I don’t know if it’s a cliché or just a turn of words, but that old adage about not knowing what is going on behind closed doors … whatever you want to call it, it’s a phrase that pretty much sums up Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s latest, “Lake Effect.”
That her most recent novel is full-frontal family dysfunction should not be surprising — both “The Nest” and “Good Company” are satisfying familial dramas. Rather, the suspense with “Lake Effect” resides with whether or not the main characters can embrace the absurdity of their family circumstances and still be able to go with the flow.
It’s the late ’70s and married couples Finn and Honey and Nina and Sam live across the street from one another in suburban Rochester, N.Y. Finn and Honey are parents to Dune and Fern, while Nina and Sam share two daughters together, Clara and Bridie. Neighborhood dinner parties, kids are childhood friends, summer gatherings at the lake house, all the normal stuff, right?
Except that there are affairs, sexual identity crises, eating disorders, addictions, crushes with broken hearts, career changes, divorces and elopements in a single weekend, betrayals and decades-long grudges. Oh, and a salmonella outbreak.
D’Aprix Sweeney chooses an interesting time period, the aforementioned late ’70s, that in some respects serves as a supporting cast member — with the women’s liberation movement playing a signifcant role, not just for the mothers in Nina and Honey but also in their girls’ transition from adolescence to adulthood. Fern, Clara and Bridie have a front-row seat to bear witness as women everywhere either realized they did not have to just take care of their families and leaned into the freedom, or … did not.
Fiction entertains, first and foremost, for me — I have enough drama in my lfe. But it can also inform, and the best can certainly make you really feel it. I don’t know that I noticed while reading the book (and it’s a fast read), but having sat with it for a minute now, I can say that D’Aprix Sweeney does a fantastic job at coloring her characters with a distinct emotional depth, such that readers will be moved to root for them all. Even Honey.
It’s a great book club pick — lots to dissect and discuss, and perfect for a lazy weekend on the couch, which is what I finally had. Couldn’t have picked better company.
