Little Monsters (2023)
By Adrienne Brodeur
Simon & Schuster, 312 pp.
★★★★
There's nothing quite like a good dysfunctional-family tale. Particularly one lurking behind a thin gauze of reputation and respectability. How many things can go wrong if the fabric tears? Adrienne Brodeur enumerates them in her arch novel Little Monsters.
The problems begin with paterfamilias Adam Gardner. He's a whale expert and a brilliant marine biologist, as he would be the first to tell you. He's charming, but also a braggart, an egoist, and is bipolar. He's not at all dealing well with his impending 70th birthday, but he's willing to accept a grandiose party and testimonial. He plans to prove he's still relevant by announcing a breakthrough discovery on whale speech. He's almost there, he thinks.
Adam’s son Ken disappoints in his own way. He's a developer with little romance for the ecology of Cape Cod. He's also a Republican political hopeful and egotistical in different ways from his father. He loves to name drop, is a materialist, and loves all things ostentatious. Ken lives in a big house in Chatham with his wife Jenny who is an actual Lowell, as in the Lowells speak only to Cabots and the Cabots speak only to God. Jenny, though, has always had an indifferent view of money and, had she her druthers, would have been an artist. They do have adorable twin girls Jesse and Franny–their “little monsters.”
Adam's daughter Abby is an artist when, she's not busy being a high school art teacher. When she was at Rhode Island School of Design, Jenny was her best friend, but that has faded a bit since her marriage to Ken. Abby and Ken are, as the Brits say, as different as chalk and cheese. Abby adores the twins and vice versa, but she's a bohemian living in a family dune cottage that Ken wants to tear down to build McMansions. She's also working on an abstract piece for her father's birthday titled, of course, “Little Monsters.”
All of this is a backdrop to the 2016 election. Bizarrely, Ken actually hopes Hillary Clinton will win. That’s because he believes Hillary would be such a disaster that Massachusetts voters will demand bold change. Then he can position himself to become a US representative on the GOP ticket. Ken has it all planned, and he’s already begun cultivating important contacts.
Boston police officer Steph Murray and her wife Toni are also on the Cape the summer of 2016. They have a son Noah, but they are not there for fun, surf, and sun. Steph was adopted and thinks that Adam Gardner is her biological father. Toni is a bit flaky in that she's heavily into astrology but she's the calm to Steph's tempest and is along for the ride of what she thinks is a dumb idea.
Let's see, what else could be a problem in the Gardner family? Ken has a therapist–though he doesn't believe in that stuff and wants to fire him–but the therapist is miles smarter than Ken. Abby is in love with David, reputed to be Ken's best friend and has had a long time relationship with him. If only he weren't married! Abby might be having second thoughts though, despite a big impending complication. Adam hates Abby's art and thinks she's wasting her life. Abby has had it with her father and her brother. Adam still thinks he can charm young women half his age. Just about everyone has buried secrets that need to come out. Bet on Adam's 70th birthday party not going according to plan.
The little monster theme occurs throughout the novel in lots of clever ways. Look for clues sprinkled throughout. They, and a Lady’s Night rebellion add enough humor to call Little Monsters a black comedy of manners. The Gardners are complicated, but do they deserve each other?
Rob Weir
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