Shelter in Place

August 1, 2020
Members of the New York elite we've been hearing so much about catch a sudden case of agita the weekend after Donald Trump is elected president. Eva Lindquist, who's hosting a weekend getaway at her country home in rural Connecticut, kicks things off on Page 1 by asking everyone whether they'd be willing to ask Siri how to assassinate Trump. None of them--a magazine editor, an interior designer, two book editors, a choreographer, and a burgeoning writer--take her up on it. Eva, who showed academic promise as an undergraduate, hasn't worked on her biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner since she married Bruce, a wealth management adviser "rich enough that I can't really say how rich I am"; the names of their three Bedlington terriers are Caspar, Isabel, and Ralph, after characters from Henry James novels (this is a WASPy crew). Eva sees herself as a "saloniste," gathering intriguing, ambitious people together. But she also embodies the traits Republicans deplore in smug liberals, like a certain superciliousness, as when she orders her Latinx housekeeper, Amalia, to change the channel anytime Trump pops up, supposedly for Amalia's own good. An avowed Republican lives across the hall from the couple in Manhattan, one reason Eva decides to nab an apartment in Venice to spend more time away from America. Eva's obsession with the "demon" Trump eats away at her marriage while the labyrinthine process of purchasing property in Venice becomes crushing. Bruce is pondering a secret, hefty financial gift to his longtime secretary, who has cancer, and letting his eye wander toward one of Eva's acquaintances. None of the main characters gets a pass in this dark comedy, and it's a lot of fun: Democrats, Republicans, writers, and even one magazine editor who binges on sugar-dusted sticks of butter--Leavitt skewers them all in this delectable novel. A humane, knowing comedy perfect for a moment when no one in America seems to like one another.

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August 17, 2020
Leavitt (The Two Hotel Francforts) turns a gimlet eye on a group of wealthy New Yorkers whose lives revolve around the excitable Eva Lindquist. After the 2016 election, Eva sets out to buy an apartment in Venice so she can sit out Trump’s presidency safely in Europe. Eva’s earnest husband, Bruce, is a wealth management consultant who’s amassed a considerable fortune and accepts that Eva “does the wanting and I do the paying.” He acquiesces to purchasing a dilapidated place Eva describes as a “decorator’s dream.” Eva is accompanied on her numerous trips to Venice by Min Marable, a lifelong friend who readily name-drops every magazine she’s ever worked at, from Good Housekeeping to Mademoiselle, while Bruce helps his assistant, Kathy, as she goes through chemotherapy treatments for non-Hodgkins lymphoma after her husband left her. Leavitt gleefully skewers his characters and those in their orbit—top-tier Manhattan decorators get into internecine fights, and a recently fired book editor friend of the Lindquists excoriates what he calls the “fucking Jonathans” (Foer, Franzen, Lethem, etc.)——and nearly pulls off a surprise ending, which, though out of left field, adds to the amusement. This irresistible, laugh-out-loud romp is a winner.

September 1, 2020
Leavitt (The Two Hotel Francforts, 2013) delivers a delightfully sly comedy of manners that scratches the surface of his characters to reveal the personal fears their privilege can't ease. It is two days after the 2016 presidential election, and a group of New Yorkers is ensconced in the plush Connecticut weekend home of their hosts, Eva and Bruce. Eva fancies herself a saloniste, surrounding herself with her decorator, Jake, editors, writers, theater producers, and other useful hangers-on. Existentially threatened by President Trump and pushed by her scheming, less-privileged friend and traveling companion, Min, Eva has decided to buy a place to escape to, a Venetian palazzo. The absurdist reality of buying a property from a shrewd but penniless woman, the mystery behind Jake's reluctance to commit to decorating it, Bruce's cold feet about paying for it, and his newfound empathy for the less fortunate make for a comic and poignant story. Readers will take in d�cor of the one-percent, jealous riffs on famous writers, and caricatured liberals and conservatives with voyeuristic glee.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)