Gossip

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JAN 9, 2012

Calvin Moretti is plagued with suburban angst. He still lives at home, works as an assistant at a school for autistic kids, and hasn't finished graduate school, for which he's now saddled with debt. Despite being fortunate enough to live in a million-dollar home in upstate New York's tony Sleepy Hollow, he can't stand his loving-if-irksome family: the successful older brother, Chip; the beleaguered but devoted mother; the infuriating, depressed father recovering from cancer after expensive treatment. Thankfully, Calvin is human enough to tolerate his pregnant 17-year old sister, Elissa, and a host of childhood stoner friends. Apathetic to the core and wildly frustrating, Calvin is a difficult character to like but also brutally honest about his flaws, which makes him heartbreakingly human, more like his father than he realizes and kinder than he wants to be. D'Agostino's narrator wants to "know how it feels to be passionate about something" and his keen observations about family expose the worst in him. Wickedly funny and as often beautiful as it is meandering, this debut novel reads much like Calvin's life: bursts of activity followed by long periods of idleness and deep thought.