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Mr. Peanut
By Adam Ross
(Vintage, Paperback, 9780307454904, April 2011, 464pp.)

The Short of It:

Amusingly dark and witty.

The Rest of It:

Mr. Peanut is a story within a couple of other stories. The story that takes place in present day New York, is that of David Pepin’s. David is a computer game designer and his wife Alice teaches troubled children. They’ve got plenty of money but they are unable to have children of their own and they are as unhappy as a couple can be. Unhappy, times ten. She is obese, obsessed with dieting even though David seems to like her fat, and deathly allergic to peanuts. The two are so at odds with each other, that David spends hours fantasizing about her death. Killing her himself, to be more specific. So when Alice ingests peanuts and dies from anaphylactic shock, is it an accident? Did David have something to do with her death?

The second and third story, revolve around the two detectives investigating Alice’s death. One detective, Ward Hastroll, has his own marital issues. His wife Hannah has been bedridden for six months for no apparent reason. When he is not investigating the case, he is home with her, tempting her and trying to lure her out of bed. The other detective is Sam Sheppard who bears the name of a philandering osteopath from the 195o’s that murdered his pregnant wife, Marilyn. Much of the book is spent telling the story of the Sheppard from the 1950’s and at times, I found this story line to be more interesting than David’s, but how it plays out and why it’s even mentioned is totally bizarre to me.

As you can tell, this book is not your typical police procedural. In fact, it was difficult to tell what was going on at any given point in time since David’s profession as a game designer, often leads you to believe that he is fantasizing about something or dreaming up subplots in his head. In addition to the game designing gig, he is also writing a novel so when you read Mr. Peanut, you’re not sure if Ross the author is telling the story, or if David has somehow come to life, hijacked the story and run away with it.

This might seem like a total cluster-F of a story and in a lot of ways, it is but I enjoyed it immensely. It’s entertaining to read about screwed-up people and these folks have issues. Their hatred for one another has no boundaries and you end up not liking any of them, but somehow I was okay with that. Their daily interaction mimics (precisely, I might add) what a long married couple experiences daily. The numerous annoyances that make you bristle practically leap off the page, but most people don’t take it to the next level and fantasize about killing their significant other. Do they? That’s what makes this one so rich.

BUT, and there is a little BUT. If you expect this to be a cut and dry police procedural you are barking up the wrong tree. You won’t find that here. You will find yourself completely absorbed with the problems of one couple, only to be rudely shifted to the problems of a different couple. The jerking back and forth is both welcome and jarring. Almost the entire story is told by the males involved, which gives it a lopsided feel and the investigation is all over the place. From the start, you have little confidence that these two detectives will figure it out and in the end, there are numerous alternate endings that leave the true ending up to the reader.

If you appreciate a unique story, written in a non-traditional way, that may or may not be poking fun at the sanctity of marriage, then you will enjoy this book. When reading it, I didn’t want to stop and when I HAD to stop, all I wanted to do was pick it up again. It’s a book to be read in the moment, without picking it apart to figure out the whys. Just read it.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

In Between Days
By Andrew Porter
(Knopf, Hardcover, 9780307273512, September 2012, 336pp.)

The Short of It:

Nothing is easy when a man’s family falls apart.

The Rest of It:

I love dysfunction. Love it. I’d eat it up if it was on a plate in front of me. There is something fascinating about watching a family disintegrate before your eyes. Especially when you are doing it from the comfort of your home with happy “family” sounds in the background. The family portrayed in this book could be friends of mine, or the neighbors across the street. There is a realness to them that could not be ignored and that’s why I think I liked the book so much.

The story centers around the Harding family, Elson, a struggling architect, his ex-wife Cadence, his gay poet son Richard and his wayward daughter, Chloe. The fallout of their divorce is still lingering in the air, but both Elson and Cadence try their best to move on by starting relationships with other people. But it’s awkward for both of them. Cadence, having known nothing else but the role of mother and wife is now trying to understand who she is. And Elson, struggling both at work and at home, drowns his pain in drink. In the mean time, Richard doesn’t seem to be comfortable in his own skin and Chloe has been suspended from college for something that remains a mystery throughout most of the story.

As with most families, they come together in crisis and the crisis here is Chloe and her suspension from school. Ultimately, Elson is a good father. He loves his kids and realizes the mistakes he’s made, but his movements going forward are complicated by his current love interest and the fact that in the back of his mind, he still loves Cadence. There is a little piece of Cadence that still loves him too, but it’s buried beneath years of resentment and frankly, there’s little time to explore it because Chloe’s situation proves to be a lot more serious than they originally thought. So serious in fact that Chloe disappears.

The mystery surrounding Chloe and her disappearance is strung out through most of the novel. The reader is given clues along the way. Enough to keep you reading and Elson’s frustration and concern over the matter is palpable. Chloe frustrated the hell out of me. She comes across as an immature, privileged little college girl. She’s oblivious to the fact that her entire family is worried sick about her and yet she continues to make bad decisions. I realized at some point, that although Chloe’s situation seems to go on for most of the novel, it’s really not at all what the novel is about. What happens with Chloe is secondary to what happens to the family that is left behind. The collapse of a family is what this novel is about and Porter captures that well.

My one complaint is the setting. The story is set in Houston but that doesn’t come across at all in the telling. In fact, there are a couple of references that made me think the story was set in Los Angeles. The mention of one fast food restaurant and a very popular (quaint) neighborhood made me go back in the book to see if I had been mistaken about the setting. This was a bit of a letdown. Only because I so often look for a sense of place in a story and here, especially when it comes to Chloe’s disappearance, I didn’t get that.

Even with my little quibble above, I must say that I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The writing is genuine and effortless. It’s Porter’s first novel but I’ll be on the lookout for future books.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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