The Summer Kitchen by Karen Weinreb

Release date: 2009 / 328 pages

Synopsis (from back cover): When Nora Banks goes to answer the doorbell very early one November 1, she thinks it must be tardy trick-or-treaters.  But the costumes are all too real — it’s the Feds, who have come to arrest her husband, Evan, for a white-collar crime.  Nora’s enviable life in the eighteenth-century house she’d filled her days renovating to museum-quality perfection is upended in an instant.

First line: “It was raspberry season in Bedford, New York.”

Review:  This is an interesting novel on a number of different levels.  During the first chapter, possible subtitles kept popping into my mind: “Why the World Feels Contempt for America” or “What Happens When We Ignore The Lessons of The Great Gatsby” and so on…  The first section is laden with the superfluous details that burden the uber-rich: which brand and color of car to drive, is my McMansion bigger than your’s, narrow dress codes, etc… all those corrosive traps so many of us are anxious to escape when we graduate from high school.

However, what at first glance appears to be a handbook on How to Be an Insufferable and Unhappy American, very quickly becomes an interesting hero’s journey not only for the protagonist, but for her children, husband and even a few friends.  I enjoy hero’s journeys (what American doesn’t?!), but I did find myself a bit frustrated with Nora and at the pace of her journey.  I know I shouldn’t judge her, and the ending is predictably rewarding, but I did feel impatient that she seemed so dense and insulated for so long.

I also found the prose a bit slow.  I tried to pinpoint why and decided this was partly due to the frequent separation between action verbs and their direct objects, and partly due to so many crowded clauses :

The interaction between Phillip and Beatriz had the easygoing quality of an old married couple. They often made Nora laugh, though now in the wake of their little scene and after they had all left and the boys were exploring down in what would be the kitchen, she suffered a feeling of loss.  Today Beatriz and Phillip had made her think of her own marriage. For she and Evan had once been that way, finishing each other’s sentences, then huff, huffing that that wasn’t exactly what was meant, but, well, yes, possibly it was, really. Once they had even bought each other the same Christmas present, which had been endearingly hopeless, since what would they do with two sets of arrangements for a pair of massage therapists to come to the house late every Sunday evening for a year?

Just seemed like more work than the story merited, I guess…  One more issue — the point of view is mostly that of Nora, but occasionally shifts to Beatriz for a short time, then to Evan for a short time, then to their son Thomas for a short time.  I actually would have preferred the narration if it had switched more regularly.  I grew tired of Nora’s journey and found Beatriz and Evan more interesting, honestly…

But, despite my misgivings, I do think many would enjoy this peek inside the lifestyles of the rich and vapid, especially since a life of substance emerges by the end.  Interested?  Drop me a comment and I’ll choose a winner Saturday!

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