Customer Reviews

The Adults

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Rarely have I read first novels that are truly captivating, with memorable characters and settings that will endure long in my memory. Even rarer still are those first novels that represent the emergence of a truly original literary voice replete with memorable, truly exceptional, prose. Over the span of two and a half decades, only four first novels have I found quite captivating and notable as exceptional debuts by their authors, who have become since important writers of modern Anglo-American literature; William Gibson's "Neuromancer", Matt Ruff's "Fool on the Hill", Jeffrey Eugenides's "The Virgin Suicides", and Jonathan Lethem's "Gun, With Occasional Music" . To this list I must add Alison Espach's "The Adults". Like the writers of these novels, Espach excels as a riveting storyteller who relies on a compelling character-driven plot notable for the superb literary quality of her prose and a keen ear for both language and detail.

At once Espach has become as important a chronicler of dysfunctional suburban American family life as the finest living American writer of my generation, Rick Moody, has been, most notably, in his novels "The Ice Storm" and "Purple America" and short story collection "Demonology". In "The Adults" she offers an often terrifying, but still mesmerizing, account of the trials and tribulations of adolescent girls as they mature into adulthood. It is all too easy to refer to her tale mistakenly as a fine example of suburban dystopia, but her novel is not a classic example of near future science fiction, but instead, a near classic one that is set in the recent past and the present. Indeed, by offering well-defined characters and realistic situations, Espach offers the reader a dismal view of adolescence that is often as starkly bleak as the uniquely macabre portrait rendered by Jeffrey Eugenides in his "The Virgin Suicides".

Readers may find themselves discovering in "The Adults" ample recognition of their own lives so miserably lived, in those of protagonist Emily Vidal, her family and friends. Emily is an unlikely witness to her own family's marital strife culminating in divorce, and of tragedies both great and small, ranging from a neighbor's suicide to being ostracized by her high school girl classmates. She engages in an illicit love affair with her high school English teacher, who will, years later, as a successful attorney, reappear and disappear in her life, most notably during a tumultuous three week visit to Prague, the Czech Republic, where Emily, now in her early twenties, attempts a career in interior design while reconciling herself to her father.

"The Adults" opens with a memorable sentence that is, in its own right, a most vibrant artistic echo of the opening sentence of William Gibson's "Neuromancer". With barely a false step, Espach continues keeping the reader amazed with a razor-sharp wit and a keen ear for adolescent girl dialogue recounted via elegantly crafted prose. She has wrought a vivid tale that I found almost impossible to put down. Her debut novel is definitely a literary home run of Ruthian proportions that bodes well for her subsequent literary career. Hers is such a fresh literary talent that she could become one of the finest American writers of her generation.