Books on Saturday

A sense of enthusiasm can help to paper over flaws. J. Courtney Sullivan's "The Cliffs" seems disorganized, then it seems too schematic, then it seems to be a "dump site" for big, bulky sacks of exposition. But JCS likes her characters, so I stay invested in the story.

One, Jane, is at war with her mother. Jane--a bookish kid--wins admission to a selective summer program at Bates. When she tells Mom, Mom is oddly dismissive: "It's just a way they're trying to drain money from us." That's a lie, and Jane does enroll in the program. Halfway through, she overhears a teacher explaining that this is a kind of charitable gesture, aimed at "underserved teens"--and Jane then understands that her mother's reaction was about pride. Jane has scorn for Mom, and for Mom's alcoholism--but later, as an orphan, Jane begins to question the narrative in her head. What had she missed, when her mother was alive?

Nearby, an unhappy housewife purchases a sprawling mansion, but she secretly has human gravesites removed from the lawn, because she wants to build an infinity pool. This woman, Genevieve, is pushy and entitled, but she is also weirdly sympathetic. She's trapped in a bad marriage; the infinity pool might be a step toward "pasting a family back together."

Jane and Genevieve form a strange alliance; at times, it seems to work, and then it doesn't.

I don't think "The Cliffs" is JCS's most successful novel, but I still admire her talent; it's a gift if you can get a plausible example of an awkward, layered life "onto the page." I'll keep reading.

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