Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA (2020), 366 pages
Description
It is the Saturday after the 2016 presidential election, and in a plush weekend house in Connecticut, an intimate group of friends, New Yorkers all, has gathered to recover from what they consider the greatest political catastrophe of their lives. They have just sat down to tea when their hostess, Eva Lindquist, proposes a dare. Who among them would be willing to ask Siri how to assassinate Donald Trump? Liberal and like-minded-editors, writers, a decorator, a theater producer, and one financial guy, Eva's husband, Bruce-the friends have come to the countryside in the hope of restoring the bubble in which they have grown used to living. Yet with the exception of one brash and obnoxious book editor, none is willing to accept Eva's challenge. A comic portrait of the months immediately following the 2016 election, Shelter in Place is also a meditation on the unreliable appetites-for love, for power, for freedom-by which both our public and private lives are shaped.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member nancyadair
In 1986 I read David Leavitt's novel The Lost Language of Cranes and it blew me away. Although I have his novel The Indian Clerk on by TBR shelf, I haven't read more by him and it was time to correct that. Especially, it was time for this novel.
Reading in the age of Coronavirus is not easy. I pick
But, I had no problem with Shelter in Place--it's a comedy of manners under the Trump presidency that kept me entertained. These characters are rich and liberal and, well, flaky.
Eva won't even say the president's name, (think Voldemort) and yet she wouldn't stand in the long lines to vote. After Eva and her friend Min visit Venice, she decides to buy an apartment there, a place to escape to when America is no longer safe. Her obliging husband Bruce plays his role in their marriage: he earns--she spends. A successful wealth manager, he is rich enough to indulge his wife's whims.
And Eva does spend.
Eva is determined the Venice home would be redecorated by her favorite decorator Jake. But hearing he would have to go to Venice, he has been stalling. Likeable, secretive, Jake is the straight man in the novel--well, a gay straight man, a foil to the people who hire him.
When Eva's dogs start peeing on the sofa, she has the maid wrap it in aluminum foil! "Some things matter more than decor," Eva proclaims, and yet she has not considered what will happen to the dogs when she--or she and Bruce--goes to Venice.
Bruce's secretary is battling cancer, her husband abandoning her. He becomes overly involved with her life, his version of charity.
Bruce also has been consorting with the enemy---the Trump supporting neighbor Alec whose kids won't talk to him since the election. Alec can't even say Hillary's name. The election results came as a miracle to him. "One man's miracle is another's nightmare," Bruce says. Walking their dogs at night, they confide to each other.
Shelter in Place targets our idiosyncrasies when our world suddenly changes, on the national and personal level. Sometimes we grow, other times we dig in and hold on tighter.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Reading in the age of Coronavirus is not easy. I pick
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up my Kindle, read for a bit, then find myself on Twitter or checking my email or placing an order for delivered groceries. It isn't the books--they are great books. I just have trouble concentrating.But, I had no problem with Shelter in Place--it's a comedy of manners under the Trump presidency that kept me entertained. These characters are rich and liberal and, well, flaky.
Eva won't even say the president's name, (think Voldemort) and yet she wouldn't stand in the long lines to vote. After Eva and her friend Min visit Venice, she decides to buy an apartment there, a place to escape to when America is no longer safe. Her obliging husband Bruce plays his role in their marriage: he earns--she spends. A successful wealth manager, he is rich enough to indulge his wife's whims.
And Eva does spend.
Eva is determined the Venice home would be redecorated by her favorite decorator Jake. But hearing he would have to go to Venice, he has been stalling. Likeable, secretive, Jake is the straight man in the novel--well, a gay straight man, a foil to the people who hire him.
When Eva's dogs start peeing on the sofa, she has the maid wrap it in aluminum foil! "Some things matter more than decor," Eva proclaims, and yet she has not considered what will happen to the dogs when she--or she and Bruce--goes to Venice.
Bruce's secretary is battling cancer, her husband abandoning her. He becomes overly involved with her life, his version of charity.
Bruce also has been consorting with the enemy---the Trump supporting neighbor Alec whose kids won't talk to him since the election. Alec can't even say Hillary's name. The election results came as a miracle to him. "One man's miracle is another's nightmare," Bruce says. Walking their dogs at night, they confide to each other.
Shelter in Place targets our idiosyncrasies when our world suddenly changes, on the national and personal level. Sometimes we grow, other times we dig in and hold on tighter.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
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LibraryThing member froxgirl
Bad timing for this novel of the almost 1% in NYC in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election. Eva and Bruce have multiple dwellings, three Bedlington terriers instead of kids, and an impressive array of sycophantic hangers-on. Eva (who shuns her neighbor for voting for Trump but didn't vote
There is some truly evocative writing and a few truly hilarious set pieces here (especially the one at a Lydia Davis reading in Brooklyn) at the expense of these indolent, middle aged wastrels, and there are a few sympathetic minor characters, including a decorator who is reluctant to take on the renovation of Eva's Italian heap due to a tragic Death In Venice in his past. However, it's just tone-deaf to even be writing about these archetypes now and maybe ever.
"No sooner did the snow touch the ground than it would be cast back up, as if the city was a snow globe being shaken."
"With writing, there's this notion that anyone can do it, that if you can write a tweet, you can write a novel."
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herself because the line was too long) decides that she must have a rundown apartment in Venice as a refuge from the US. Her wealth manager husband Bruce, who is wise to her shtick, seems unable to extract himself from her nonsense until a surprising turn of events that enriches the conclusion. There is some truly evocative writing and a few truly hilarious set pieces here (especially the one at a Lydia Davis reading in Brooklyn) at the expense of these indolent, middle aged wastrels, and there are a few sympathetic minor characters, including a decorator who is reluctant to take on the renovation of Eva's Italian heap due to a tragic Death In Venice in his past. However, it's just tone-deaf to even be writing about these archetypes now and maybe ever.
"No sooner did the snow touch the ground than it would be cast back up, as if the city was a snow globe being shaken."
"With writing, there's this notion that anyone can do it, that if you can write a tweet, you can write a novel."
Show Less
Language
Physical description
366 p.; 8.52 inches
ISBN
1620404877 / 9781620404874