Gatherings: A Novel

by Marina Rust

Three cousins try to come to terms with the thwarted ambition, addiction, despair, and madness that lie beneath the poignant portrait of their extremely privileged family

Genres: Fiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 1993

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This first (and only, so far) novel by socialite and Vogue columnist Marina Rust tells the story of a wealthy family grappling with their demons: insanity, alcoholism and a lack of purpose.

The protagonist, Meredith, rejoins her extended family as a teenager, having spent most of her childhood with her eccentric mother in various communes and backwater towns. Her mother has since abandoned Meredith to her ex-husband and died. Meredith goes to Manhattan, where she falls into her extremely wealthy family's lifestyle. She shuffles between the Upper East Side apartment and the houses in Connecticut, Maine and South Carolina. She socializes with her cousins, the damaged Pearce and hardened Felicity. She settles naturally into a life of privilege.

As Meredith researches her family's secrets (the suicide, the mental illness) she resists a liaison with Pearce and struggles to find purpose in her life. This is the story of a family who has excesses of material wealth but not a lot of happiness or direction. However, Rust never asks you to feel sorry for them, only to look inside their heads for a moment and see the world as they see it. Her prose is spare and lovely and the melancholy pace of the story is appropriate. It's an interesting glimpse of a rarified world.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most fascinating aspect of this book for me was figuring out how autobiographical it was. I met Marina Rust in college -- not Ivy League, Atlantic Coast Conference, thank you. She was kind, friendly, polite, not loud about her pedigree despite the fact that she drove a Jaguar.

I found her prose style matched these memories of her. I get the feeling that, as a person and an author, she was just finding her voice in 1993 when this book was published.

[Paul Deaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I came to own a copy of Marina Rust's 1993 book but there it was, sitting in a pile for years. I'm glad I picked it up and read it. I'd never heard of her.

I wanted to read more, so I looked her up and found the 1999 notice in the New York Times of her marriage to Ian Connor. There were images of her in gowns and heels, capes and costumes - with other well groomed and clad people - on runways, with Hollywood personalities and what is presumably New York society. Regretfully, no more books to read that I could find. No evidence she continues to write for Vogue.

Gatherings captures time before the internet and is atmospheric in a way novels written since then often aren't. I recalled my own growing up, in less moneyed circumstances, but doing many of the same things her characters did. It was relatable in a way that other novels aren't and that brought it to life.

If I were to read it again, I'd read it in the summer, on the deck, or at the lake, to fully enjoy the story and consider the meaning for our times. This is a well-written novel that should not be forgotten.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading an incredibly forced piece in Vogue about Rust and her home, I had to read her novel. It's about a young woman idling with her wealthy family in their various homes. We learn about porthault linens, t. Anthony leather goods and other provisions of the rich.

[Teague · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in a shop in Ruidoso, New Mexico when I was thirteen years old. It satisfied all my preconceptions about the very rich and their dysfunction. It's also written very well.

[Kristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've enjoyed Marina Rust's articles for Vogue, but this book was a bit too light and lacked a narrative focus worth keeping up with...

[Lois P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

In spite of the Downton Abbey- like trappings and lifestyle, the author manages to develop some interesting characters. It is left to the reader to determine how the destinies of the central characters were fulfilled.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing in this book is so well done that I'm disappointed she hasn't written another novel. (I have little to no interest in reading Vogue.)