Customer Reviews

The Hole We're In

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The decisions we make to pursue or maintain an image affect our entire lives, and the lives of our children. Sure, it's a quick way to describe Zevin's new book but the devil sure is in the details... in the late 90s, Pomeroy family scion Roger leaves a comfortable school admin position to go back to college, where he swiftly loses his appetite for learning and begins an affair with his major professor. Wife Georgia is stricken by oldest daughter Helen's demands for a lavish wedding, mounting credit card debt, and the temptation to open yet another account using her oldest son's good record. Meanwhile, Patsy is the youngest kid who has been uprooted by the move to support Roger's schooling, and she finds a bit of romance only to be routed out by her ultra-religious family and shipped off to her grandmother's house to finish out high school.

The story really takes off in act two, when Patsy is basically disowned by Roger and told to find her own way to pay for college (as if the family had extra money floating around!). Patsy's solution is to enlist in the armed forces and finds herself in the desert, having married a high school classmate and now dealing with the demands of a family of her own. The effects of Roger & Georgia's decisions and debt fall crushingly on Patsy, who struggles to climb out of the titular hole that the family has occupied for so long.

While this novel has a lot to say about conservative/Evangelical Christianity, I'd say it's more about larger issues of class and culture in America. These things are intertwined, of course, and have a huge impact on the way we spend money and resources. I think it's a very relevant narrative that will appeal to a wide group of adult (and potentially older teen) audiences, and will spur avid discussion about causes and effects of things like the current recession, consumer debt, the intersection of personal desires and public politics, and the things we are passing on to subsequent generations.

After I finished The Hole We're In early one morning before leaving for the day, I left it for my husband with the note "I really liked this and I think you will too." When I got home at 5:30 that afternoon he was almost done with it. This is a serious and literary novel that is also a page-turner. The blurb on the cover describes it as "The Corrections for our recessionary times" to which I would add "but not as bloated and pretentious, and with characters you will care about and not want to strangle." The women in the Pomeroy family are so well done and I was really rooting for Patsy through all the stages of her story. Ms. Zevin shows how patterns repeat in families despite our efforts to be nothing like our parents. I hope we'll see more from her.

THWI is a quick read. It moves quickly, covers a lot of ground in the lifespan of a family and its members. The writing is spare, but punchy--not overly verbose, but you aren't left hanging. The story is a tragic comedy and revolves around a family that self-destructs collectively and individually. So many interesting themes here - how well-meaning parents go wrong, the impact of parents on their children, how each of us is no better than any of us, how we judge others more harshly than ourselves...I could list about 20 more.

This is terrific storytelling and worth the read. It's both contemporary and classic and each character feels very true. Highly recommended--give it a try.

I bought this novel on a whim and did not have much in the way of expectations. Initially, I expected somewhat of a light read about a family drowning in debt in 21st century America. Very quickly, I realized this book had a lot more depth and substance to it. Despite its title, "The Hole We're In" tackles the topics of increasing easy credit fueled household debt, the Iraq war, marriage infidelity and evangelicism and the polarization of religious and secular society in America.

Given the surface area of topics covered, the results could have been fairly trite and conventional. However, Zevin shows quite a bit of polish in devloping characters, warts and all, that have substance and believability. One quibble I have with the book is that Zevin could have spent more time on Vinnie and Helen, two of the three Pomeroy children. Zevin carefully pivots the story primarily to Patsy, the youngest of the three children for most of the last half of the book. While this choice doesn't disappoint, I don't believe the extra pages would have compromised the flow and focus of the novel.

All in all, Zevin's "The Hole We're In" is a strong novel that paints a vivid and realistic picture of an American family in the late 1990's and first decade of the 21st century.

Debt and fundamentalist Christianity achieve a surprising concord in this novel, and it's easy to see how the two attitudes--"God will provide" and "I'll worry about it later"--coincide, and why the credit crisis has hit god-fearin' America so hard. But more than that, Zevin creates a great blend of likable and thoroughly unlikable characters here, even mixing these qualities from time to time in the same person, i.e. the mother of the Pomeroy family, Georgia, whose actions are both wicked and sympathetic at once. The only truly unadulterated evil is the father, Roger, with whom Zevin nonetheless avoids caricature. This is a difficult balance to strike, and she's to be commended for it.

I really have only one criticism, and while it's picky, it was distracting. [SLIGHT SPOILER]

Students' credit isn't checked to get federal Stafford Direct loans, for the simple reason that most 18-year-olds applying to college either don't have a credit history or have such a short one that it isn't predictive. Parents, if they applied for the PLUS-loan version to pick up part of the bill, would need good credit, but even if they didn't have it, the student can then qualify for a larger Direct loan in her own name. So the bit about Patsy going into the Army Reserves to get her tuition paid after her mother ruins her credit doesn't make a lot of sense. By the end, Zevin has resolved it somewhat in the revelation that one of Patsy's proudest achievements is not owing anything to anyone (unlike her perpetually indebted parents), but it's still one of those things that confounds the verisimilitude of the novel, however briefly.

I loved the final line of the novel, which was the perfect summary of everything that came before it. Even if the book hadn't been mesmerizing, which it was, it's almost worth reading in and of itself just to get there.

Gabrielle Zevin is one of my favorite authors. Only Margaretsville isn't any good. When I saw that my daughter Meghan was reading The Hole We're In I picked it up. This book doesn't disappoint, though it is gut-wrenchingly bleak almost throughout. Unlike her novels for young adults, good characters do get hurt in awful, life changing ways. But all the life changes are so true to life.

There is the oldest daughter, oblivious. Her desire for a rich, wedding for show straps her parents so much that it triggers three life changing events. And the rest of the novel is how to dig out of the holes that are created from those triggers. I can't say much that wouldn't give away parts of the novels.

It is interesting that Zevin writes up to certain key points and just drops the narrative, jumping ahead a goodly number of years. She doesn't try to write her characters out of their dilemmas. Instead, life's passing of time creates the resolution. Even in this, she is accurate.

The Hole We're In is not a great novel. But it is a very good one. It is not a story with a great racing plot. But the characters are intriguing, multi-dimensional. How hope survives I don't know. And yet it does. Read it, but be ready for darkness. 3.5 stars.

The prepublication reviews I read indicated that this was a novel about a family struggling with debt- but it is about so much more. Yes, one theme is money, but so are religion, politics, war, education, social position... really anything that affects a contemporary American family. It is a wide ranging book , but one that is held together by the completely believable , deeply flawed, but mostly sympathetic characters. This book packs a lot of people, plot ,and theme into one short and readable book that gives you a lot to think about, and at the same time is very entertaining. Not a dull page in the book.

I must respectfully disagree with the synopsis of this book I read on GoodReads.com, which is why I read it, as it must have obviously been written by the publisher. The only point I would agree with is the "flawed and at times infuriating characters", although I would say ALWAYS infuriating. There is nothing at all to like about the parents in this family nor do I consider them "relatable". What I would say is that if you are looking for the "poster" parents for some of the world's worst parents, here is your couple. The husband is a narcissistic idiot and the wife is shameful in how blind she is to his idiocy and how she treats her children is - stealing their credit identity to steal from them and leave them with lifelong credit problems. They are total nut jobs. But the biggest problem I had with the book was that about 1/3 of the way through the book they had such a convenient bail out to their problems that was totally unrealistic and then the whole book shifted to the adult life of their third child whom the mother threw under the bus multiple times. The two other children only received fractional time. It was like two books in one cover. I disliked the parents so much that I almost stopped reading 40 pages into the book, and then it became like a train wreck where you just can not simply look away. So how do you rate a book that was one of the biggest loads of crap you've ever read? That is tough. There was nothing wrong with the writing skills, I just hated the story line. Because it pulled out such shocking emotion from me, maybe that is a reason to say it was ok. I don't know. I'm hard pressed to recommend this to anyone unless you want a teacher's manual on how NOT to parent children. I finished it so for that I will say "it was ok".

What would modern literature by without dysfunctional families? Gabrielle Zevin introduces us to the Pomeroys, and they rock the Richter scale when it comes to being absolutely, totally screwed up.

Think of the Lamberts in Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections and then add a whole mound of debt and a lot of religious hypocrisy. That's the unflinching depiction of a family that has truly gone off the skids.

First, there's good old dad, Roger - a fundamental Christian hypocrite who breaks half the Commandments after "praying on it." Roger - a self-absorbed, racist, Christian fundamentalist hypocrite - goes back to school and leaves his wife George striving to pay all the bills while planning her similarly self-absorbed eldest daughter Helen's wedding. George falls victims to her own complicated lies, stealing her son's identity to tackle her maxed out credit cards, and leaving her youngest daughter to take the rap for one of her decisions with far-reaching consequences.

The entire middle section of this gripping book focuses on Patsy, the younger daughter, who journeys from oppressive Bible schools and camps to a loveless marriage and a stint in the military in Iraq. Ms. Zevin writes, "You spend your whole life trying to get out of holes. The hole you're born into because of who your parents are. The hole you dig yourself trying to get out of the first hole..." She is totally unflinching in her examination of how impossible it is to understand how a person gets from point a to point b.

There's not much to admire about these individuals and that's precisely the point. They could be you or me or any number of people we've come across in our lives. They're people who bury their family secrets, get into massive debt, pass themselves off as "good Christians" when they're anything BUT, lie about their intentions, and seek redemption without really confronting the price to get there. The real force of the novel emanates from these complex and flawed characters that are far from caricatures but who embody the America we've become today.

The most relevant topics of the day form a backdrop for this novel: our distorted and self-serving view of religion and how we use religion to justify hatred, our worshipping of credit as a flawed solution, the fallout of serving in Iraq. This sassy and forthright novel just misses being top tier (there are some threads dropped along the way) but it's well worth the read!

George (Georgia) Pomeroy's husband Roger decides he will return to school for his graduate degree, since their son Vincent has graduated from college and daughter Helen is getting married, leaving only 10-year-old Patsy at home. This decision means he is leaving his decent-paying job as an assistant principal at a Seventh Day Adventist school, which essentially places the burden of supporting the family on George. The family's money is tight, with their financial picture worsening as they struggle to pay for living expenses, Helen's wedding and medical costs. As time goes on, George maxes out her own credit cards. Then she applies for, receives and uses credit cards made out in Vincent's name.

The parents' economic problems are reflected in their children's lives. Vincent is also struggling financially. As a film school graduate student, he needs at least $5,000 to produce his low-budget student film. However, when he applies for a student loan, he is denied because of a delinquent credit card --- one he denies having. When Vincent discovers who is stealing his identity, he tries to contact his mother, but she evades him.

Meanwhile, Helen has suffered snowballing debt since the day she registered for college, when she received her first credit card. Today, she owes $19,000 despite her career as a speech therapist. In less than two hours, she manages to spend $1,500 on Christmas gifts. The whole point of these presents is that they look expensive; she doesn't care if the recipients like them or not. She regards her patients, who simply make her feel impatient, with the same lack of emotion. When Helen looks at Elliott, her fiancé, she feels "nothing...like a liar...broken."

Roger, oblivious to his family's financial struggles, is dazzled by Carolyn Murray, his striking college adviser. Carolyn sets up a meeting with Roger to discuss his dissertation proposal, which seems to intrigue her. In fact, she is so fascinated by the subject that she asks him to co-author a book about it with her. His mind races as he fantasizes about what being a bestselling author could mean to his life. Unfortunately, the immediate consequence is that he must give up his TA positions in order to coordinate the book project with Carolyn, which means he is only earning $5,000 instead of the $15,000 he would have made. And, while he is quick to admit that Carolyn's type of handsomeness has never truly attracted him, their relationship is soon more complicated than he ever could have predicted.

George is stressed and desperate. She struggles to pay for Helen's expensive wedding, including a disastrous paint job on their home, where the ceremony is to be held. She must refuse a promotion from her temp job because the permanent position would mean less pay. When her friend asks what her life's dream might be, all she can conjure is the fantasy of not owing money to anyone. As their situation worsens, George takes action that changes young Patsy's future.

Gabrielle Zevin's THE HOLE WE'RE IN is a gut-clenching illustration of a family spiraling down into a morass of debt. Told from the point of view of the different family members, their stories reveal an emptiness due to a kind of chilling emotional disconnect. Yet, whether readers are grateful not to be part of the Pomeroy family or identify uncomfortably with their predicament, we cannot help but empathize with them --- which makes for quite the gripping read.