We All Love the Beautiful Girls

July 1, 2018
Proulx's (Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet, 2008) dark second novel begins during a frigid Canadian winter that sets the mood for all that follows as the members of a family facing crises on several fronts cope by isolating themselves from each other and behaving recklessly.On the first page, 17-year-old Finn announces to the reader that he is overpoweringly in love with his former babysitter Jess, with whom he's been sexually active for months. Unfortunately, 22-year-old Jess is seriously dating Eric, the older brother of Finn's friend Eli. Drunk, high, and distraught when Jess goes off with Eric at a party, Finn passes out in the snow and ends up losing his right hand. That same night, Finn's father, Michael, who runs a large real estate management company, and mother, Mia, a banker-turned-photographer, learn that Michael's partner and supposedly close friend Peter has not only funneled money out of the company, but has also cheated Michael out of his ownership. Instead of spending time with his son, Michael deals with his fury and grief about both his own and Finn's crises by obsessively practicing baseball with a street kid about Finn's age, developing a relationship that is creepy and potentially dangerous. Meanwhile, Mia resents that she always has to be the strong one in her marriage and goes on what she calls "unauthorized maternity leave"--really, leave from maternity and matrimony. Both parents are clueless about Finn's inner turmoil concerning the loss of his hand and about the complex geometry of love triangles involving Finn with Jess, Eric, Peter's teenage daughter, Frankie (who loves Finn), and Eli (who loves Frankie). Proulx's teens are sympathetically if sharply realistic, but the ugliness of the adult characters' behavior bludgeons the reader beyond endurance.No one in this world of selfishness, vengefulness, and obsession seems aware what kind of collateral damage their bad choices--whether misguided or malevolent--will have on others.

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July 30, 2018
Set in the quaint Canadian town of Old Aberdeen (a stand-in for Ottawa), Proulx’s provocative second novel (after Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet) follows the rupturing of the reasonably idyllic lives of one family by the events of one traumatic evening. Mia and Michael Slate receive a grim visit from the accountant at Michael’s property company and learn that his business partner has cheated him out of his share of the company’s profits, plunging them into sudden bankruptcy. Several streets over at a friend’s booze-filled house party, their teenage son, Finn, drunk and rejected by Jess, a family friend with whom he’s locked in a forbidden affair, falls into a hallucinatory sleep (“my body gone, my heartbeat floating”) in the snowy backyard. When he’s found, his hand is so severely frostbitten that it must be amputated. This development, along with the bankruptcy, sends Mia, Michael, and Finn spiraling apart from one another. As layers are peeled back to reveal the underpinnings of that night, the Slates learn hard truths about chance and intimacy, and how even minor acts of vengeance can metastasize into tragedies that cause irreparable damage. Gorgeously written, Proulx’s narrative offers a fascinating plot and both a searing exploration of the butterfly effect of trauma and the uncanny persistence of love in improbable circumstances.

July 1, 2018
Proulx's domestic tragedy is a slow burn of a novel, detailing one family's fall from affluence. Mia and Michael Slate and their 17-year-old son, Finn, are the picture of perfection until double catastrophe strikes. Michael's business partner, a family friend, bilks him out of his savings and his job the same day that Finn passes out at a party in the bitter cold. Although Finn survives, just barely, he is irreparably changed. These events impact each family member in distressing ways, flinging them from their previously close-knit family. Mia contemplates an affair with their lawyer, Finn continues a clandestine and doomed relationship with his former babysitter, and Michael smokes weed and plays baseball while contemplating revenge. Their actions will have far-reaching consequences in a story laced with sex and violence. Proulx (Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet, 2008) never takes the easy road. Instead of writing either pure suspense or feel-good family drama, she maintains a low level of intensity that never feels gratuitous or unrealistic. A solid choice for fans of suspenseful, character-driven fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)