Matthew Weiner

I was a little naive, a little naively over-alienated, when I first wrote this review, so I’ll try to re-do it now. I don’t watch many TV show seasons, and so far I’ve not wanted to watch more than one of the same show, which certainly includes this one. It’s okay though, and I think it’s easy to be overly alienated from it, from being overly naive before. (Which, of course, would be an excessively 1960s stance to take, lol.) I don’t watch much TV and even fiction isn’t a majority of my books like it is for most people. “Mad Men” is a semi-romantic story, a type of personal drama, (like horror without the horror), and not a straight romance like “Downton Abbey”, a romantic drama. Downton sells you the idea of its goodness, and so it’s easy to buy into that and over-credit it, and take the most token and convenient or insubstantial concession to realism or reality to be enough, if that’s your predisposition, like it was for me. But the Men sell you a much more semi-compromising idea of themselves, and it’s easy to just see that and point and shout, You’re Not Good, and scream again and run away like a child. But is Grantham’s Downton really such a better place, such a different place? It supposes itself to be different. It supposed itself to be better. But what substance is there in a supposition, necessarily?

After-note: “If you were going to go into law and force people to listen, I’d listen to you now, but if you’re an ad man and you want people to voluntarily like you, (scoffs), are you really a man, O my son?”

It was certainly a cynical show—or a cynical time; life precedes art. But, that being said, and although comparing to naively to the idealized past/Earl of Pansypants propaganda, necessarily distorts, still: it’s not exactly the show I’d watch to get a sense of the positive potential of prosperous people, you know.… (més)

This book came out at the worst time for a book like this to be released. We are in the midst of the #metoo movement where movie execs, actors, and other people in show business are being revealed to have done and said things completely inappropriate (putting it mildly).

In the midst of this come Matthew Weiner, creator of Mad Men with a book about stalking an underaged girl. While not unheard of in the writing world with such hit books as You or Diary of an Oxygen Thief, it is just really bad timing right now.

If we attempt to push the timing aside, Heather, the Totality is still an ok novella (more on that later).

The book centers around 4 characters- Mark- Heather's father, Karen- Heather's mother, Heather, and Bobby- Heather's stalker. The bulk of the book is about Mark and Karen's relationship as Heather grows up to be a teen. As time moves forward, Mark and Karen's relationship begins to get tense as Heather gets older.

The other portion of the first half of the book is Bobby's upbringing and his imprisonment. He has a rough life and becomes more and more psychotic as he grows older. He is arrested for rape and attempted murder after becoming obsessed with a woman.

The back quarter is what happens when these 4 characters come together. Bobby is working construction outside of Mark and Karen's apartment and begins to notice Heather.

It is difficult not to spoil this book because the first thing that will be noticed is how short it is. In print, it is 145 pages. My ebook version had it shy of 100. It reads more like a novella than a full novel. It is very short, especially for a storyteller like Weiner.

While the premise is about the stalking, the bulk of the book is about the prequel of what is to come. I think the reader would be surprised how little the book is about Heather and Bobby.

What I did love about the book was the ending. I will not talk about it, but what would be interesting to pay attention to is how Mark reacts. He does not know Bobby's thoughts, so pay attention to how things play out.

I gave this one 3 stars. I really was hoping for more, but I think the mindset with the #metoo movement and the shortness of the book worked against it.

*I want to thank NetGalley for the advanced readers copy. I received it free in exchange for an honest review.*… (més)

There is much packed into this short novel. Without many quotations, the reader is spared most dialogue. It reads much more like a friend telling you a story, leaving only those details that move the plot forward.

It begins with Mark and Karen, a Manhattan couple who are wealthy by most standards but not so much that they don’t still feel competitive with those around them. We find out just enough of their personalities to get a sense of them. Eventually, they have a daughter, Heather, who becomes the center of their lives, especially Karen. As Heather grows into a teenager, she is described as beautiful and very empathetic.

The story cuts to another family focused on a young man named Bobby. He is raised by a drug-addicted mother. As he grows older, he becomes more prone to violence, narcissism, and sociopathy, eventually landing in prison. Upon his release, he finds work with a construction company.

As the reader alternates between the worlds of Bobby and Heather, their upbringings and personalities are juxtaposed. Their two worlds come together when Bobby begins working on the building where Heather and her family live. Upon seeing Heather, Bobby becomes violently infatuated, seeking opportunities to spy on her.

The novel builds the suspense from the start with elements of foreboding, pulling the reader along to what feels like an inevitable ending. I loved the stripped-down, pithy nature of Weiner’s writing.… (més)