2022-06-07
Modern Los Angeles life plays out through the interwoven journeys of a closely knit family.
Dorrough’s dizzying debut novel chronicles a year in the lives of 21st-century American archetypes Bill and Yvonne Smede. With their two children, the core couple navigate the slings and arrows of contemporary life while dodging numerous foibles and social conflicts and battling their nagging inner demons. Bill is a software developer and Yvonne is a hospital IT worker; both are busy but seem to be missing the spark of a sunny marriage. A large flock of friends and family branches outward from their universe. The couple’s son, Patrick, has lofty aspirations to start his own “freelance” company, but as time goes on, he finds living at home more comfortable. Daughter Alice, 16, is a moody, pensive, quiet high schooler who yearns for the freedom of adulthood. The book’s focus becomes a bit uneven as the cast of characters begins to stack up, including neighbors Gary Williams and Scott Portcullis, a gay couple with good jobs, a classic car, and a love for hosting dinner parties; and Yvonne’s Asian American co-worker Amy Lee, a married mother of two and the resident outspoken firecracker. Amy is also the captain of “The Evils,” a small group of middle-aged friends, Bill and Yvonne included, who frequently imbibe copious amounts of booze, indulge in high caloric food, and stay up late to stave off midlife crises. Despite the “formidable social jujitsu” of the group, the gatherings are well attended but aren’t depicted often enough to garner the taboo quality they deserve.As these interrelationships weave their ways through the narrative, Bill and Yvonne openly grouse about the minor inconveniences of city living: electronic devices, the LA climate, garbage truck schedules, and the electric scooters clogging the gridlocked roadways. Most compelling are Yvonne’s yearning to distance herself from Bill as their marriage begs for rejuvenation; Amy’s pursuit to uncover her familial lineage; and Yvonne’s best friend Juice Hughes-Newton’s relentlessly vengeful plot to even the score with a high school enemy. Adding to this mélange is Francisco Danilo Rosario, a distant friend of Yvonne’s, who openly regales her and Bill with his “eclectic sexual appetite” and his desire to network socially and expand his carnal horizons. Dorrough’s character juggling act is impressive. But the rotation of so many personalities bloats the book with extraneous details and stray narrative threads that go unresolved. Because the author created such an expansive cast, there’s also a disappointing paucity of depth and backstories. Dorrough’s take on family dynamics is an integral part of this book’s allure and, aside from the heavily dialogue-propelled prose, becomes the driving force of its readability. His writing style is casual, evenly paced, and convincingly conversational. The author does a terrific job setting up all of his players with their distinct personalities, yet once established, they tend to spin in place throughout a novel that has great potential. While Dorrough has obviously put in a great amount of time and effort constructing his characters, a lack of cohesion causes narrative sluggishness. Still, readers, particularly Southern Californians, will find the tale fun, alive with wry cultural criticism, and reflective of the contemporary worries facing urban families.
A darkly humorous, lively, but unwieldy LA story anchored by marriage and melodrama.
