A review by pris_asagiri
The Believers by Zoë Heller

5.0

So call me a Zoë Heller fan. It's hard to describe a book that is so much fun to read when it is filled with really unlikeable people and one extremely dysfunctional family. A lot of people are divided on how to feel about [a:Jonathan Franzen|2578|Jonathan Franzen|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1357663607p2/2578.jpg]--did he write the next Great American Novel? I don't know. But what I feel is Heller wrote a story that is equal to Franzen in every way except length and possibly a more twisted sense of humor at how we humans are sublimely ridiculous. It's hard to compare in some ways as Franzen wrote a caricature of a conservative Midwest family and Heller wrote a caricature of a liberal New York family. But there were more similarities than differences in the dysfunction that exists in all families. I probably identified more with Franzen as I am a conservative Midwesterner, but I had a lot more fun with Heller.

If ever there is a need for an example to refute that women can't write "serious" books, I offer this one.