Highly recommended.
Heather, The Totality was written by Matthew Weiner, the creator, writer, director and executive producer behind the TV series Mad Men. He displays in his debut novel the razor sharp insight into modern families and those the classes ignore.
Mark and Karen Breakstone got married late in life. Luckily, he has a head for numbers and they become wealthy enough that money is no longer a problem. Karen can devote all her time to raising their daughter Heather in their upscale New York condo. She is coddled and the way made clear for a bright future. By the time Heather turns into a teenager, she resents them for that, and the pressures begin to break Mark and Karen apart. Over in New Jersey, Bobby has been raised by his single mother, a heroin addict, in a dirty squat house. Doing time in prison for viciously beating a girl, he emerges into a work program doing construction in a condo above the Breakstones and becomes obsessed with the young girl living in the condo below. Mark is sure the man is watching his daughter, fantasizing the harm he would cause her, and Mark is right.
This is told in alternating paragraphs from different points of view. At first this style felt remote and I had a hard time getting into it, as if being told a tale instead of experiencing it. By the halfway mark, I was totally absorbed. His writing is so precise, he seems to hit every note with his characters, unseen points that ring true. This is a slight novel at just 138 pages, but builds seamlessly into an intense finale with terrific pacing.
2017 / Hardcover / 138 pages
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