The Tell

October 8, 2012
Mira and Owen’s marriage begins to stutter as they struggle with money problems when Wilton Deere, a washed-up television star, moves in next door and begins to charm the couple with stories of his estranged daughter and his dramatic past. Mira could sell inherited valuables, but is reluctant to do so, and as Wilton gradually befriends the couple, his relations with Mira take a darker turn: he introduces her to the world of gambling and she becomes addicted. Though Owen vows to leave her if she doesn’t stop, she ignores his threats. He takes his revenge by poisoning Wilton’s attempts to restore his relationship with his daughter, Anya, and pressuring Wilton to kill himself. When Wilton subsequently disappears, Owen, Mira, and Anya must confront their difficult truths and learn to trust each other again. Kaplan (Kinship Theory) suffuses her latest with a sense of its own importance; everything takes on an extremely dramatic tone, even if the events themselves are minor, which makes it difficult to take big problems seriously. Additionally, the characters are not particularly sympathetic and some of their decisions make little sense. Readers may be drawn in by the exploration of addiction and loneliness, but will be disappointed. Agent: Jennifer Carlson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency.

October 15, 2012
A stranger comes to town, upsetting the heretofore placid lives of a couple. Providence, R.I., is the setting for what at first blush appears to be a standard tale of two yuppies struggling to maintain their bourgeois bonhomie against an increasingly unforgiving urban landscape. Owen, 40, and his wife of six years, Mira, live in the house where she grew up, which became hers when her parents were killed in a car accident. Mira runs a private art school which is perennially short of cash. Owen teaches in a doomed public school and tries to instill hope in his students. When Wilton, a former sitcom star, moves into the adjacent house, his first act is to hijack Owen's and Mira's daily routine. Soon, contributing gourmet staples bought with his Hollywood wealth, he's sharing most meals with the couple. He's moved from LA to Providence hoping to bond with his long-estranged daughter, Anya. All three principals harbor a secret shame. Thanks to Owen's cowardice, his girlfriend was killed in a restaurant shooting. Mira's father was having an affair with her mother's best friend. Wilton came close to crashing his car with toddler Anya in it. Wilton's advent sparks a strange triangulation, sowing distrust between Mira and Owen as to whose friend he really is. Mira and Wilton start spending evenings at the casino. Wilton and Owen trade confidences. Minor characters play out the themes of disconnection and attachment, New England style, including Owen's father, a recluse who lives on a pond with several cats until he's rescued by a condo-dwelling matriarch. Mira's gambling, predictably, becomes an addiction. As Anya circumspectly approaches Wilton, discord between Mira and Owen escalates until, too abruptly, Owen is contemplating violent solutions to his soured relationships. Although the prose is competent enough, it often serves more as atmospheric filler than as a vehicle for elucidating the characters' myriad dilemmas. The action, instead of building to a satisfying conclusion, merely unravels. An initially intriguing but ultimately disappointing effort.

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November 1, 2012
Kaplan, who won the Flannery O'Connor Award for her collection, The Edge of Marriage (1999), again tackles the complexities of an imperfect marriage and the ways in which a dysfunctional family tries to heal itself. Owen and Mira are struggling. The art school Mira runs is dangerously underfunded, and the elementary school at which Owen teaches is due to close at year's end. Then their home life changes dramatically when Wilton, an aging ex-TV actor, buys the house next door. Wilton lost contact with his daughter years ago and is trying desperately to reestablish their relationship. As that process stalls, Mira becomes a substitute daughter for Wilton, and their frequent visits to a local casino soon create a strain on Owen and Mira's marriage. Kaplan writes with remarkable acuity about the psychological challenges faced by each of her vulnerable characters, drawing the reader into their struggles to deal with their past mistakes and their attempts to forge a more stable future. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy the psychologically complex work of Annie Proulx, or Stewart O'Nan.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)