The Misfortune of Marion Palm

Starred review from May 15, 2017
Culliton’s wonderful and sharp debut novel invites readers into the mind and motivations of an unlikable and remarkable woman. Marion has always lived on the cusp of poverty. She develops a talent for sticky fingers and doctoring numbers, assuring a respite from her despair. When Marion meets handsome, rich poet, Nathan Palm, she achieves a dream of financial security and stability. But reality is cruel and Nathan is not as wealthy as she thought, so Marion relies on her talents to support her family and the lifestyle they are accustomed to. Readers meet Marion on the day she abandons her family, headed on the run with $40,000 in a backpack. After years of embezzling funds from her daughters’ private school, Marion has been sent into a panic by a proposed audit. She leaves her husband comically paralyzed, and her daughters, Ginny and Jane, deal with Marion’s departure with angst, rage, and attachments to the imaginary. Culliton’s prose is effortless and wickedly clever; its ability to condone and condemn in the most succinct way is a testament to the author’s storytelling and characterization skills. Moments of empathy are erased by Marion’s entitlement, and her vanishing act is curiously irresistible. This debut novel signals the arrival of an exciting talent. Agent: Claudia Ballard, WME Entertainment.

This oddly bloodless audiobook is skillfully written and beautifully produced and performed. Saskia Maarleveld has a silky flexible voice, easily able to convey male and female, children and adults, and is convincing when accents are required. There is some wonderful satire of flummoxed Brooklyn Heights private school folk trying to cover their behinds when they learn Marion Palm has effortlessly embezzled a fortune from them, through plenty of fault of their own. And where has she gone, and what of her husband and daughters? Will she get caught? Do we want her to? It was hard for this listener to believe that the author herself believed in any of these characters. Could that be the production's fault? Maybe, but it didn't feel like it. B.G. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine