2022-12-22
An affluent Brooklyn family navigates family drama, career trouble, and long-kept secrets in Karpa’s novel.
Roger White is a film professor at New York University, but his first and only screenwriting success is far behind him. He’s going through the motions at work and longs for a good idea to revive the creative side of his career. His second wife, Casey, was raised in rural Missouri and is now comfortably set up in their Brooklyn home, due to the generosity of Roger’s mother Sherbeam, a celebrated Manhattan artist whose star is beginning to fade. Their kids, Demmy and Abby, attend an exclusive school, but Casey has some insecurities about the fact that she doesn’t live in Park Slope like “all the other mothers” who “walked (or hired someone to walk) their progeny to school.” She’s driving a Porsche, but her own Spanish translation service is foundering; she’s also still haunted by the loss of her first husband and daughter, who tragically drowned in the Mississippi. Meanwhile, Demmy is busy with applications to Ivy League schools while still trying to reject her own privilege, and the egotistical Sherbeam is planning a celebratory retrospective of her work in Barcelona. Egos collide and tensions flare, though, when Sherbeam’s new paintings are revealed, and Casey makes a discovery that will send the entire family into uncharted terrain. Karpa’s fictional White family seems at first glance to live and thrive in an increasingly frivolous locale. Several stand to inherit large sums, and trust funds and luxury cars are the norm. However, the complex novel takes off in several unexpected directions, diving into Casey’s Southern roots and Sherbeam’s emotionally abusive behavior. As a result, the narrative becomes absorbing, and it’s well-informed about contemporary fads and mores while staying expertly focused on the characters’ hopes and losses. Overall, it’s a deeply satisfying story that’s written with intelligence and wit, and—like the on-the-go White family—never stays in one place too long.
A sophisticated and discerning family portrait.
