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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Oof. I loved this book. It pulled me out of a serious reading slump I’ve been struggling with for weeks now. A modern retelling of Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, this book tells the story of a family living in Western Massachusetts in the aftermath of the Trump election trying to answer the essential question “What happened ?” It’s about the confirmation of Supreme Court Judge Kavanaugh and the rage and trauma it sparked in women who were already filled with rage and trauma. It’s about a husband trying to be good, trying to understand his wife’s rage but also feeling hopeless and lost himself in the new reality. It’s about living with a difficult child and being constantly exhausted by the neverending battle over simple routines like convincing her to wear socks and answer a question and go to sleep. But it’s also about loving that child and feeling helpless at the knowledge that other people will never quite understand her and her journey in the world will be a hard one.
There are so many things in this brilliant book! It’s very much perfect for the times we live in and Ali Benjamin has constructed such a lovely balanced story that is both profound and a pleasure.
Read this if you want something to help you make sense of our current political landscape. It’s not an escapist read, but more of an empathetic reflection.
There are so many things in this brilliant book! It’s very much perfect for the times we live in and Ali Benjamin has constructed such a lovely balanced story that is both profound and a pleasure.
Read this if you want something to help you make sense of our current political landscape. It’s not an escapist read, but more of an empathetic reflection.
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
In the white, middle-class suburban household of Ethan Frome, things are at breaking point. Based on the novella by Edith Warton about a love triangle, The Smash-Up is a modern satire that meditates on the effect that political events can have on an everyday citizen’s life and psyches. The couple fled New York for the suburbs after the 9/11 attacks and now Ethan’s wife, Zenobia, has been distant and angry since Trump was elected as US President. The action starts in the middle of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation, the spark that lights the fire for the #MeToo movement. On top of that, the marketing startup ‘Bränd’ that Ethan and his obnoxiously rich friend Randy co-founded as pretentious Gen X’ers is being accused of sexual harassment.
The manipulation of truth, in all political, domestic and business arenas converge to make the action of the book disarming and chaotic. There is a point being made about the importance of context and how current medias and groups on both sides of the political leaning leave out or include factors that influence opinions. Ethan is at the centre of several storms, his self-defined good-guy character holds in his own head, but he fails to see his complicity in his company’s abuse of power. Meanwhile, Zo and her angry, activist coven, All Them Witches, support each other through the hearing, which Ethan’s finds absurd, inconvenient and insignificant to his wife’s mood.
Firstly, this whole novel is a great work of subtle satire. Although Ethan is presented sympathetically, that’s more to do with the fact he’s our narrator than anything else and he seems himself with the self-assurance of the fortunate white man he is. He is blind to his privilege and impatient with his wife who is the epitome of female rage, as well as the pity-parties he throws for himself as the temporary primary caregiver of their child. He may be the all-out househusband and Dad to a hyperactive pre-teen with ADHD, but that doesn’t mean he should get a gold medal for being a decent Dad. He accuses his wife of treating him like one of the bad guys, while simultaneously agreeing to clean up his ex-best-friend/ex-business-partner’s sexual misconduct mess and flirting with their babysitter. Ethan is repeatedly oblivious to the coven’s shared trauma (which includes his wife), seemingly triggered by the Kavanaugh hearing and their attempts to feel less powerless. It’s soaked with irony and his dry, self-deprecating humour is offset by his ability to be a doormat with overly sensitive feelings. The slightly cliche cherry on top of the family dynamic is Maddie, the blue-haired live-in Millenial babysitter (a legal but not entirely appropriate age) who Ethan has an obsessive, creepy crush on.
It’s not a good book to read if you need to like the characters, they are frustrating and dislikable, no more so than the narrator Ethan. Through his eyes, we see Zo a militant, middle-class feminist who cries wolf, bending truths and wrongly believing her problems and injustices to be gravely important and her coven as inconsiderate house guests. But the whole point of the book is that the characters suck, the novel is about a family at breaking point, cracks showing even before the book starts. The writing is excellent but doesn’t let you identify with the characters until the final plot points of the book, which honestly escalate almost to absurdity. The character arcs are redemptive, but only through the extreme events that unfurl in the final pages. It probably tries to do too much, touching on children’s mental health, toxic masculinity, white suburban activism, privilege, marriage, trauma on top of the million other things. I don’t think I could say I enjoyed reading it necessarily, but it kept me gripped, maybe not so much plot but examining for the author’s intended message.
As always, thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books / Riverrun Books for an advanced copy of this.
The manipulation of truth, in all political, domestic and business arenas converge to make the action of the book disarming and chaotic. There is a point being made about the importance of context and how current medias and groups on both sides of the political leaning leave out or include factors that influence opinions. Ethan is at the centre of several storms, his self-defined good-guy character holds in his own head, but he fails to see his complicity in his company’s abuse of power. Meanwhile, Zo and her angry, activist coven, All Them Witches, support each other through the hearing, which Ethan’s finds absurd, inconvenient and insignificant to his wife’s mood.
Firstly, this whole novel is a great work of subtle satire. Although Ethan is presented sympathetically, that’s more to do with the fact he’s our narrator than anything else and he seems himself with the self-assurance of the fortunate white man he is. He is blind to his privilege and impatient with his wife who is the epitome of female rage, as well as the pity-parties he throws for himself as the temporary primary caregiver of their child. He may be the all-out househusband and Dad to a hyperactive pre-teen with ADHD, but that doesn’t mean he should get a gold medal for being a decent Dad. He accuses his wife of treating him like one of the bad guys, while simultaneously agreeing to clean up his ex-best-friend/ex-business-partner’s sexual misconduct mess and flirting with their babysitter. Ethan is repeatedly oblivious to the coven’s shared trauma (which includes his wife), seemingly triggered by the Kavanaugh hearing and their attempts to feel less powerless. It’s soaked with irony and his dry, self-deprecating humour is offset by his ability to be a doormat with overly sensitive feelings. The slightly cliche cherry on top of the family dynamic is Maddie, the blue-haired live-in Millenial babysitter (a legal but not entirely appropriate age) who Ethan has an obsessive, creepy crush on.
It’s not a good book to read if you need to like the characters, they are frustrating and dislikable, no more so than the narrator Ethan. Through his eyes, we see Zo a militant, middle-class feminist who cries wolf, bending truths and wrongly believing her problems and injustices to be gravely important and her coven as inconsiderate house guests. But the whole point of the book is that the characters suck, the novel is about a family at breaking point, cracks showing even before the book starts. The writing is excellent but doesn’t let you identify with the characters until the final plot points of the book, which honestly escalate almost to absurdity. The character arcs are redemptive, but only through the extreme events that unfurl in the final pages. It probably tries to do too much, touching on children’s mental health, toxic masculinity, white suburban activism, privilege, marriage, trauma on top of the million other things. I don’t think I could say I enjoyed reading it necessarily, but it kept me gripped, maybe not so much plot but examining for the author’s intended message.
As always, thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books / Riverrun Books for an advanced copy of this.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this title. This was a fantastic work of contemporary fiction that reflected the state of the world in a fresh and engrossing way. The writing was beautiful and thought provoking, and the story was compelling from start to finish.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If the misery of the pandemic has made you forgotten the misery of the earlier portion of the Trump administration, this book is here to remind you. Primarily set in the week of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, and the Me Too movement is in full force. Ethan and Zo are in a slump in their marriage and careers and parenting their challenging 11 y. o. daughter, Alex, is an additional stressor. Alex is by far my favorite character in the book.
I read fiction to escape from reality, and although this one felt like reliving what I hoped to never live through in the first place, it is a good book. It is white privilege in full display. Zo has retail therapy but no job. Ethan’s finances are tied to a company he helped found but it is going off the rails due to his business partner’s improprieties. The only person working in the house is Maddy, the 26 y.o. living in the house and working at Ten Spot, where she will take requests to perform over a webcam. The sad reality is that Maddy has college loans with no college degree, has grown up with school shootings and natural disasters. Again, there is a lot of reality in this book of fiction.
Thanks NetGalley for an electronic arc of this one.
I read fiction to escape from reality, and although this one felt like reliving what I hoped to never live through in the first place, it is a good book. It is white privilege in full display. Zo has retail therapy but no job. Ethan’s finances are tied to a company he helped found but it is going off the rails due to his business partner’s improprieties. The only person working in the house is Maddy, the 26 y.o. living in the house and working at Ten Spot, where she will take requests to perform over a webcam. The sad reality is that Maddy has college loans with no college degree, has grown up with school shootings and natural disasters. Again, there is a lot of reality in this book of fiction.
Thanks NetGalley for an electronic arc of this one.
“What happened is people were hurting. What happened is people were afraid. What happened is that anger is stronger than fear, and so, for that matter, is hate. But it is easier to know what you want to burn down than it is to imagine what you might grow in its place.”
I'm going to start by saying this book (which is sort of a modern take on the Edith Wharton classic, Ethan Frome) won't be for everyone. It's political and focuses on a lot of issues that are still dividing our country so if you're looking to escape that or you're not happy with who's currently occupying the White House, this may not be for you. But if you're looking for a thought-provoking take on how what's happening in the world can affect a marriage, a family and a town, The Smash-Up is excellent.
Have you ever started a book and just been wowed by the writing? That was me from the start of this novel. Ali Benjamin spins words in such a unique way and her storytelling brims with biting humor, sometimes brutal honesty and a lot of heart. The main characters, Ethan and Zo, have been married for about 10 years and left New York City to live a quieter life in the Berkshires where they have a daughter with ADHD and both of their careers are at a crossroads. The story unfolds during the week of Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing when Ethan realizes just how far he and Zo, whose anger over Trump's election has turned her into a passionate social justice crusader, have grown apart. Benjamin does an amazing job at showing how a marriage can slowly change into something almost unrecognizable and her take on protest culture and #MeToo is also sharp and insightful. The characters aren't always likable and some of their behavior may be off-putting but so many of their feelings and frustration at what was going on then are relatable and authentic. The Smash-Up is powerful and sometimes unsettling commentary on a very specific period that's sure to generate a lot of discussion.
Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for a copy to review.
I'm going to start by saying this book (which is sort of a modern take on the Edith Wharton classic, Ethan Frome) won't be for everyone. It's political and focuses on a lot of issues that are still dividing our country so if you're looking to escape that or you're not happy with who's currently occupying the White House, this may not be for you. But if you're looking for a thought-provoking take on how what's happening in the world can affect a marriage, a family and a town, The Smash-Up is excellent.
Have you ever started a book and just been wowed by the writing? That was me from the start of this novel. Ali Benjamin spins words in such a unique way and her storytelling brims with biting humor, sometimes brutal honesty and a lot of heart. The main characters, Ethan and Zo, have been married for about 10 years and left New York City to live a quieter life in the Berkshires where they have a daughter with ADHD and both of their careers are at a crossroads. The story unfolds during the week of Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing when Ethan realizes just how far he and Zo, whose anger over Trump's election has turned her into a passionate social justice crusader, have grown apart. Benjamin does an amazing job at showing how a marriage can slowly change into something almost unrecognizable and her take on protest culture and #MeToo is also sharp and insightful. The characters aren't always likable and some of their behavior may be off-putting but so many of their feelings and frustration at what was going on then are relatable and authentic. The Smash-Up is powerful and sometimes unsettling commentary on a very specific period that's sure to generate a lot of discussion.
Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for a copy to review.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
hm. i don’t think i am really ready to read books that occur during the kavanaugh hearing/blasey ford testimony Era. it’s still too close for comfort and zo’s story still hurts to read. i felt like she got a little carried away with the millennials vs. gen x and Resisters vs. Everyone else conflicts. on the other hand, i thought it was really interesting how she used maddy as sort of a red herring— it’s a clever way to adapt the ending of ethan frome. also liked the point she was making about the death of context. overall a solid read and i’m going to be thinking about it for a while.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Sexual assault, Car accident, Sexual harassment