JDCMustReadBooks

By: Dan Pope
ISBN: 9781476745909
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: 5/12/2015
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 4 Stars

A special thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

E N T E R T A I N I N G !

Dan Pope, delivers a witty, psychological, and contemporary portrayal- HOUSEBREAKING, of modern American suburban relationships – two families and four lives, a journey of dysfunction, fidelity, desire, and loss.

A husband, Benjamin Mandelbaum is a cheater, and has done so, one time too many. Judy, his wife had given him one more chance and he blew it. However, this time it is more the incriminating evidence which convicted him before the jury was out.

Ben, mid-forties, distraught returns to his childhood home, (with his dog) to a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut, where his widower eighty- year- old father, Leonard resides. He is not thrilled with moving in with his dad and now feeling like a loser having to move into his old room; and even worse his dad has started dating. He misses his wife and his family.

Things begin to heat up and look a little more exciting, when surprisingly, a girl from his past turns out to be his neighbor and how interesting it is. Audrey, now a housewife and mother of a troubled teen daughter, married to a lawyer, who does not pay her too much attention. However, Ben is there to pick up the slack, as he happened to be attracted her way back when, and appears as it is still going strong (lots of excitement here, with hormones flying). Audrey is carrying a secret, and she appears to be receiving some release with Ben, while her husband evidently has a roving eye, as well and trying out the "other side", with a business associate.

The entire family is rebelling, as their teenage daughter, Emily is acting out after losing her brother, as well. She is hanging out with the wrong crowd, and now she is teaming up with the neighborhood thief by breaking into homes, including Bens.

As the pressure builds something has to give with the lives hiding behind the façade of a happy suburban neighborhood. When life gets in the way, Pope uses flawed characters, family drama, humor, obstacles, and tragedy to bring this group to their senses for an insightful and engaging account into complexities of marriage, family, love and loss. Wisteria Lane and Desperate Housewives, move over- you may have some competition.