The Smart One

March 4, 2013
Near the end of Close’s follow-up to her bestselling Girls in White Dresses, Claire thinks, “It was almost like she was right back where she’d started, but it didn’t feel that way.” For the reader, though, that’s exactly how it feels. After ending her engagement, Claire sinks into depression, maxing out her credit cards and finally leaving New York for Philadelphia to move back in with her parents and sister, Martha, who’s still working retail after a failed nursing career. Despite the finality of the breakup, Claire’s mother continues to meet with caterers and florists to plan her daughter’s wedding. How this will all end is clear when we first meet Claire and Martha; Close telegraphs that the way forward is to reclaim lost ground. What’s surprising is that the sisters have so little fun along the way. Martha and Claire don’t seem to have a genuinely kind impulse between them, and when they do finally move on, boredom is a big motivator. There are great stories to be told about families in “boomerang,” but this isn’t one of them. Agent: Sam Hiyate, the Rights Factory.

May 27, 2013
All the messy, complicated issues of family relationships, trying to be a grownup, and trying to be a parent are on display in Close’s novel about three grown children who, after major life setbacks, end up back under their parents’ roof for one tumultuous year. Martha, a nurse, has a nervous breakdown due to the stress of her job. Claire is suffering after a broken engagement and is troubled by financial woes. College student Max accidentally gets his girlfriend pregnant. Meanwhile, Weezy, the mother, worries about them all, and Will, the father, assumes they’ll figure it out on their own. Rebecca Lowman skillfully narrates this audio edition and subtly portrays the book’s many characters—most amusingly Martha, a bossy know-it-all who tries to control everyone else’s life but can’t handle her own. A Knopf hardcover.