Motherland

June 4, 2012
In her latest satirical saga, Sohn records the crises and transgressions of privileged moms and dads spread across Cape Cod, Greenwich Village, and Park Slope, Brooklyn. She introduces a cast of unpalatable characters, including some from 2009’s Prospect Park West, who gossip about money and sex and everything that comes with the territory of “Motherland. The land of child rearing, and nurturing, and nonstop care.” But Sohn’s parents have had enough and want some attention for themselves. Gay dad Marco Goldstein’s husband is out of town, so he finds solace in sex with random men. Rebecca Rose’s hubby is a distant pot-head, so she considers reconnecting with an old celebrity fling. Danny Gottleib flees his family for L.A. to snag a film deal, while his wife gets her toes sucked by a masseur. Film star Melora Leigh struggles to reinvent herself on stage, and Karen Bryan Shapiro, whose husband left her for a Puerto Rican transsexual, falls for an ex-con. Motherland is a wasteland ruled by indulgent women, and the lack of redemptive artfulness in Sohn’s storytelling makes the book a bust. Agent: Daniel Greenberg, Levine Greenberg.

August 1, 2012
A satirical swipe at the Park Slope Crowd of parents reveals promiscuity, secrets, despair and, oh yes, child care. In her fourth novel, Sohn (Prospect Park West, 2009, etc.) brings a satirical, soapy yet downbeat focus to the Brooklyn suburb where an Upper West Side and East Village group has relocated "with resignation, for the children's benefit." Rebecca, wife of Theo, is concealing the fact that her second child is not her husband's; Marco, husband of Todd, is feeling increasingly trapped and unhappy as a gay father of two. Theo and Marco are good fathers, but elsewhere the children can seem patchily parented as the grown-ups flirt, kvetch, cruise via their iPhones, fall off the wagon and variously transgress in their preoccupation with personal fulfillment. Sohn's one-liners add wit and her media insider's perspective contributes a further layer of dry--if not wholly relevant--commentary. Her cast of characters is neither especially attractive nor sympathetic, not even the crazed stroller-thief, an older resident understandably exasperated by the new neighborhood sidewalk traffic. While the plotlines interknit implausibly (in one case, jaw-droppingly so), relationships reconfigure; some failing, some igniting. Are life lessons learned? Maybe one or two. A smart but soulless social survey which, despite the title, seems more interested in celebrities and explicit sex.

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May 15, 2012

Picking up where Prospect Park West leaves off, Sohn takes her readers back to the never-ending intrigue and drama in Park Slope, a section of Brooklyn where wealthy folks take parenting to an entirely new level. Movie star Melora Leigh is starring in a soon-to-open Broadway play. Will it rise above all the fighting with her director and be a hit, or will it bomb? Melora's ex, gorgeous Aussie actor/director Stuart, reprises his affair with Rebecca. Should she leave her boring but steady husband for him? Gottlieb is about to make it big in L.A.--his film treatment is making sparks there--but he can't seem to stop cheating on his wife in sunny California. And gay couple Marco and Todd have too many problems. They adopt a second child against Marco's wishes, which drives him to have a string of mindless hookups and fall off the wagon. There's so much cheating and wrongdoing here, it's like a superfun Brooklyn Desperate Housewives with erudite characters. And at the core, the threads of parenting weave through the story, connecting the characters via their children. VERDICT This book is impossible to put down and well written--your heart will be in Brooklyn with this flawed but fascinating cast. [See Prepub Alert, 2/20/12.]--Beth Gibbs, Davidson, NC

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