Let’s Not Do That Again

Nancy Harriman’s Senate bid hangs precariously in the balance after her grown daughter, Greta, joins a protest movement in France, and is caught on video throwing a champagne bottle through the window of a bistro. Nancy turns to her son Nick, to manage the damage control. Nick is tired of being at his mother’s beck and call. He would rather focus on writing his musical about Joan Didion. Still, he winds up traveling to France to retrieve Greta. As Greta’s dubious associations become increasingly worrisome, she has a personal epiphany, while Nancy will resort to any means necessary to salvage her political ambitions. Ginder’s (Honestly, We Meant Well) latest effort gets off to a solid start. The writing is sharp, the humor is fresh, and the plot is certainly intriguing. Unfortunately, the characters, though intentionally flawed, are too predictable, banal even. To add insult to injury, the momentum fizzles out in the last quarter of the novel. The story deconstructs spectacularly, ultimately landing with a thud.