The Altruists

Starred review from January 1, 2019
A Midwestern family struggles to rewrite its flawed history.The proverbial road paved with good intentions runs through the quintessentially Middle American city of St. Louis in this acute debut novel. After nearly 20 years on the faculty of wealthy private Danforth University, Arthur Alter remains a disgruntled non-tenure track engineering professor. Two years a widower, at age 65 he's entangled in a joyless relationship with a colleague, a German history professor young enough to be his daughter. His children, introverted Ethan and generous Maggie, still mourn the passing of their mother, Francine, a family and couples therapist, while they find themselves adrift in their own lives. Ethan's deep in debt in Brooklyn after having left his consulting job, and Maggie works at an assortment of undemanding odd jobs for her Queens neighbors. With his wife's income gone and his teaching load slashed, Arthur, notorious for his miserliness, now faces the prospect of losing his heavily mortgaged home in an upscale suburb. His financial bailout scheme involves inviting his children home for a long weekend and inveigling them to part with a portion of their inheritance from Francine, a generous bequest she bestowed on them while intentionally bypassing Arthur. The younger Alters' return goes anything but the way Arthur plans or the children expect. But amid the tragicomic misadventures that befall each of the family members during that visit, Ridker reveals how the roots of Arthur's tightfistedness lie in a well-intentioned, three decades-old effort to apply his engineering skills to solving the sanitation problems of rural Zimbabwe. Ridker meticulously peels away the scabs that have grown over the wounds of the surviving Alters, laying bare, with compassion and piercing wit, the long-simmering antagonisms that haunt both father and children. At the same time, he gently hints at a way forward for this decidedly imperfect, but oddly appealing, family.A painfully honest, but tender, examination of how love goes awry in the places it should flourish.

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February 1, 2019

DEBUT The Alter family of St. Louis, MO, is disharmonious and dysfunctional, its individual members seemingly irreconcilable. Family head and engineering instructor Arthur is a well-meaning man whose single foray into do-gooderism ends in fiasco: his project to bring sanitation to underdeveloped Africa succeeds only in spreading deadly sleeping sickness. His recently deceased wife, Francine, has willed her secretly accumulated fortune directly to their two children, a postmortem slap at Arthur for his infidelity. Without that money, Arthur will lose his house, so he naturally concocts a scheme to ingratiate himself with his kids in order to secure their inheritance. What could possibly go wrong? Through a series of sketches and flashbacks, Ridker creates characters who frustrate, engage, and ultimately inspire. Though bitterness and interpersonal incompetence seem the dominant forces driving these protagonists, their fundamental love for one another prevails. Ridker's debut is at once humorous and poignant; without the author's skill and regard for his creations, this story could easily have slumped into the depressed mode of some of William Goldman's character-driven narratives of decades ago. Thankfully, it doesn't. VERDICT For readers drawn to flawed characters and their redemption.--Michael Russo, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2019
A mediocre professor at a small midwestern college, Arthur is struggling to keep his job, hang on to his girlfriend, and stop creditors from taking his home. In desperation, he decides to go after his children's inheritance. His late wife, Francine, divided her not-meager estate between their two children, whom Arthur hasn't seen in around two years. Ethan has blown through his share, after quitting his job and spending way beyond his means, while Maggie has ignored hers, preferring to work a series of low-paying jobs and live a life of frugality. Arthur invites them home for the weekend, hoping for a chance to bond and, ultimately, to convince them to financially bail him out; what he gets are two angry, resentful adult children still grieving for their mother and dealing with their own issues. Beautifully written, with witty, pitch-perfect dialogue and fascinating characters, Ridker's impressive, deeply satisfying debut is an extraordinarily insightful look at a family broken apart by loss and struggling to find a way back to each other and themselves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)