Publishers Weekly
01/21/2019
Roosevelt’s solid debut dissects a privileged family wrestling with the ghost of an imperious patriarch and dwindling fortune. Opening in 2003, the saga revolves primarily around three children of Roger Whitby Jr. Adopted son Nick inherits the patriarch’s lucrative properties thanks to his manipulative mother and Whitby’s fourth wife, but prefers the life of a left-wing rebel; Brooke, a daughter from Whitby’s second marriage and a nurse in Boston, wrestles with her devotion to the woman she loves and the man she thinks she ought to marry and raise a child with; and free-spirited Shelley, daughter from a third marriage, moves to New York and develops a twisted relationship with a blind Egyptian architect, Kamal, after he hires her to help him write a book about urban American WASPs in the early 20th century. Nick moves in with Shelley, setting up a moment between the three siblings that’ll begin to undo the havoc Roger Whitby Jr.’s will—and abandonment—created in his children’s lives. Roger’s three children are not fully formed enough outside of his shadow, and consequently the narrative feels unbalanced on a character level. Roosevelt does a good job handling the twists and turns of an unraveling dynasty, making for a diverting yet frustrating novel. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Baby of the Family
“Roosevelt's debut reveals a sure hand, an eye for detail, and a keen sense of the absurd, and her affection for Brooke, Shelley, and Nick shines through as they fumble their way toward wisdom.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Baby of the Family is a masterpiece, and gripping, and Maura Roosevelt is the realest of deals. You'll love how big it is, and how thrilling.”—Darin Strauss, NBCC-winning author of Half a Life
“I can't believe Maura Roosevelt's big-hearted, deliciously readable novel Baby of the Family is a debut. This is a wise and soaring book about family secrets and the price of privilege, by a writer with profound insight, immense talent, and a brilliant future.”—Julie Buntin, author of Marlena
“A poetic and clever saga about a modern day American dynasty, full of intrigue and drama without ever losing its heart. This book is for anyone who loves to read about complicated families—or has one of their own.”—Kathy Wang, author of Family Trust
“Baby of the Family is one of the most absorbing and stirring novels I’ve read in years. In this nuanced and deeply moving story, Maura Roosevelt uses her considerable gifts as a writer to explore the complexities of privilege, family, and the American Dream. It’s a beautiful book full of surprises, insight, and real heart.”—Bret Anthony Johnston
Kirkus Reviews
2018-12-11
The great-granddaughter of Eleanor and Franklin writes about members of a fictional elite family struggling to shape their individual identities.
When Roger Whitby Jr. dies, his many children from his first three marriages (family tree provided) discover that he has bequeathed the little left of the Whitby fortune to his fourth wife's son, Nick, whom he adopted. Although the plot is ostensibly about inheritance, the older, barely fleshed-out nonheirs are remarkably nonchalant about getting nothing; only Shelley, from marriage No. 3, and Brooke, from No. 2, fear losing the family houses where they were raised and still live, though it seems unlikely that Nick, unreachable after having participated in an environmental protest gone awry, will be greedy. The true subject here, developed through memories of childhoods and marriages, is the ambivalent love Nick, Shelley, and Brooke feel for Roger, who abandoned each differently. By the time the 21-year-old Nick eventually shows up at 22-year-old Shelley's Upper West Side brownstone, she is in a creepy sexual liaison with her new employer, Kamal, a blind Egyptian architect. Nick begins a romance with Kamal's naïve, intellectual daughter, whom he involves in his Occupy Wall Street-type activity. Meanwhile, in Boston, 37-year-old nurse Brooke wants to keep her Beacon Hill house for the baby she's conceived sleeping with a nouveau riche Italian-American to avoid acknowledging she might be gay. Brooke's disdain for her sex-mate reflects Whitby snobbery and perhaps the author's—Nick's pointedly middle-class mother is also portrayed as crassly mercenary compared to Roger's previous aristocratic wives, while Nick's lefty friends are beyond the pale. Given the Whitby kids' claims to shun their privileged advantages, the frequent references to fancy schools and Martha's Vineyard vacations wear thin. The Whitbys increasingly come across as spoiled, self-absorbed, and ultimately trivial poor rich kids.
Roosevelt knows her terrain, but it remains unclear if she meant this family portrait to be as unflattering as it is.
