Super Host

September 21, 2020
Russo follows the travails of a divorced London painter–turned–apartment host in her witty, enjoyable debut. At 55, Bennett Driscoll’s paintings are no longer fashionable, and his career and private life have been derailed. To make ends meet—his gallery’s director says she’ll represent him again after he’s dead—Bennett rents out his large suburban London house on AirBed, an Airbnb-like site, and sleeps in his studio. He once scoured the Guardian for reviews of his work; now he reads reviews of his hosting and relishes his long-coveted AirBed status as Super Host while processing his recent divorce and trying to connect with his 18-year-old daughter. Russo is good at portraying female characters, particularly a series of tenants whose stories structure the novel, and who each make an impact on Bennett. There’s Alicia, a young American woman; Emma, an artist who rents the house with her husband; and Kirstie, an unhappy, failed hotelier. Russo plumbs the depths of her characters’ cynicism, which has taught them that men are indecisive and women remain primarily objects of sexual interest, and that to be a successful artist one needs to keep producing what sells. Russo is a formidable talent, and readers will be eager to see what she does next.

Narrator Julia Whelan infuses divorced, formerly successful artist Bennett Driscoll with all the bathos of a deeply depressed 50-something man in a midlife crisis. Bennett rents out his large home through AirBed and is an AirBed "Super Host." His renters--and his affair with a much younger bartender, Claire--become the catalysts for his recovery. Whelan fully develops New Yorker Alicia, alone and lonely in England; American artist Emma, whose OCD and absent husband leave her paranoid; Kirstie from Devon, whose sexy, friendly manner soothes Bennett; and no-nonsense Claire, who dreams of owning a bookstore. Whelan's unsentimental renderings highlight Bennett's attempts to understand the women in his life: his 20-something daughter, the ex- who left him, Claire, and the women renters. Whelan's performance offers hours of enjoyment. S.J.H. � AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine