Customer Reviews

The Wentworths

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Readers of best-selling fiction will delight in the deliciously vicarious insights into the lives of the very rich and very badly behaved. Readers of artistic literary fiction will enjoy the subtleties that lie below the dark comic surface--not the least of which is an innovation in character perspective and multiple narration that will establish Arnoldi as a major stylist. Having achieved a reputation for black humor and weird sex, Arnoldi has come along way since the success of Chemical Pink. The Wentworths demonstrates a mature novelist making a significant new contribution to the rich tradition of the Comedy of Manners and the American Family novel. Expect this to be short-listed for many awards.

It's been way too long since Katie Arnoldi gave us "Chemical Pink," but I have to say it was worth the wait. With "The Wentworths," Arnoldi widens her lens to take in much more of contemporary LA than in her first novel (and just for a little extra fun, drags along the odious Charles Worthington - apparently recovered from his inglorious fate at the end of "Chemical Pink" - and gives him a cameo). We get to peek into lots of (totally) dark and (wildly) hilarious corners of SoCal, thanks to the wanderings of the vast and depraved Wentworth family. (What do they have? Everything!! What do they want? More!!) If you've lived here long enough - and I'm just a tad ashamed to admit that I have - you're bound to know people who remind you of each member of the cast. But I doubt that you've imagined them as fully or as sharply as Arnoldi has, or could tell their stories with as much wicked delight. I've just finished "The Wentworths" - in one extended sitting - and would like to write a much longer and more laudatory review, but instead I must one-click a copy of "America's 50 Greatest Small Towns," then phone the movers. Bravo, Katie.

Are you familiar with that cable television show "The Real Housewives of Orange County"? The one that encourages viewers to vicariously celebrate its subjects' fabulously luxurious lifestyles even as they secretly revel in the rich suburbanites' secret problems, crises and failures? Well, Katie Arnoldi's new book is kind of like that. Except without the celebrating part. In THE WENTWORTHS, her second novel following her surprise bestseller CHEMICAL PINK, Arnoldi gleefully skewers the self-absorbed, self-deluded members of one of Los Angeles's foremost families.

Nary a member of the extended Wentworth clan escapes Arnoldi's wickedly funny poison pen. There's big game hunter, compulsive womanizer and closet alcoholic Augustus, the patriarch of the family, and his wife Judith, a woman who will defend her family to the death --- at least to outsiders. One on one, though, Judith is a force to reckon with, as she cleverly and maliciously exploits each of her children's weaknesses to get what she wants (in this case, a set of valuable sugar tongs, whose disappearance precipitates one of the novel's central crises).

Judith's grown children have not fared well under the combination of a dictatorial mother, a distant father and way too much money. Conrad, the eldest, is a lawyer successful at representing some of the most despicable and notorious clients in Los Angeles. He's clearly hung up on his mother, as his string of short-term girlfriends bear a suspicious resemblance to a young Judith. In between girlfriends, Conrad keeps himself busy with a variety of questionable sexual exploits, including some with very young girls.

Becky, the middle child, idolizes her mother, starving herself to maintain the kind of perfect body her mother has always possessed. Distant from her well-meaning but bumbling husband Paul and ultra-critical of her own two troubled children, Becky finds herself turning more and more to sleeping pills to solve her problems.

And then there's Norman, the oddball of the family. The youngest son, whose homosexuality and cross-dressing both mystify and embarrass the family, Norman lives a lonely life in his parents' guest house, longing only to escape from under the oppressive thumb of the Wentworth family name. The philosopher of the family, Norman is the only one who thinks he sees his family for the monstrous people they are: "Norman was a robin's egg, all fragile and baby blue... And there he sat in a room full of egg sucking predators.... Yes, they would like to break his beautiful delicate shell. They would drop him out of his nest and watch him smash on the ground far below then walk away without a second glance."

If only the Wentworths could keep to themselves, they might be able to continue their shared delusion of their own superiority. But when they get inextricably caught up with a couple of outsiders, this powerful clan might just be brought to its knees once and for all.

Arnoldi has a lot of fun deriding her characters' foibles, both the harmless ones and the truly disturbing tendencies. Readers, too, will laugh almost in spite of themselves at the author's wickedly funny descriptions of the Wentworths' opinions of themselves and others. Broken up into many short chapters, alternating among various characters' viewpoints (some told in first person, others in third person), Arnoldi constructs a remarkably detailed family portrait of sorts in this slim but deadly clever novel.

Granted, this family portrait is certainly not one we'd ever like to see hanging in our living room --- or even in the living room of any of our friends --- but Arnoldi's tragicomic sendup of the Wentworths' decline and fall (and rise again?) is riveting nonetheless. THE WENTWORTHS is the kind of novel that will remind readers of F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous observation that the rich "are different than you and I" and have them thanking their lucky stars that that's so.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

The Wentworth's is a great book for lying on the beach and passing the time. It has short chapters, so you can just take a few moments and enjoy a quick passage and not get interrupted in the middle. It is a little too short and ends abruptly. I was left wanting to hear the next chapter in the Wentworth's lives.

A well written story weaving the voices (and craziness) of many different characters.Fun and weird at the same time. Easy to get into and easy to identify with at least one of the Wentworths. Enjoy!

Just pick it up--you won't be able to put it down. Compelling, hilarious, and heartbreaking.

If a really good looking person were torn apart by gorgeous Siberian wolves, then the result would be a good analogy for this book. It is crafted so beautifully, but what happens to the characters is truly harrowing. I don't even want to think about the "Kittens" game, and poor Honey is heartbreaking.

But, oh, the writing - each chapter is told in a different way, so each stands out as a vivid little jigsaw puzzle piece that merges into a gorgeous whole. Plus, it takes a lot of guts to write like that. It's easy to describe deathless passion and soulmates. Family members tearing each other's livers out every day, not so much.

Truly, Arnoldi is a glorious talent.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good this book was. I bought it looking for a "beach read," and ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would. I think Arnoldi has a nice writing style that flows well and makes the book an easy read. I am looking forward to reading her other books (which I've already ordered).

The Wentworths by Katie Arnoldi is amazing. Arnoldi has a great way of telling the reader the story without using "fluff" or unnecessary details. This held my attention to the wild story because it did not get side-tracked. This book incorporates humor, sex, drama, violence, suspense, well you get the point. I am not sure what this book doesn't incorporate which makes it one of my all time favorite novels. You will not be disappointed with this one. The Wentworths is like a literary drug for your mind, your mind will thank you for the journey.

I have just finished the book and I want to pick it up and start all over again. Great plot, great characters and so funny. I look forward to reading Chemical Pink next.