Homebodies
A Novel
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The Arroways appear to be a normal enough family. Liz and Pete’s marriage has held up through time and circumstance, and their children, although not always perfectly mannered, seem to be clever and robust. But upon closer inspection this is not the case at all. Liz, a housewife with a keen nose for environmental issues, happens to be flirting with madness. Jake, the eldest child, is flirting with a reckless reinterpretation of the past. And Pete, a ghost-writer who is striving to come to terms with his own masculinity, is flirting with a woman at work.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Communication-and the lack of it-is at the heart of this uneven and slow novel, as Schweighardt (Island) explores the lot of the tormented Arroway family. Grandfather Fred lies semi-paralyzed in a New Jersey nursing home, desperate to impart some information to Sherri and Liz, his two daughters. But they do not connect. Sherri is schizophrenic and mildly retarded; her violent outbursts and promiscuous behavior burden Liz, who has problems of her own: visitations from her daughter Maddy, who died in early childhood, and a shaky marriage to the enigmatic Pete (who is estranged from his parents). Contact between this couple is at best elliptical; only in their powerful dreams and visions do they seem to grasp their fears and desires. (Their two oldest children, also, are spinning off in worlds of their own.) It remains for a relentlessly nosy neighbor, Martha Bowker, to pry into each family member's hidden diary and discover what these off-kilter and edgy people are trying to say to each other. There are many flashes of genuine humor here, but all the pondering adds up to little, and a false finale caps off a disappointing novel.
