Devotion

DEBUT “Obsession” would be a more accurate title for this first novel about a young unemployed woman who takes a job as a nanny and then becomes excessively attached to her new employer, Lonnie. Ella, who is from a small town in Oregon, is the same age as Lonnie (26) but has had none of Lonnie’s advantages, much less a husband and son. If Ella is seeking her fortune in Manhattan, she is failing miserably; she’s so broke, she can hardly afford to buy enough to eat. Lonnie grew up wealthy, but this hasn’t brought her happiness. Both young women grew up as motherless children, and both seem stuck in a kind of permanently alienated adolescence. Both do genuinely care for Lonnie’s toddler son, William, but they are sidetracked by the usual toxic mix of drinking, drugs, and compulsive sex, with not only Lonnie’s husband, James, but also his friend Carlow.