Review by Booklist Review
Bud and Catherine Flynn have almost checked out of their marriage. A domestic "arrangement" has Catherine making eyes with a neighbor, while Bud finds a fresh start in a surprising place. Perhaps because of their mutual indifference, the couple parent their daughters Abigail, Louise, and Harper with benign apathy. Almost 18, the eldest, Abigail, prettiest of the sisters, is dating "War Crimes Wes," a security guard who works for local billionaire Paul Alabaster. Louise, meanwhile, is sinking deeper into a sketchy online relationship, and precious Harper is convinced the town is under surveillance, maybe even by the Alabaster enterprise. Bud, who works as an accountant for one of Alabaster's businesses, gets roped into sleuthing around. The Flynns' flavor of family dysfunction is as all-American warm and fuzzy as it is quirky. Cash has a hit debut on her hands based on the guffaw-inducing, deadpan humor alone. A bar name: Olive or Twist. A Chinese strip club: The Catwok. Bud's boss calls him "a truffle pig for trouble." In addition to the generous portions of humor, Cash weaves in a fun romp in which the family members get to exercise their strengths. An entertaining and breezy read reminiscent of the best of Kevin Wilson.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Loaded with snarky one-liners and absurdist set pieces, Cash's glittering debut novel (after the collection Earth Angel) follows the middle-class Flynn family as they try and fail to find a sense of purpose. Their trouble starts when mom Catherine, an aspiring artist, proposes an "arrangement" that will allow her to pursue a romantic relationship with next-door neighbor Jim. Her husband, Bud, turns to the Lost Lambs support group at the local church, and shacks up with the moderator. Meanwhile, eldest daughter Abigail, 17, is dating a 20-something veteran known as War Crimes Wes because of rumors he "did some crazy shit in the war." Her 15-year-old sister Louise tells her priest she's been "experimenting with Islamic fundamentalism" and chats online with her Canadian "lover" known only as yours truly, who encourages her to take up bomb-making. Twelve-year-old Harper, the youngest, organizes a sit-in to raise awareness of what she believes is an evil surveillance program operated by tech billionaire Paul Alabaster. Cash has a finely tuned ear for the silliness of modern language (volunteer events have names like Apple Bobbing for Autism and Knitting for Narcolepsy), and she serves up wild slapstick and a twist of nasty horror before sending things out on a sweet and surprisingly sentimental note. The novel is anchored in its affection for the hapless but well-meaning Flynns, whose banter is endlessly irresistible ("Am I really the woman of your dreams?" Catherine asks. "Who cares!" Bud replies, "You're the woman of my reality"). It's unforgettable. (Jan.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT In her offbeat debut novel (following the short story collection Earth Angels), Cash puts the "fun" in "dysfunctional," depicting the travails of the Flynn family--Bud, his wife, Catherine, and their three teenaged daughters, Abigail, Louise, and Harper--as they come apart, each going to increasingly absurd lengths to find belonging in a different flock. Bud, an account manager for the local shipping port, has lost his mojo, sending Catherine into the arms of her divorced neighbor, which leads Bud to seek advice from his church's counselor. Meanwhile, Abigail is dating a combat veteran nicknamed War Crimes Wes, Louise has begun an online romance with someone who is sending illicit chemicals to the Flynns' house, and Harper, precocious beyond her 13 years, has stumbled onto a potentially significant conspiracy involving her father's billionaire employer. This scheme will eventually ensnare all three Flynn girls. Come for the family drama, stay for Cash's playfully dexterous prose, which hopscotches between points of view with gleeful acuity and a creeping tenderness, leading to the suitably unexpected final tableau that this singular family deserves. VERDICT A keen, whimsical novel that reads like the quirky younger sibling of Paul Murray's The Bee Sting and signals the arrival of a notable talent.--Michael Pucci
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The problems of a very modern family in a slightly surreal world. Meet the Flynns. With their marriage on the rocks, Catherine and Bud don't have much time or energy to supervise their three daughters: beautiful, uncooperative Abigail, in love with a young man known as War Crimes Wes; brilliant, deranged Harper, who speaks seven languages but is suspended from school more often than not; between them, Louise, a classic middle child, to whom nobody is paying attention as she gets herself in serious trouble in an online chat room. Cash's debut novel has fun with everything it touches, rocketing through the points of view of the family members and other townspeople, delighting in wordplay and absurd details. Introduced early on is a gnat problem--gnats have infested the church of Our Lady of Suffering as well as a sculpture on the town green, and they have also infested every word in the text that has the syllable "nat"--extermignate, gnatural, dognate, siggnature, and so forth. Though the town itself is never named, its principal feature, Alabaster Harbor™, is always trademarked: "Bud was the accounts and systems manager at Alabaster Harbor™--not some backwater artery of commerce but the primary port for the entire western coastline, the premier gateway for domesticand intergnational trade." Corruption at the harbor is one of many storylines; another follows Bud's attempt to find solace for his wife's disdain by joining a support group called Lost Lambs, based at Our Lady of Suffering and run by the cheerful Miss Winkle. Also based at the church is Father Andrew, whose background is not in theology but in French cinema: "Father Andrew loved the world of French film, where a girl's sexuality gave her agency, where there were fewer restrictions and more topless chain-smoking on the beach." Between the crowd of quirky characters and drastic situations, the high-flying sentences and prose style, and Cash's relentless joke-cracking, the novel is, like Harper, almost too clever for its own good--but the Flynns stay just real enough to win our hearts. With comic energy and wild plot twists to spare, a thoroughly charming debut. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
