Starred review from May 4, 2020
A family grapples with barely concealed secrets after witnessing a tragedy in Poissant’s poignant and beautiful debut novel (after the collection The Heaven of Animals). Retired Cornell math professor Richard Starling and his wife, Lisa, an ornithologist, gather their 30-something sons Thad and Michael for one last hurrah at the family’s lake house in North Carolina before the couple sells the house and retires to Florida. After Michael, an alcoholic facing a dry morning with “wings in the skull,” fails to save a neighbor boy from drowning, the family struggles to salvage their vacation as the causes of their inner pain rise to the surface. Michael’s wife is unexpectedly pregnant despite Michael’s long-standing objection to fatherhood; Thad, an underemployed poet, begrudges his open relationship with Jake, a blocked artist; Lisa mourns her firstborn infant daughter lost to SIDS; and Richard worries Lisa is selling the lake house to punish him for an undisclosed affair. As the family members’ facades begin to crack, fresh wounds surface and hard decisions are made by each. Poissant demonstrates superb talent for observation, cultivating a familiar, lived-in feeling of the family’s lake house, where each character’s unique viewpoint emerges powerfully and their everyday interactions gain greater significance. This is a remarkable, moving depiction of a family on the brink. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary.
June 1, 2020
After a terrible accident, secrets, shames, and fears emerge among six people sharing a last weekend at a lake house in this impressive debut novel. A child slips off a boat and drowns in the deep water of a North Carolina lake. It happens near the family vacation house that Richard and Lisa Starling, winding down careers at Cornell University, will soon sell, coincidentally on the birthday of a daughter who lived only a month. They've never told their sons about her. The elder is a heavy drinker awash in debt and upset that his wife is pregnant because they agreed to remain childless. The younger son takes meds for depression and anxiety after two suicide attempts. He hasn't told his parents that he's been jobless for two years or that he's a pothead living off his boyfriend, a hot new artist in New York who has been mum about not finishing a painting in six months and struggles with his partner's need for monogamy. The parents, BTW, are dealing with a recent infidelity of their own. Poissant--author of the short story collection The Heaven of Animals (2014)--builds the narrative and the faceted theme of children lost and found through well-crafted scenes while making good use of the close third-person point of view, albeit with some clich� and overwriting. His gradual uncloseting of the sextet's many skeletons--including the anathema of a vote for Trump--is cleverly handled, although he tends to offer pat answers where one might expect more complication. As for the ending, it won't spoil anything to say Poissant makes some curious decisions in resolving this murmuration of Starlings. A well-wrought family tale from a talented writer.
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Starred review from June 1, 2020
In Poissant's masterfully crafted first novel, the bonds that hold together a dysfunctional family unravel over the course of a single weekend. Even before a tragic boating accident upends the annual Starling vacation, Richard and Lisa, career academics on the verge of retirement, announce their decision to sell the family lake house against the wishes of their sons, Michael and Thad, who wrestle with demons of their own. Michael, a not-so-stealthy alcoholic, and his wife Diane struggle to make ends meet and must confront the pressing question of whether to have children. Thad, a fledgling poet, and his wildly successful boyfriend Jake debate the future of their open relationship. Over a tense three days, dark secrets bubble to the surface and threaten to explode the family dynamics. Simultaneously heartbreaking and hilarious, the novel's brisk pace and perfectly executed moments make for a stunning, unforgettable story. As in his first short story collection, The Heaven of Animals (2014), Poissant's compassion for his characters generates empathy for even their most disastrous actions. A totally engrossing story of the long shadows cast by troubled relationships and the glimmer of hope that dawns after painful confrontation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)