Susan Isaacs (Compromising Positions) has created a perfect setup in Goldberg Variations. Gloria Goldberg Goldberg Garrison (born Goldberg, married to Joe Goldberg, changed her name to Garrison) is looking for someone to take over Glory, Inc., her beauty makeover business. At 79, Gloria is friendless, cranky, imperious, hyper-critical and unrepentant.
She summons her three 20-something grandchildren, whom she barely knows, so she can vet them even more closely than the private eye she hired. They arrive in Santa Fe, lured from New York by curiosity and business-class airline tickets. Siblings Daisy and Matthew are children of Glory's son Bradley; Raquel is the only child of Trevor, the favored son, who died when Raquel was four.
On the evening of their arrival, Glory tells the cousins about the company she started from nothing and built into an $11-million-a-year success story. They listen attentively when she invites them to take over the business. Then, surprisingly, they turn her down; they are all reasonably satisfied with their chosen work. Glory is not amused; she decides that she will send them all home the next morning.
Of course, there would be no story if that happened. In typical Isaacs style, the story expands and characters reveal themselves. Chapters are narrated alternately by Gloria, Matthew, Daisy and Raquel, interspersed with conversations between and among all of them.
Gloria's narcissism knows no bounds. She has gotten away with it for so long because there has been no one to challenge her. But after spending time together, Isaacs's characters begin to question long-held assumptions. --Valerie Ryan, Cannon Beach Book Company, Ore.