Review by New York Times Review
The San Franciscans Frank and Carol Widdicombe have resettled on Bainbridge Island outside Seattle, in a two-acre Georgianstyle home with a bay view, tennis court, beach path and "community gardens" tended by Marvelous, the gardener. Carol, who purchased the property, has named it Willowbrook and has "set an intention" to "cultivate an atmosphere of unencumbered pastoral innocence." Her summer goals: to completely redecorate and get her family to "start having more fun," but she's not receiving much cooperation from her loved ones. Now semiretired, Frank is depressed. After graduating from Stanford with a degree in psychology, the author of "Zoning Out," a pop-psychology book on leadership, has also spent his life "guiding multiple generations of San Francisco glitterati toward socially strategic tennis competency." Now he is "expected to potter around their mansion like a mellow old patriarch." Exacerbating his condition is the cancellation of his annual trip to France with his college buddies, where they lament how "socalled success had failed to bring them the unshakable happiness they had longed for as students." And their son, Christopher, an art student who's back home for the summer from studying abroad in Italy, is desperate to be disowned by his parents, telling his mother, "I hate the very idea of fun." Enter a "young and dashing" houseguest, the wouldbe screenwriter Bradford Dearborne, who "made up for his carefree loafing with his charm and wardrobe," even if he is heavily self-medicating. Bradford has set his sights on the Widdicombes' "able assistant," Michelle, who sometimes suspects she's been hired "to serve as witness to the Widdicombes' minidramas and wellheeled existential crises." Last to arrive is the self-help guru Gracie Sloan, who Frank worries will "call upon her punishing New Age worldview to hang a wreath on this hell of inactivity." James's debut novel - a comedy of manners about the banes of upper-middle-class characters - bubbles with self-realizations, love in the patois of addiction speak, incipient love that could bridge oceans and a self-help expo keynote address imploring the freeing of our inherent wildness. Poor cheerleader Carol will succumb to depression, but Frank, writing "The Widdicombe Way" to help others master life, will indeed cheer up.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 9, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
Flitting among the occupants of Willowbrook estate on Washington's Bainbridge Island, the narrator of James' debut guides readers through this mordant comedy of manners. At the outset of summer, Frank Widdicombe is in the dumps because his annual guys' trip to Auvergne has been cancelled. His wife, Carol, worries about his mental state and the state of her salon (always in italics); she wants Frank to be happy, and she also wants Willowbrook to be featured in Inside Places magazine. Try as he might, their artist son, Christopher, just can't win the disapproval of his parents, who desperately want him to follow his bliss and have as much fun as possible. But with staff and visitors constantly about Scandinavian-enthusiast assistant Michelle; coffee heir and aspiring horror-film writer Bradford; motivational author Gracie; a gardener and a recovering alcoholic called Marvelous love just might blossom by summer's peak, the Widdicombe's Midsummer Feast. James is a fine writer, and his narrator maintains a consistent, ironically self-serious tone, skewering contemporary mindfulness culture and the pursuits of those with time, money, or both to burn.--Annie Bostrom Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
James's debut blends saucy wit with a fresh voice as it outlines a summer with a family that's so neurotic they're almost normal. Frank Widdicombe; his wife, Carol; and his son, Christopher, have moved into a beautiful home called Willowbrook in the Pacific Northwest, where they indulge in a life of ease with a few chosen friends. Michelle Briggs, Carol's personal assistant, is efficient in her nebulous work of "showing up in order to serve as witness to the Widdicombes' minidramas and well-heeled existential crises." Michelle captures the interest of the urbane Bradford Dearborne, a young family friend back from a trip to California funded by his father, while self-help guru Gracie Sloane, visiting Carol for the summer, eventually warms to the Widdicombe's new gardener, a recovering alcoholic named Marvelous Matthews. Frank, a retired near-professional tennis player with a psychology degree, embarks on writing a self-help book, while his wife throws her energy into the interior design of the home, and gay, haughty Christopher, home from a year abroad, watches his parents with artistic, youthful derision. The dynamic characters will satisfy many tastes, and it's with a writerly sleight-of-hand that the peculiar humor and quirky truths of family, friendship, and love are revealed. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT Frank Widdicombe appears to be depressed. His wife, Carol, has made every effort to turn their elegant summer home into a showplace and enticing refuge. She thinks maybe raising a flock of chickens and growing some heirloom vegetables will help Frank cheer up. To that end, she hires a gardener. He and Frank hit it off and become friends. Carol also invites self-help guru Gracie to visit while working on her newest book in the hopes she will influence Frank for the better. Gracie and the gardener meet and soon become more than friends. Widdicombe son Christopher is home from art school for the summer and spends his days scheming to get away from his family, but everything he tries draws him closer to them. The family's secretary/administrative assistant Michelle keeps the household organized, but her attempt to connect with yet another house guest ends in heartbreak. The chickens never materialize, but there is a family of otters living under the deck. VERDICT First novelist James boasts numerous literary honors, here delivering an absurd and hilarious satire full of unlikely characters who are all wildly introspective, dysfunctional, and prone to New Age philosophizing. [See Prepub Alert, 9/24/18.]-Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The Widdicombes work through a family epidemic of almost life-threatening anomie in their elaborate summer house on Bainbridge Island.Spend a head-spinning summer with the Widdicombes and their entourage in James' gleefully over-the-top satiric debut. Carol, the lady of the house, is set on becoming a New Age Mrs. Ramsay, hosting artists and writers in the mansion she is redecorating in a "bohemian Paris meets California cool meets Pacific Northwest Casual" style, angling for a feature in a dcor magazine, winning instead comparisons to a "hotel waiting roomin Liberace's cerebral cortex." Her design process relies on the principles of her New Age guru and houseguest, Gracie Sloane. "Source Energy requires imagistic fuel to do the daily work of manifesting.It is to this end we pin our hopes and dreams to our Vision Boards." Gracie is holed up at the Widdicombes' palazzo to work on The Habit of Wildness, a book that recommends "feral romping" and "whimsical savagery." The Widdicombe patriarch is a foulmouthed former tennis pro with so little to occupy his time he is nearly suicidal, until he mines his predicament for a self-help book of his own. Son Christopher, home from Rhode Island School of Design for the summer, is suffering even more deeply than his parents as his parody landscapes turn out to be actually gorgeous, and his cruel performance piece, "Son," results in unprecedented familial closeness. As their personal assistant, Michelle, puts it, "When all the Widdicombes were in one room, united in antic chatter, [it's] as though they were playing out scenes from an old screwball comedy." Contributing to this effect are another houseguest, a drunk, pill-popping lout who pretends to be a screenwriter, and their gardener, Marvelous Matthews. The latter is a longtime disciple of Gracie Sloane who is about to see his own Vision Board really come through.Never a dull moment. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
