The Smash-Up

November 1, 2020
A hypertopical, semisatirical, Ethan Frome-inspired portrait of a family on the edge. Sixteen years ago, Ethan and Zo Frome (short for Zenobia) fled Brooklyn for life in the "quiet nowhere" that is Starkfield, Massachusetts, and now, as they settle into middle age, it's becoming clear to both of them that their lives have not worked out as they planned. When we meet them, in 2018, against the backdrop of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, Zo is consumed with her women's group, All Them Witches, which, since Trump's election--though neither political event is named explicitly--has met in the Fromes' living room "to make posters and write postcards and process the dumpster fire that is the news these days." And though Ethan is, in his own estimation "one of the good guys," who respects women, of course he does, he cannot help but find this off-putting, the way it is both sexless and distinctly middle-aged. When they met, Zo was a promising documentary filmmaker, and the guerrilla marketing startup he co-founded was on the cutting edge, and now she's rage-buying furniture online, and he's living off checks from a company he hasn't worked for in years. Meanwhile, their 11-year-old daughter has severe ADHD neither she nor they can cope with, which is part of why they've hired 20-something Maddy, who, rather than solutions, brings troubles of her own. (Also, predictable romantic intrigue for Ethan.) Nothing about the characters is idiosyncratic or surprising or especially nuanced--not Zo's anger, not Ethan's wistful nostalgia--and the novel can't seem to decide exactly how heightened it wants to be. And yet the plot is cleverly constructed, and lost-youth longing is intoxicating, and just because the characters seem sent from central casting doesn't mean they can't pack an emotional punch. Enjoyable and well plotted, if slightly contrived.

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December 7, 2020
YA author Benjamin (The Thing About Jellyfish) revisits Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome in her adult debut, an ambitious if schematic novel of middle-aged liberal angst. Having cofounded a successful guerrilla marketing start-up, Bränd, Ethan Frome leaves New York City in the early 2000s for a quiet life in the Berkshires with his wife, Zo. In 2016, Donald Trump’s election marks a turning point: “It was good until it wasn’t. All of it: The town. His marriage. Their finances. The world.” Ethan is a common, though well-drawn, fictional type: an ironic, middle-aged underachiever beset by temptation (here it’s the live-in babysitter), yet too decent, or timid, to force the moment to its crisis. Zo, meanwhile, is part of a feminist activist group called All Them Witches and an independent filmmaker who has grown increasingly distant and enraged. With Zo fuming over Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, Ethan becomes entangled, somewhat implausibly, in the #MeToo movement: his boorish Bränd cofounder asks him to help silence a Hollywood actress whose accusations could bring down the company. With satire and suspense, Benjamin handily encapsulates the incomprehension, sadness, and rage of the Trump era.

December 1, 2020
Benjamin's first novel for adults repurposes Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome in a contemporary reflection on power and sex that crystallizes the visceral rage surrounding the fraught confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh. Ethan Frome's wife, Zo, and her cohort of friends, All Them Witches, gather in the Frome house in suburban Massachusetts to paint protest signs, dance with abandon in pink Pussy Riot-inspired balaclavas, and simmer together. Ethan is sympathetic but doesn't quite get it and feels disconnected from Zo, who is consumed by her activism. Neither has the focus or energy to fully engage with their complicated and difficult young daughter, Alex. Enter twentysomething caretaker, Maddie, who is too jaded to be a true MPDG (manic pixie dream girl) but is nonetheless the coy object of Ethan's obsession as he wistfully imagines a more passionate life and faces the consequences of actions by his skeevy former business partner. Benjamin's immediately engaging writing captures the complicated emotions and biting humor of these bruising times and their impact on relationships. As in Wharton's novel, these lives will be forever changed by what is headed their way, leaving the reader reflecting on how events seemingly out of our control--violent, political, distant, selfish, or selfless--alter our lives and how we might steer our own sleds.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from February 1, 2021

Two years after the 2016 presidential election, the Frome household is splintering. Husband Ethan is perplexed by his wife's behavior. Zo is rarely at home, and when she is, she's either compulsively ordering new household items that they don't need or hosting her women's protest group, All Them Witches. Life in the small Berkshires town where they moved from Brooklyn 15 years ago isn't exactly stimulating. Ethan ferries their hyperactive 11-year-old daughter, Alex, to the precious, expensive school they can barely afford and lusts after their live-in babysitter, Maddy the millennial. But just when you think you know where this narrative is going, Benjamin flips the script expertly. The Brett Kavanaugh hearings are on TV, the women's group is ready to erupt, and Ethan's former business partner Randy is calling him nonstop about some #MeToo lawsuits piling up against him. He asks Ethan to help him out--otherwise those residual checks the Fromes are living on will cease. VERDICT In her fantastic adult debut, YA and middle grade author Benjamin (The Next Great Paulie Fink) skewers her subjects but still preserves their humanity. New York expats, middle-aged Gen-Xers, disaffected millennials, conniving school moms, exasperating children with improbable names--all get the gimlet eye in this timely, witty novel.--Liz French, Library Journal

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