him the money they inherited from their mother. And once he has the money to pay off the mortgage, he's sure he can convince his girlfriend to turn down the new job and move in with him.

The only problem with this plan is that Arthur has once again over-estimated his powers of persuasion, his girlfriend's willingness to do what he wants and his job prospects, while under-estimating the sheer animosity of his children hold for him.

Yes, this is another WMFuN*, that perennial staple of American literature. But this has some redeeming features. It's set in St. Louis and not New York City. Arthur may be the classic WMFuN protagonist, being both self-involved and oblivious to the harm he causes, but Andrew Ridker isn't asking the reader to side with Arthur, in fact he goes out of the way to clearly show the harm Arthur does. And it's well written, with such relaxed solidity to the writing that is surprising in a debut novel. No, I never warmed completely to Arthur and his equally self-involved off-spring, but no matter how I tried, I was never able to not care about what happened to them.

* White Male Fuck-up Novel

[Chrissie Whitley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little slow-going, The Alruists couldn't seem to make up its own mind about what it wanted to say and in what style this message should be delivered. Presenting an episodically-based, nonlinear, flashback heavy timeline and structure, the entire book gave off strong vibes of definitely heading somewhere important. Conversely, the design and actual execution felt like a book that wanted instead to just be a meandering, thought-provoking tale of American life. Floundering between the two, The Altruists never quite reached either goal.

The Altruists basically has four main characters, the Alters. The father (Arthur), the mother (Francine), the oldest child (Ethan), and the youngest child (Maggie). After that the other people are mere satellites who are, in different ways, impacted by the selfish desires and motivations of the Alters. The Alter kids are grown adults, mostly, and the three of them (Arthur, Ethan, and Maggie) felt like the leftover remains of what used to be a family.

The four of them were very well written. However, they were all rather complex characters who were continually boxed in by the lack of direction. This was basically just explaining the life and lives of this family. And some families are just like that, nothing huge, just a disconnect that is never mended or that was never really there to begin with. But that doesn't mean it should be a novel.

I think my favorite part of this book is actually the title...it's funny on two levels. (Funny is a little strong of a word there...clever? Sure.) First, altruism being the belief in or practice of a disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others....which is the opposite of this trio of characters. They are wholly selfish and self-centered. Even in a desire to do good, Arthur and Maggie especially, do so only to feel a sense of purpose in their aimless lives, and to generate vindication on their own inflated opinions of themselves and that they were meant to do good.

Secondly, the title is a clever choice because of a conversation that happens between Arthur and Maggie. Arthur declares that there are no true -ists, only -isms.

"There's no such thing as a feminist. Did you know that? No such thing as a Zionist either. No environmentalists. No Communists or anarchists. How about that? See, there are isms but not ists. People aren't ideas, Maggie. People aren't positions. People are people."

Being centered around a Jewish American family and the respective conflicts families generate and collect, the plot continually felt as though it were ramping up to a big, emotional explosion—something in the vein of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. But nothing ever really happened. This was an odd collection of memories and experiences that tell an interesting story in a very unsure way. I'm not asking for a neat and tidy resolution, but after all I invested in this, the ending had all the impact of the way you're told NOT to end your middle school water conservation speech. "And...that's the end of my speech," and then you meekly sidestep away from the podium.

I received this book for free from the publisher via Penguin Random House's First to Read program in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book, nor the content of my review.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book via First To Read for my honest review on this book.

This story is about the Alter family - Arthur, Francine, Maggie, and Ethan. They are torn apart after Francine's death and Arthur's affair. Arthur tries to pull his family back together for his own selfish reasons. Though during this weekend with his children, they all come to learn things about themselves as they are pushed to their emotional limits.

I didn't really like the book, to be honest. I'm hovering between 2 out of 5 stars and 3 out of 5 stars and keep changing it, because I can't decide. The last 50% of the book was enjoyable. I had trouble pushing through the first half. There was nothing ~happening.~ There was a lot of background that didn't seem to fit together until the second half of the book. There was too much jumping between perspectives and shifting times in history without a literary reason I could see.

My biggest peeve with the book was the choice of vocabulary. Ridker is a wonderful writer and clearly has a large vocabulary. But I felt in portions that I was reading through a book where someone got their hands too closely on a thesaurus. I haven't had to look up a word in a book in ages. In general, even if there is a word I am not familiar with, I am trained enough in picking up the meaning based on context clues. There were at least two occasions in this book where that was not possible. And while I am not necessarily complaining about learning new words, it made the book much less accessible than literature of this type needs to be or should be.

The Alters were all very unlikable to me with no redeeming qualities. Perhaps the point, but I can't say I found anything about any of them altruistic.

[MissSophie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I finished it eventually but didn't really love it. The plot was too slow, the writing not engaging enough .

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, this is an impressive debut novel from such a young author. Secondly, I am from, and still live in, St. Louis, and it was very clear to me that Andrew Ridker not only spent some significant time here but also did a very good job of accurately describing this sometimes strange city.

[Jill Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd never seen the noun "altruist" before reading the new novel, "The Altruists" by Andrew Ridker. According to the on-line dictionary, the word means "an unselfish person whose actions show concern for the welfare of others". That meaning seems to be the one Ridker is going for in telling the story of the Alter family of St Louis. Francine and Arthur are the parents, Ethan and Maggie are the grown children, and by the time the story opens, Francine has died of breast cancer and the other three family members are at extreme odds with each other. Each is mourning their loss alone and cannot comfort each other. The plot of the book is the weekend homecoming of the two children - each of whom had fled to New York City after their mother's death two years earlier. Their father asks them to return to St Louis to discuss their lives going forward. (The father also wants to ask them for money they received in their mother's will, that he did NOT receive.)

There've been many novels and memoirs that cover adult-families-in-crisis. I recently read a novel called "Holy Lands", by British author Amanda Sthers, which covers the same territory but not as well. Ridker's characters are - for the most part - very well drawn. (I think the daughter - Maggie - is a bit of a caricature of the lost post-college girl, roaming around New York City, trying to "find herself"). Most of the story is set in St Louis, where the family had moved from Boston in the mid-1990's when Arthur Alter, a professor, was given a temporary job at "Danforth University". He assumed the job would turn into tenure-track, but it never did. As the years passed, his teaching load was reduced, as was his income and Francine really supported the family with her psychologist practice. (By the way, "Danforth University" seems to be Washington University. Ridker changes the name of the university but keeps all the St Louis and University City landmarks under their right names).

But life in St Louis doesn't go well for the family. They are unable to function as a family long before Francine's death. I pictured them as solos, wandering around their large house, never coming to terms with themselves, or each other. All wounded in their own way. (Picture a family of Jewish "Royal Tennenbaums" and you'll get what Andrew Ridker is trying to draw here).

But the family members - particularly the kids - are aware enough to want to help others in the world. Even father Arthur had tried to better society by going to Zimbabwe as a young man to make "clean latrines" for villagers. And this is where "altruists" shows up in the book, because the Alters may not know their own place in their own world, but are honestly trying to do things to help others outside it. Maybe the Hebrew expression "tikkun olam" is the verb of the noun "altruist" as they're very similar in meaning.

Andrew Ridker has written a beautiful book about a family that the reader can really root for. The ending of the book is a bit strange, but is actually what it should be. I really can recommend "The Altruists".

[Dianna · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Altruists is a darkly funny (and ultimately tender) family saga" or so the description implies. In my opinion it was neither funny (dark or otherwise) nor tender.
Another quote from the description states:
"It’s a novel about money, privilege, politics, campus culture, dating, talk therapy, rural sanitation, infidelity, kink, the American beer industry, and what it means to be a “good person.” "
There. You have now read the book without the annoying characters. Not one that I even sort of liked. Of course that's just me. Or not; as one reviewer says how can you get into a book when you don't even like any of the characters.
I usually try to root (notice the cover- Ha!) for new authors. This is a very different debut from Andrew Ridker and I hope he continues to write.
I won this from GoodReads - thank you - for an honest review. 2.5 stars - the 1/2 star because I actually like the cover.

[J.a.e._Lou · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pas palpitant, pas vraiment une fresque familiale et des personnages pas du tout attachants.
J'ai failli abandonner plusieurs fois mais finalement je voulais voir où on allait.

[Carine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je crois que je n'étais pas dans le bon « mood » pour apprécier ce livre à sa juste valeur.

[Paulina Grzegorczyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taka średnia, ani dobra ani zła. Historia fajna, ale jakoś mnie nie wciągnęła.

[Paris (parisperusing) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Francine excused herself. She walked briskly to the women's room and leaned over the sink. Her shoulders heaved. She whimpered. She knew now what Arthur meant about getting the day over with. The wedding was not about the two of them. It was about her mother, and her mother's people. If I have children, she thought, already four weeks pregnant with Ethan (though no one, not even Francine, knew it), if I have children, I will not dominate their lives. I will give them the opportunity to make their way in the world, for better or for worse."

After weeks of pondering, underlining and fits of tears and laughter over these pages, I can officially say Andrew Ridker’s The Altruists is one of the brightest novels I’ll read this year. Ridker's prose is immaculate, witty, charming — each word carefully plucked and perfectly placed — all very envious qualities to describe a writer as dashing and capable as Ridker.

The Altruists follows a Jewish family — mother and father, son and daughter — whose lives come undone when the matriarch suddenly dies of cancer, leaving behind a private inheritance to her children but absolutely zilch to her philandering husband, who selfishly begins an affair as his wife lay on her deathbed. On the surface, it is a seemingly awful predicament to convey but the way Ridker carries and unfolds this story made him a prodigy in my eyes.

He writes his characters with such complexity and attention that they never blur into each other, which is not always an easy feat with most polyphonic novels: Francine, the sensible and selfless mother who stops at nothing to secure a future for her children, only to have hers abbreviated; Arthur, the superficially arrogant and miserly father who, upon further discoveries, reveals himself an empathetic victim of insufferable guilt himself; Ethan, their thirtysomething gay son who spoils his fortune as a way of absolving the burn of an old flame; and Maggie, the stubborn, do-gooder little sister hellbent on renouncing her endowment — even at her own self-destruction.

The Altruists. The title itself is such a pensive metaphor, one that sets the backdrop for a Jewish family’s moral tug-of-war that begs them to choose which griefs to hold on to and which to let go. I wouldn’t have wanted this story any other way.

(Thank you again, Viking, for sending me this beautiful book in exchange for an honest review.)

If you liked my review, feel free to follow me @parisperusing on Instagram.

[Isabelle | Nine Tale Vixen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a review copy through First to Read. This does not affect my rating or opinions.

3.5 stars.

It was practically the Alter family credo, an anti-Hippocratic oath: First, Do No Good.

Literary fiction generally falls outside my comfort zone, but this one has a kind of charm that I can't quite explain. The writing alternates between plain and function (in a good way) and so-accurate-it-almost-hurts observations wherein nothing is sacred and no one is safe; there are quiet stop and smell the roses moments, bemused people-watching scenes, pithy remarks on modern society, et cetera.

He was not at ease around people and regarded those who were with envy and suspicion. Whenever Ethan caught someone looking at him on the subway, his first thought was that he was doing something wrong. Standing wrong. Breathing wrong. Then his cheeks would flush with anger. Why should he doubt himself? Why should he make himself small, when lesser souls sat on life with their legs spread open?

I related intensely and embarrassingly to aspects of Ethan's and Maggie's lives. (Arthur, not so much. His POV was very "cis straight privileged male" which means probably exactly what you're thinking: there's a lot of staring at female undergraduates and wounded masculinity.) This is very much focused on character and theme, not so much in the way of plot — there are definite plotlines and lots of tension, but it's kind of a slow-moving narrative. (Still waters and all that.)

Although the progression and development were interesting, something about the ending wasn't quite satisfying. It wasn't too abrupt, because the transition felt natural and the chronology/timeline was well-established, and it all did seem a logical continuation/closure for the established arcs, but on some level it just felt a little off to me.

content warnings: kinkshaming, minor sexual content, dysfunctional marriages, infidelity, unhealthy/potentially disordered eating habits and mentions of subsequent weight loss, off-page death of parent due to cancer, kleptomania
rep: Jewish main characters (Alter family), gay primary character (Ethan), diverse minor characters

[brettlikesbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh, these characters. in spite of (or because of) their painful flaws and failures, you so root for them—both as individuals and as a family + whip-smart, deep, sharply funny
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“Because that was the thing about trying to do good: you always wound up knuckled in the gut.”
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[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book and I look forward to reading and reviewing when it arrives. Yahoo!
Wow, what a dysfunctional family. I could not stand any of the characters in this book except possibly the mother. I have to admit that I found the book quite interesting and I was happy to see that the one character I disliked the most, the father, did receive justice in the end. I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway and I was so surprised that the I won because it has been so long. This is an unbiased review.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was struggling so hard to get into this book. I made it halfway before finally giving up. Honestly it just comes off as pretentious bullshit to me. It's another book about another dysfunctional family. I couldn't get into, maybe I just don't get it. Sadly, one of the few books I've actually given up on.

[Jennifer Foster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can’t believe I actually finished this book. It revolves around a self-centered middle class Jewish family, all unlikeable to me with zero redeeming qualities whatsoever. Probably the only comedic aspect of book is pure irony of the title. It was well written but the nonlinear timeline jumps just left it even more fragmented & unsatisfying.

[Γιώτα Παπαδημακοπούλου · Rating 4 out of 5]

Βλέπεις ένα βιβλίο με τόσο χαρούμενο εξώφυλλο και σκέφτεσαι πως δεν μπορεί, θα είναι χαρούμενο και αισιόδοξο. Μετά το παίρνεις στα χέρια σου και διαβάζεις την περίληψή του και οι προσδοκίες σου μειώνονται δραματικά. Και τελικά, αποφασίζεις να το διαβάσεις και όσο οι σελίδες περνάνε, συνειδητοποιείς πως η πραγματικότητα βρίσκεται κάπου στη μέση, ισορροπώντας πάνω σε μια λεπτή γραμμή, σαν τεντωμένο σκοινί, που χωρίζει την ευτυχία από τη δυστυχία, την εμπάθεια από την συγχώρεση, τον εγωισμό από τον αλτρουισμό. Αλλά κάπως έτσι δεν λειτουργεί η ζωή; Κάπως έτσι δεν είναι και οι άνθρωποι, μοιρασμένοι ανάμεσα στις δύο πτυχές του εαυτού τους, που παλεύουν για το ποια θα υπερισχύσει στο τέλος;

Η ιστορία αυτή, είναι μια οικογενειακή ιστορία! Είναι η ιστορία του Άρθουρ Άλτερ και των παιδιών του. Ο πρώτος, καθηγητής σε πανεπιστήμιο, σε άθλια οικονομική κατάσταση και μην έχοντας στον ήλιο μοίρα, βλέπει κάθε μέρα τις προοπτικές τις ζωής του να εξασθενούν όλο και περισσότερο. Αδυνατεί να αποπληρώσει το δάνειο του σπιτιού του, ενώ ο γιος του και η κόρη του έχουν κόψει ακόμα και την παραμικρή επαφή μαζί του. Αυτά τα παιδιά, όμως, είναι η μοναδική του ελπίδα να βγει από τον βούρκο στον οποίο βυθίζεται. Για την ακρίβεια, η περιουσία που κληρονόμησαν από τη μητέρα τους και για την οποία ο ίδιος δεν γνώριζε τίποτα έως τότε. Έτσι, τους καλεί να τον επισκεφτούν, σε μια δήθεν προσπάθεια επανασύνδεσης, η οποία, ωστόσο, δεν θα εξελιχθεί όσο ομαλά περίμενε, αφού όταν προσπαθείς να φτάσεις στην καρδιά των πραγμάτων, πολλές φορές ξυπνάς αναμνήσεις που ίσως θα έπρεπε να έχουν μείνει θαμμένες.

"Οι αλτρουϊστές", για να είμαι απόλυτα ειλικρινής, δεν είναι ένα εύκολο βιβλίο, ούτε ένα βιβλίο για όλους. Κι επειδή πολλές φορές αυτή η φράση παρεξηγείται, ξεκαθαρίζω πως αυτό δεν έχει να κάνει σε καμία περίπτωση με την αντίληψη του αναγνώστη, αλλά την ψυχοσύνθεσή του, τουλάχιστον στην προκειμένη περίπτωση, και με το κατά πόσο μπορεί να εισχωρήσει στον πυρήνα μιας πραγματικότητας που πιθανότατα σε αυτόν να είναι ξένη, ή ακόμα και να φαντάζει ακραία, πράγμα που θα του επιτρέψει να ταυτιστεί, έστω και σε κάποιον βαθμό, με την ιστορία μας. Γιατί, η αλήθεια είναι, στα κοινωνικά μυθιστορήματα, προκειμένου να μπορέσεις να κάνεις την ιστορία δικιά σου, πολλές φορές απαιτείται, έστω κι ένα κομμάτι αυτής, ν' αποτελεί και δικό σου κομμάτι. Και δεν μπορώ να πω πως προσωπικά ταυτίστηκα, αλλά μπόρεσα να καταλάβω, κυρίως γιατί έχω δει και έχω ζήσει ανάμεσα σε οικογένειες με παρόμοιες συνθήκες ζωής και σχέσεων.

Με έναν πολύ έξυπνο και κυνικά κωμικό τρόπο, που κάποιες φορές φτάνει να γίνει και πιο σκληρός απ' όσο θα περιμέναμε -κάθε σωστός κυνισμό κρύβει στοιχεία σκληρότητας από πίσω του-, ο Ridker ξετυλίγει το κουβάρι της ιστορίας μιας οικογένειας που σταδιακά κατέρρευσε, μέχρι που έφτασε στο σημείο που οριακά βρίσκεται ένα σκαλί πριν από τον πάτο. Μια οικογένεια τα μέλη της οποίας έχουν χάσει κάθε επαφή μεταξύ τους, μα και με τον ίδιο τους τον εαυτό, με την συνείδηση και την λογική τους, με τον εσωτερικό τους κόσμο. Ο καθένας ζει στον δικό του μικρόκοσμο και έχει καθορίσει τις δικές του προτεραιότητες, το τι είναι σημαντικό και το τι έχει. Και ο καθένας από αυτούς έχει τα δίκια του, μα αυτά τα δίκια πνίγονται από ακόμα μεγαλύτερα άδικα που δεν αφορούν απαραίτητα μόνο το συλλογικό καλό, αλλά και το δικό τους καλό, που πολλές φορές βρίσκεται, όχι σε σημεία που δεν μπορούμε να δούμε, αλλά εκεί που βλέπουν τα μάτια μας και που την ίδια στιγμή δεν φτάνει να δει η καρδιά μας.

Ο συγγραφέας αποτυπώνει με μεγάλη παραστατικότητα και με βαθιά εμβάθυνση στους χαρακτήρες του, την σύγχρονη αμερικάνικη πραγματικότητα πολλών οικογενειών. Μια πραγματικότητα που υπάρχει ακόμα και στις οικογένειες που όλα φαντάζουν αρμονικά, αλλά που ο καθένας βασανίζεται μόνος του και ας έχει τόσους δίπλα του. Μόνο που στην προκειμένη, ο καθένας έχει την "τόλμη" να χάνεται μέσα στις επιλογές του. Ο Άρθουρ στην οικονομική του δυσχέρεια, η γιος του στην εσωστρέφεια και στην αντικοινωνικότητά του, που μπορεί και υποστηρίζει με τα λεφτά που του άφησε η μητέρα του, τα ίδια που η αδερφή του περιφρονεί ως επαναστάτρια προσφέροντας ακτιβισμό και κοινωνικό έργο. Τρεις άνθρωποι τόσο διαφορετικοί, τόσο κολλημένοι στις ιδέες και στο εγώ τους, αρνούμενοι να παραδεχθούν ένα πράγμα. Πως είναι βαθιά πληγωμένοι και εξαιρετικά μόνοι. Κι αν τελικά το παραδεχθούν αυτό, περνώντας από θύελλες και ανέμους, ίσως αυτός να είναι ο τρόπος να βρουν, τελικά, το πραγματικό τους μονοπάτι στη ζωή.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were moments in the book that achieved what literature can do so well: provoke me to reflect on my life choices through empathy and sympathy with people I'll never meet in person but whose patterns of thinking and feeling I can observe and compare to my own. As the title suggests, moral motivation (or the declaration thereof) plays a central role in Andrew Ridker's debut novel, and I doubt that many readers can both complete and escape from this text without some degree of self-scrutiny.

I've already seen plenty of people complain that they don't like any of the main characters, and I'd say that that very fact (i.e., the presence of unlikeable main characters) struck me as a risky but successful move on Ridker's part. I now have elaborate "takes" on the four main characters thanks to the author's care, and while I, too, don't really want to be friends with any of them I benefited from their cognitive company. Moreover, it takes gumption for a writer to spend as much time as he presumably did with these characters to end up displaying their foibles and merits in a way that makes them compelling enough to read about for 300ish pages.

Ridker carried this off, I think, by displaying a winkingly-astute awareness of the moral limitations of his characters. I was often struck by how well he captured the tone and diction of his characters' rants and discourses of self-justification. Such displays were usually true true to the characters in question and to similar people I've met IRL. I especially enjoyed how each of the main characters could be perspicacious on some issue while wildly myopic on others, usually performing the worst on matters bearing most closely to their self-conception. Just as with humans outside of literary novels, you don't have to be smart about *everything* to be smart about *something*.

The book's plot structure and narrative style is in the realist tradition of someone like Jonathan Franzen, though I found Ridker more self-aware and less show-offy than Franzen (especially later Franzen). Unlike some readers who said that they thought the book was funny, I didn't find it so, but that didn't take anything away from my experience. Overall, I enjoyed myself and plan to read Ridker's next book after seeing what he was able to do in this impressive first venture as a novelist.