The Best Kind of People
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The gripping summer read for fans of Megan Abbott's The Fever and Louise O'Neill's Asking For It .
'Prods at the dark underbelly of society.' Red Best Summer Beach Reads
'Compelling story characters readers will recognize and come to love and writing that makes it effortless to turn page after page.' Vancouver Sun
THE BEST KIND OF PEOPLE is a page-turning Canadian bestseller about a family on the brink of collapse. It gives no easy answers, but once you stay up all night reading it, you'll want to talk about it with everyone you know.
What if someone you trusted was accused of the unthinkable?
George Woodbury is a teacher at a prestigious Connecticut private school. He is voted Teacher of the Year every year, after he rescued the school from a gunman attack. On his daughter's 17th birthday this beloved husband and father, is arrested for sexual impropriety with teenage girls on a skiing trip.
His wife, Joan, vaults between denial and rage as the community she loved turns on her.
Their daughter, Sadie, a popular over-achieving high school senior, becomes a social pariah.
Their son, Andrew, a lawyer, assists in his father's defense, while wrestling with his own unhappy memories of his teen years coming out as gay. With George awaiting trial, how do the members of his family pick up the pieces and keep living their lives? How do they defend someone they love while wrestling with the possibility of his guilt?
'Whittall places the reader right at the centre of their pain. It's the best depiction of female suffering I've read since Jane Smiley eloquently tackled sexual abuse in A Thousand Acres.' Toronto Star
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Challenging the traditional crime story narrative, Whittal focuses on the aftershocks of a crime not from the victim's perspective, but that of the family of the accused. Beloved by the community of Avalon Hills and revered as a teacher and hero, George Woodbury is arrested for sexual misconduct and attempted rape involving his students. His wife, Joan, and their daughter, Sadie, are paralyzed by shock, denial, and confusion. Eldest son Andrew, a lawyer in New York City, comes to his father's defense, staunchly protesting the accusations against him. As months pass readers witness the psychological destruction of the family. Shunned by the community, tormented by threats and taunts, and trapped in a pattern of supporting their patriarch despite uncertainties regarding his innocence, each member of the family is ill-equipped to move forward. Sadie succumbs to apathy and anxiety, using drugs as an escape. Andrew is consumed by memories of his youth as a gay teen. Joan is unable to reconcile her conflicting feelings of loyalty and rage towards her husband. The prose is conversational; the reactions predictable; the ending hurried. Some plotlines don't work, but Whittal brings realism and humanity to the story.
