Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty
Ramona Ausubel
[Riverhead Books]
Ausubel’s second novel tracks the dissolution of a wealthy New England family upon learning that the family fortunes have been depleted. The novel’s idea that love and desire are human universals are not original ones – but given the current economic climate, it is no small feat that the author is able to elicit sympathy for her one-percenter protagonists. Ausubel skilfully manipulates the three storylines (following Edgar, Fern and their three children) in a way that goads the reader, and leaves us craving a happy-ending family reunion. As page-turning devices go, it’s an effective one.
The pleasures of prodding Edgar along with a “go on, you undeserving cad, get back to your wife!” are not to be dismissed – but finally the reader feels somewhat duped by the novel’s premise. The relationship between wealth and happiness is a topic ripe for exploration, but requires an author willing to take the plunge – not one content to merely dip her toes in the water. Ausubel’s writing has a dreamy, washed out, beachy quality. That is, she’s good at creating a certain atmosphere: ‘…the kids leaning over the lip of the rowboat hunting for jellyfish, and all of them in the music of Father’s oars dipping, rising, dripping.’ What we’ve got, in short, is the literary equivalent of chillwave: the mood is the essence.
Words – Eliza Kalfa
