Tom Violet has hit a bad patch. He's finished a novel that he has worked on secretly for years, but he's afraid to show it to anyone. He loathes his job as a corporate copywriter--the only bright spot there is his colleague Katie, a 23-year-old hottie. That has its downside, too, because Tom is married and the father of a five-year-old daughter. His wife, Anna, smart, fit and trim, is being flirted with by one of her gymmates, a married banker. To top it off, Tom and Anna have a problem in the bedroom; yes, the one that has given rise, pun intended, to all those TV commercials.
As the story opens, Curtis Violet, Tom's father, has arrived in his Porsche, hungover, smelling like pot and announcing that he will "just spend the night." Turns out that he has split from his fourth wife. On the very day that he arrives, his agent calls to announce that he has just won the Pulitzer Prize. Yes, Curtis Violet is a very famous author, cut out of the same cloth as a Saul Bellow or a Philip Roth. He has very good luck with his books, and very bad luck with his personal life. Tom hero-worships him, not as a father, because he was a lousy one, but as an author, so he is glad to see him. Also, he owns the house that Tom and his family live in.
Matthew Norman's debut novel is a tour de farce of grand proportion. He takes on academia, the literary life, the world economy, corporate bull, adultery--and has his way with all of them. His witticisms aren't just one-liners; they are carefully thought out takes on the human condition.
How Tom resolves all his problems is a story sweetly told with a snapper at the end that is absolutely original. --Valerie Ryan