What do you think?
Rate this book
The Pessimists
From Center for Fiction First Novel Prize finalist Bethany Ball comes a biting and darkly funny new novel that follows a set of privileged, jaded Connecticut suburbanites whose cozy, seemingly picture-perfect, lives begin to unravel amid shocking turns of fate and revelations of long-held secrets.
Welcome to small-town Connecticut, a place whose inhabitants seem to have it all -- the status, the homes, the money, and the ennui. There's Tripp and Virginia, beloved hosts whom the community idolizes, whose basement hides among other things a secret stash of guns and a drastic plan to survive the end times. There's Gunter and Rachel, recent transplants who left New York City to raise their children, only to feel both imprisoned by the banality of suburbia. And Richard and Margot, community veterans whose extramarital affairs and battles with mental health are disguised by their enviably polished veneers and perfect children. At the center of it all is the Petra School, the most coveted of all the private schools in the state, a supposed utopia of mindfulness and creativity, with a history as murky and suspect as our character's inner worlds.
With deep wit and delicious incisiveness, in The Pessimists, Bethany Ball peels back the veneer of upper-class white suburbia to expose the destructive consequences of unchecked privilege and moral apathy in a world that is rapidly evolving without them. This is a superbly drawn portrait of a community, and its couples, torn apart by unmet desires, duplicity, hypocrisy, and dangerous levels of discontent.
Welcome to small-town Connecticut, a place whose inhabitants seem to have it all -- the status, the homes, the money, and the ennui. There's Tripp and Virginia, beloved hosts whom the community idolizes, whose basement hides among other things a secret stash of guns and a drastic plan to survive the end times. There's Gunter and Rachel, recent transplants who left New York City to raise their children, only to feel both imprisoned by the banality of suburbia. And Richard and Margot, community veterans whose extramarital affairs and battles with mental health are disguised by their enviably polished veneers and perfect children. At the center of it all is the Petra School, the most coveted of all the private schools in the state, a supposed utopia of mindfulness and creativity, with a history as murky and suspect as our character's inner worlds.
With deep wit and delicious incisiveness, in The Pessimists, Bethany Ball peels back the veneer of upper-class white suburbia to expose the destructive consequences of unchecked privilege and moral apathy in a world that is rapidly evolving without them. This is a superbly drawn portrait of a community, and its couples, torn apart by unmet desires, duplicity, hypocrisy, and dangerous levels of discontent.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published October 12, 2021
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 271 reviews
May 17, 2021
This brilliant seriocomedy — is undeniably deliciously hilarious and compelling!!!
I enjoy satirist - dark - smart - contemporary fiction….and
“The Pessimists” is pure perfection! It’s even better than “What To Do About The Solomons”, (which was a trip-of-a-novel that used up all my senses too)…….
but Bethany Ball outdid herself with her sophomore novel.
It’s so darn wickedly-enjoyable —portraying suburban absurdity with such honesty….it reads with
funny-bone satisfaction along with a kind of respectful-resign to just how pathetic modern life is.
Going to catch some sleep - I’ll rerun tomorrow with a few more things to add ….
I’m BACK..... UPDATE:
The setting centered around three couples and their children, in a small town of Connecticut, (Somerset), reminded me of towns like Traverse City, in Michigan, or “The Gilmore Girls” : a white, upperclass, community.
Smiling parents were everywhere. They cheered their kids when playing basketball, or soccer. There was pizza and take-in Thai food. There were marriages, and second marriages.....families struggling under the surface of their privileged lives.
There was an emphasis on making happy Whole-Children.
Sacrifice was just part of the parenting deal.
As funny as many of the scenes were - Bethany Ball examines white suburban upper class nuttiness with razor sharp prose......
Parenting ‘right’ was not only exhausting, but was slowly ripping apart these couples own authentic happiness. They were stuck on the treadmill - dissatisfied, depressed, disillusioned couples.
Its embarrassing and shameful to admit, but I related with this meshugana culture. I’ve been blessed with my marriage ....but in the area of parenting, I saw an awful lot of this culture.
I was ‘part’ of it too, if I’m honest.
I’m now way past the age of child rearing....
but didn’t I, too, want to do everything right? Wasn’t I also a little too obsessive in parenting to perfection? I would’ve never admitted it at the time.... thinking I was very relaxed....but when our family began to unravel with our daughters eating disorder: anorexic, a huge awakening
hit me over the head like a ton of bricks.
Of course our individual family stories are different than the ones we read in “The Pessimists”, - but what makes this book soooo good, is that it’s rooted in collective discernment and perceptiveness.
With fine detail and development of the characters....every reader can identify with with at ‘least’ one of them ....and the issues explored.
I doubt there is a couple or parent in the world that couldn’t relate. It doesn’t matter if we were ‘as’ obsessed, ‘as’ wealthy, or even ‘as’ white as these families....if we raised children, we were often worried, and stressed about ‘something’.
Bethany Ball unthreaded the wounds of these couples inner pain with a keen eye — truthful, insightful, poignant.
One mother was hiding the discovery of a lump in her breast (it felt like the only thing that was fully her own).
An architect dad, secretly kept guns and boxes of ammunition in his basement. His wife knew nothing about it
[“Rough times ahead. The recession is nothing to what’s coming. Ice caps melting and filling the seas. Superstorms. Massive hurricanes. Poles shifting. Solar flares knocking out the electrical grid]
Stay-at-home mothers stayed at home, even after their kids were old enough to go to school. There were queen bees and cliques just like in high school. There were the popular moms with the good hair and fashionable clothes and there were the hurting lonely moms at the edges.
There were community parties, friends, secrets, likable and unlikable characters, jealously & legacy....money, expensive trips, private tennis lessons, swim lessons, extramarital affairs, yoga, spin classes,
and....
A very expensive private Garden of Eden pioneer type school where outdoor play, was the very foundation of children’s education.
At the Pricey Petra Private School, where learning was associated with pushing....they discouraged overstimulating, over scheduled and overwhelmed children with school work, sports, and obligations.
Smart phones were not allowed; no plastic toys.
They had no ADHD diagnosis, no dyslexia, no learning disabilities, no bullying, no eating disorders, of any kind.....
Ha....
and no reading until a child had lost two teeth.
“God forbid children should go to a public school— be thrown to the wolves”.
“Children have long recesses. They climb trees and build treehouses. They are outside no matter the weather”.
At Parents Night, parents are given an education of what to expect.
“We have a saying here at Petra: There’s no bad weather, only bad clothing! So please be sure to send your kids with extra clothing. A little later we will take you to see our chickens and our goat, Shelley. We have some expert goat milkers! The kids spend more time outside than in!”
Reading? Math? Don’t be silly! The Petra School’s Philosophy isn’t about pushing.
“Progress is another word ‘we’ do you not like here. It insinuates that education goes in a straight line from the uneducated to the educated”
“Does it not?” one father asked?
“The culture of competition is not what we like to promote here at the Petra School”.
Parents made sacrifices. They had sexless lives; low libidos. They took Prozac, drank wine and Red Bull. They struggled with the white, Waspish suburbia modern life rules, middle age, parenting, and self-fulfillment.
And there was this.....
THE MIND HAS AN INNER VOICE OF ITS OWN:
“Margot couldn’t get pregnant while their friends contended with the dreaded gas, colic, teething, eczema, and allergies. One friend hung up a rope from his ceiling and swang a baby car seat back and forth back and forth until their baby stopped crying. Others drove their babies around in their cars or took endless walks. They gave them baby Tylenol, amber teething beads, baby massage, drops of sugar water, rum smeared on gums,
homeopathic remedies from Whole Foods. One mom claimed she put the baby down in his room, shut the door, and tiptoed around the house wearing both earplugs and noisecanceling headphones for as long as she could stand it, before finally checking in to find her baby asleep or even, sometimes playing quietly with her toes”.
“How cruel, Margot told Richard. They weren’t going to be like that. They were going to be good, reasonable parents. They weren’t going to freak out, like Richard‘s coworkers had”.
These characters were pained and discombobulated ....nobody was truly happy. Not sober, anyway.
But....they were ‘deeply’ human. I was pulling them to find contentment and peacefulness.
My goodness ...”The Pessimists” would make a great movie or Netflix series.
This book will be released in stores in October.
Thank you Netgalley, Grove Atlantic, and Bethany Balls.
I enjoy satirist - dark - smart - contemporary fiction….and
“The Pessimists” is pure perfection! It’s even better than “What To Do About The Solomons”, (which was a trip-of-a-novel that used up all my senses too)…….
but Bethany Ball outdid herself with her sophomore novel.
It’s so darn wickedly-enjoyable —portraying suburban absurdity with such honesty….it reads with
funny-bone satisfaction along with a kind of respectful-resign to just how pathetic modern life is.
Going to catch some sleep - I’ll rerun tomorrow with a few more things to add ….
I’m BACK..... UPDATE:
The setting centered around three couples and their children, in a small town of Connecticut, (Somerset), reminded me of towns like Traverse City, in Michigan, or “The Gilmore Girls” : a white, upperclass, community.
Smiling parents were everywhere. They cheered their kids when playing basketball, or soccer. There was pizza and take-in Thai food. There were marriages, and second marriages.....families struggling under the surface of their privileged lives.
There was an emphasis on making happy Whole-Children.
Sacrifice was just part of the parenting deal.
As funny as many of the scenes were - Bethany Ball examines white suburban upper class nuttiness with razor sharp prose......
Parenting ‘right’ was not only exhausting, but was slowly ripping apart these couples own authentic happiness. They were stuck on the treadmill - dissatisfied, depressed, disillusioned couples.
Its embarrassing and shameful to admit, but I related with this meshugana culture. I’ve been blessed with my marriage ....but in the area of parenting, I saw an awful lot of this culture.
I was ‘part’ of it too, if I’m honest.
I’m now way past the age of child rearing....
but didn’t I, too, want to do everything right? Wasn’t I also a little too obsessive in parenting to perfection? I would’ve never admitted it at the time.... thinking I was very relaxed....but when our family began to unravel with our daughters eating disorder: anorexic, a huge awakening
hit me over the head like a ton of bricks.
Of course our individual family stories are different than the ones we read in “The Pessimists”, - but what makes this book soooo good, is that it’s rooted in collective discernment and perceptiveness.
With fine detail and development of the characters....every reader can identify with with at ‘least’ one of them ....and the issues explored.
I doubt there is a couple or parent in the world that couldn’t relate. It doesn’t matter if we were ‘as’ obsessed, ‘as’ wealthy, or even ‘as’ white as these families....if we raised children, we were often worried, and stressed about ‘something’.
Bethany Ball unthreaded the wounds of these couples inner pain with a keen eye — truthful, insightful, poignant.
One mother was hiding the discovery of a lump in her breast (it felt like the only thing that was fully her own).
An architect dad, secretly kept guns and boxes of ammunition in his basement. His wife knew nothing about it
[“Rough times ahead. The recession is nothing to what’s coming. Ice caps melting and filling the seas. Superstorms. Massive hurricanes. Poles shifting. Solar flares knocking out the electrical grid]
Stay-at-home mothers stayed at home, even after their kids were old enough to go to school. There were queen bees and cliques just like in high school. There were the popular moms with the good hair and fashionable clothes and there were the hurting lonely moms at the edges.
There were community parties, friends, secrets, likable and unlikable characters, jealously & legacy....money, expensive trips, private tennis lessons, swim lessons, extramarital affairs, yoga, spin classes,
and....
A very expensive private Garden of Eden pioneer type school where outdoor play, was the very foundation of children’s education.
At the Pricey Petra Private School, where learning was associated with pushing....they discouraged overstimulating, over scheduled and overwhelmed children with school work, sports, and obligations.
Smart phones were not allowed; no plastic toys.
They had no ADHD diagnosis, no dyslexia, no learning disabilities, no bullying, no eating disorders, of any kind.....
Ha....
and no reading until a child had lost two teeth.
“God forbid children should go to a public school— be thrown to the wolves”.
“Children have long recesses. They climb trees and build treehouses. They are outside no matter the weather”.
At Parents Night, parents are given an education of what to expect.
“We have a saying here at Petra: There’s no bad weather, only bad clothing! So please be sure to send your kids with extra clothing. A little later we will take you to see our chickens and our goat, Shelley. We have some expert goat milkers! The kids spend more time outside than in!”
Reading? Math? Don’t be silly! The Petra School’s Philosophy isn’t about pushing.
“Progress is another word ‘we’ do you not like here. It insinuates that education goes in a straight line from the uneducated to the educated”
“Does it not?” one father asked?
“The culture of competition is not what we like to promote here at the Petra School”.
Parents made sacrifices. They had sexless lives; low libidos. They took Prozac, drank wine and Red Bull. They struggled with the white, Waspish suburbia modern life rules, middle age, parenting, and self-fulfillment.
And there was this.....
THE MIND HAS AN INNER VOICE OF ITS OWN:
“Margot couldn’t get pregnant while their friends contended with the dreaded gas, colic, teething, eczema, and allergies. One friend hung up a rope from his ceiling and swang a baby car seat back and forth back and forth until their baby stopped crying. Others drove their babies around in their cars or took endless walks. They gave them baby Tylenol, amber teething beads, baby massage, drops of sugar water, rum smeared on gums,
homeopathic remedies from Whole Foods. One mom claimed she put the baby down in his room, shut the door, and tiptoed around the house wearing both earplugs and noisecanceling headphones for as long as she could stand it, before finally checking in to find her baby asleep or even, sometimes playing quietly with her toes”.
“How cruel, Margot told Richard. They weren’t going to be like that. They were going to be good, reasonable parents. They weren’t going to freak out, like Richard‘s coworkers had”.
These characters were pained and discombobulated ....nobody was truly happy. Not sober, anyway.
But....they were ‘deeply’ human. I was pulling them to find contentment and peacefulness.
My goodness ...”The Pessimists” would make a great movie or Netflix series.
This book will be released in stores in October.
Thank you Netgalley, Grove Atlantic, and Bethany Balls.
September 12, 2021
This novel is about three white, wealthy families that live in Connecticut.
It is centered around a very expensive alternative and unconventional school that their children go to.
We see their every day life, their relationship with the other couples, their dissatisfaction with their life choices, the secrets they keep, and also their pain.
I really did not love a single character in this book, but it was a very addicting read for me, hard to put down!
Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC!
It is centered around a very expensive alternative and unconventional school that their children go to.
We see their every day life, their relationship with the other couples, their dissatisfaction with their life choices, the secrets they keep, and also their pain.
I really did not love a single character in this book, but it was a very addicting read for me, hard to put down!
Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC!
May 17, 2021
DEFINITELY five stars.
February 4, 2022
A lightweight tale of dysfunction in upper middle class Connecticut suburbia. Everyone has a secret: Tripp is a prepper who keeps an arsenal of guns in a secret basement room for the end times; his wife Virginia has a lump in her breast she refuses to get treated, and anyway their health insurance has lapsed because Tripp is spending so much money on survivalist training camps they can't afford it; Margot keeps baggies of her children's fingernail clippings dated with a Sharpie; her husband Richard smokes weed while waiting on the kids' soccer games; headmistress Agnes has Nazi relatives in her not too distant past and won't allow the school to celebrate or mention Jewish holidays; Rachel and Gunter are living out a dream by having a threesome with Henry Kissinger.
(I may have made that one up.)
When Gunter's car is about to be ticketed the morning after a party Virginia and Tripp hosted, Virginia allows her bathrobe to open, revealing her nudity to the parking enforcement officer, who lets the absent Gunter off with a warning. But why? Virginia doesn't even seem fond of Gunter.
The typos and grammar/spelling inconsistencies distracted me from the beginning. Lay/lie; both spellings of the Proustian madeleine/madeline were used; ibid, Mohave/Mojave; the past tense of sweat is sweated, not sweat; the conjunction of "you all" is y'all, not ya'll; after correctly spelling Sloan Kettering several times, Ball makes it Sloane Kettering (in an email from a Sloan Kettering doctor, no less). And Tripp near the end of the novel inexplicably became Travis. Is Tripp a nickname for Travis? I feel like this is something only Palins or country singers would know.
I will give some credit to the cover, however. If you ignore the Millennial Pink, the cover design is more appealing than that of most recent fiction.
January 10, 2022
⭐⭐⭐⭐ -- #52bookclub2022 -- Chapters Have Titles
I really enjoyed this one. It was a dark, witty satire about three suburban couples in Connecticut who were all connected through their desire for their children to attend an expensive and unorthodox private school. It had a "Big Little Lies" feel to it, so perhaps that is why I enjoyed it so much.
**ARC Via NetGalley**
I really enjoyed this one. It was a dark, witty satire about three suburban couples in Connecticut who were all connected through their desire for their children to attend an expensive and unorthodox private school. It had a "Big Little Lies" feel to it, so perhaps that is why I enjoyed it so much.
**ARC Via NetGalley**
October 8, 2021
I guess miserable white suburbanites is one of my favorite genres or tropes because this was an unputdownable book for me. It was a breezy read while showing us people’s lives falling apart -how did Ball balance that? I could see these (sometimes moronic, sometimes insecure) characters and (antisemetic and anti-vax) school come to life and I wanted to know what absurd things were going to happen next. A great balance of humor, sadness, and satire. Why yes, everyone is going through the same ridiculousness. It's ok.
August 1, 2021
A bunch of dissatisfied, dysfunctional suburbanite friends and the private school that ties them all together. Another book that is supposed to be humerous that I found no humor in. I didn't particularly like any of the characters, except maybe Virginia. I honestly don't even know what to say about it. I am in the minority here as it seems well liked by everyone but me, but it left me feeling somewhat drained.
October 6, 2021
Rich (and richish) white people problems can be really fun when done right, Think Big Little Lies or The Nest (which I loved), but this is dark satire rather than a mystery.
This is a character driven novel that’s witty, and, at times funny, but I couldn’t find myself feeling invested in any of the three couples. A story without likable characters is interesting conceptually, but the author has to give the reader something to care about, a reason to keep reading. I kept on going in search of it. For purposes of this review, I wanted to find it, but it just wasn’t there.
Thank you to NetGalley for this copy in exchange for my review.
This is a character driven novel that’s witty, and, at times funny, but I couldn’t find myself feeling invested in any of the three couples. A story without likable characters is interesting conceptually, but the author has to give the reader something to care about, a reason to keep reading. I kept on going in search of it. For purposes of this review, I wanted to find it, but it just wasn’t there.
Thank you to NetGalley for this copy in exchange for my review.
July 26, 2021
Bethany Ball’s The Pessimists gives us a cutting, satirical look at American suburbia through the interlacing stories of three Connecticut couples. We first meet the protagonists during a New Year’s Eve party thrown by Virginia and her husband Tripp, who is obsessed with surviving the end times and keeps an arsenal of guns hidden in the basement. Virginia’s old friend Margot, an obsessive-compulsive “perfect” mother/housewife is there with her husband Richard, who has a not-so-secret crush on Virginia. Joining the circle of friends are Swedish architect Gunter and his much younger wife Rachel, who have recently moved from New York to provide their children with a quieter life. In the background there is the constant presence of the Petra School, a much-coveted local private educations institution which is looked up to as the epitome of progressive learning, but which might hide a darker history and methodology than is immediately apparent.
While in the first part of the book the characters are primarily presented as “couples”, the second partfocusses on the individuals. Like a magician shuffling a deck of cards and surprising the audience with sleight of hand, Ball has several twists up her sleeve. The result is an acerbic novel which is also unexpectedly gripping. I found it less of a laugh-out-load comedy than some other reviewers, but it is certainly a witty and thought-provoking satire.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
While in the first part of the book the characters are primarily presented as “couples”, the second partfocusses on the individuals. Like a magician shuffling a deck of cards and surprising the audience with sleight of hand, Ball has several twists up her sleeve. The result is an acerbic novel which is also unexpectedly gripping. I found it less of a laugh-out-load comedy than some other reviewers, but it is certainly a witty and thought-provoking satire.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
Read
October 12, 2021I wanted to like this book. However, it fell flat for my taste. It was an easy read about three white suburban families living in Connecticut. The common ground of all the families was the Petra School. A Hippie Dippy alternative school that blames technology, testing and competition for the downfall of society. I wanted to roll my eyes every time the emails went out from Petra to the families. From the outside, these families seem not only somewhat normal, but perfect. However, a closer look shows that they are all falling apart and failing from the inside.
The writing style wasn’t my cup of tea. I didn’t like and couldn’t relate to any of the characters. The idea of the story was on point, I just don’t feel it was executed great. There were supposed to be parts with humor in it, but I never really found it funny or amusing. It was interesting enough to keep me going through it but wasn’t exciting. There didn’t seem to be a climax to the story, it was just all at the same level. Honestly, I tried reading this one because I share the same first name with the author. Probably won’t be doing that again.
The writing style wasn’t my cup of tea. I didn’t like and couldn’t relate to any of the characters. The idea of the story was on point, I just don’t feel it was executed great. There were supposed to be parts with humor in it, but I never really found it funny or amusing. It was interesting enough to keep me going through it but wasn’t exciting. There didn’t seem to be a climax to the story, it was just all at the same level. Honestly, I tried reading this one because I share the same first name with the author. Probably won’t be doing that again.
September 23, 2021
Suburban America is an insane place. I have never been there, but it feels very familiar thanks to many great TV shows (Big Little Lies) and movies (American Beauty). This fun, smart and fast novel also seems made to be adapted for TV. It centres around three couples in Connecticut who all send their children to a wildly expensive private school where kids basically don’t have to learn anything but are allowed to just be children. All six parents have their issue, as couples and as individuals. And whilst there is not too much plot (in the sense of a red threat), it is clear that the status-quo is unsustainable and something has to give.
I was absorbed in the story from page 1 and finished it in three evenings. It’s mostly a lot of fun, but at times also serious and thought-provoking. The only small criticism I would have is that the ending felt a bit abrupt – with very little left the story could still go anywhere. I wouldn’t have minded an additional 100 pages in this case (or better: a second season!).
Very highly recommended, 4,5
I was absorbed in the story from page 1 and finished it in three evenings. It’s mostly a lot of fun, but at times also serious and thought-provoking. The only small criticism I would have is that the ending felt a bit abrupt – with very little left the story could still go anywhere. I wouldn’t have minded an additional 100 pages in this case (or better: a second season!).
Very highly recommended, 4,5
April 15, 2022
I started this book on Sunday morning and closed it after the final chapter on Sunday night before bed. I didn’t expect to read the entire book in one day, but sometimes those are the most rewarding reading experiences. When you can unexpectedly immerse yourself in a story.
THE PESSIMISTS by Bethany Ball is for fans of Fleishman Is In Trouble or Very Nice. If you love stories about mid-life parents who don’t have their s*** together, satires about the privileged class that seemingly has it all, and stories full of wit and dark humor, then this book might be up your alley!
You’ll love to hate the characters (the cult-like headmistress was a particularly unlikeable but intriguing character) but you’ll also likely identify with some of their larger existential worries - am I doing enough with my life? Are we destroying the world? How do I find more simplicity in an increasingly busy world?
THE PESSIMISTS by Bethany Ball is for fans of Fleishman Is In Trouble or Very Nice. If you love stories about mid-life parents who don’t have their s*** together, satires about the privileged class that seemingly has it all, and stories full of wit and dark humor, then this book might be up your alley!
You’ll love to hate the characters (the cult-like headmistress was a particularly unlikeable but intriguing character) but you’ll also likely identify with some of their larger existential worries - am I doing enough with my life? Are we destroying the world? How do I find more simplicity in an increasingly busy world?
April 11, 2022
Novel about 3 couples in a ritzy Connecticut suburb of NYC who all have various different "issues". Their children are enrolled in the pricey and laid-back, hippie-ish "Petra School", which runs for fewer hours a day than public schools, insists on intense involvement from parents, doesn't believe in tests or grades, and makes children farm and get outside and bans all electronic devices.
The parents' various flaws are what make the book interesting (or annoying if you hate books with significantly flawed characters). There's a doomsday prepper, a snobby Scandinavian, and several women who appear to be increasingly unmoored.
The Petra school is also a source of some great biting humor, and a shocking eventual revelation.
I devoured it in 2 days and enjoyed digging into all the dysfunction. It's all very "first world problem-y" though! But intentionally so, and it's really savory dark humor.
The parents' various flaws are what make the book interesting (or annoying if you hate books with significantly flawed characters). There's a doomsday prepper, a snobby Scandinavian, and several women who appear to be increasingly unmoored.
The Petra school is also a source of some great biting humor, and a shocking eventual revelation.
I devoured it in 2 days and enjoyed digging into all the dysfunction. It's all very "first world problem-y" though! But intentionally so, and it's really savory dark humor.
October 18, 2021
3.5⭐️
An interesting look at families and their “stuff”. We all have it, “stuff”. This felt like a burden to me. A relationship that should of ended. A trap. The story drove on empty and feed on dissatisfied. It made me uncomfortable and I really don’t know how I feel about the ending. Good writing, sad story.
A lot of people liked this but me not so much.
I chose to listen to this book on audio and the narrator was great.
Thanks HighBridge Audio via Netgalley.
An interesting look at families and their “stuff”. We all have it, “stuff”. This felt like a burden to me. A relationship that should of ended. A trap. The story drove on empty and feed on dissatisfied. It made me uncomfortable and I really don’t know how I feel about the ending. Good writing, sad story.
A lot of people liked this but me not so much.
I chose to listen to this book on audio and the narrator was great.
Thanks HighBridge Audio via Netgalley.
December 9, 2021
A dark and satirical look at life in the suburbs- parents trying to improve their children's success with enrollment in an alternative school (no computers, no electronics, hours outdoors) when ultimately they all know it is not the right thing for their child. So desperate are they to fit in and to succeed, that they will try almost anything. Highly entertaining and well written. Great fun.
December 6, 2021
I'm not against white upper middle class angst, but this felt too much like I had read it before. These people had problems. Very real problems. But I didn't feel any emotion towards them, really. It felt a little too buried under suburban mundanity.
I've spent enough time around Waldorf school people to get a real kick out of the culty school plotline, though.
I've spent enough time around Waldorf school people to get a real kick out of the culty school plotline, though.
December 26, 2021
Centering around an alternative (more than a little out there) school and three families and their troubles and the school’s effect on them. Marriage, having children, the pressures of modern life are all themes. I enjoyed this and look forward to the authors next book.
July 8, 2022
The writing is good, but the story is just so-so. Partly, it’s hard to find wealthy, dull, super-privileged people all that interesting. The humor of the private school in all its ridiculousness is tempered by being not ask that far from reality. It’s like the tv show ThirtySomething, but with gen X/millennials, and darker.
December 20, 2021
The author perfectly captures the contemporary disaffection and restlessness of middle-age, with humor and sympathy.
September 11, 2022
The perils of complacency and white picket fences.
June 9, 2023
This was very enjoyable
January 20, 2022
I wasn’t expecting to like this so much, but towards the end I couldn’t put it down. The satirical take on suburban life + mid life crises + uber progressive private school shenanigans made me laugh and shake my head in disbelief many times. Quick read that’s worth picking up.
February 26, 2022
Dark little gem. An upscale CT suburb houses assorted strivers, phonies, liars, obsessives, and worse.
The highly-rated local public school isn't good enough for some, who cough up (or try to) tuition money for something called The Petra School where no electronics are allowed, no competitive games, and the word 'no' itself is banned. It's cultish in a satirical way and almost every chapter ends with a note from Agnes, the head of school to the parents.
There's a stunning inter-chapter that starts part two that should be available as a stand-alone as a summary of some spots in suburbia. Remember how Steinbeck used these birdseye views in Grapes of Wrath before we get back on the truck with the Joads? Like that, only with boxed wine, internet porn, postpartum depression, and a trip down the rabbit hole for one of the men who heads for Conspiracy Camp on the weekends.
Most of the characters are hiding something--job loss, possible cancer, generalized lust, jealousy. Chekov's observation about a gun's appearance in the first act demands it go off, somehow, by the end was fulfilled. It's a tense, cynical read. I liked it a lot.
The highly-rated local public school isn't good enough for some, who cough up (or try to) tuition money for something called The Petra School where no electronics are allowed, no competitive games, and the word 'no' itself is banned. It's cultish in a satirical way and almost every chapter ends with a note from Agnes, the head of school to the parents.
There's a stunning inter-chapter that starts part two that should be available as a stand-alone as a summary of some spots in suburbia. Remember how Steinbeck used these birdseye views in Grapes of Wrath before we get back on the truck with the Joads? Like that, only with boxed wine, internet porn, postpartum depression, and a trip down the rabbit hole for one of the men who heads for Conspiracy Camp on the weekends.
Most of the characters are hiding something--job loss, possible cancer, generalized lust, jealousy. Chekov's observation about a gun's appearance in the first act demands it go off, somehow, by the end was fulfilled. It's a tense, cynical read. I liked it a lot.
December 5, 2021
None of these people were likable — 6 upper-middle-class married people in Connecticut, all struggling with the normal things people struggle with: relationship issues, health issues, child issues. If you weren’t a pessimist before reading this book, you might become one (even if just briefly) after reading it. All of these people have children who attend the Petra School, a ridiculous progressive school that may or may not teach children anything. This book feels like a spoof on rich people in Connecticut, and definitely will not make anyone aspire to be one of those people. Also, I did the audiobook. The narrator got slammed in the reviews on Audible for sounding too much like a valley girl. I don’t disagree with that, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book. I thought it was fine — slightly entertaining, not badly written, just faintly depressing and not memorable.
November 7, 2023
I cannot begin to explain the way this book scratched an itch in my brain. Bethany Ball wrote the satire of white suburbs so well, layering critique and just the right amount of outlandish details. She truly created something that I found gripping. There’s a certain horror underneath it all that drives the pacing, which had me hooked from the beginning.
November 19, 2021
Domestic drama/suspense lovers of a certain milieu will devour this satire—my favorite 2021 literary fiction read! Full review to come.
July 25, 2021
I devoured this book over a weekend. I loved the author’s debut novel, What To Do About the Solomons, and The Pessimists is even more compelling. Hilarious and thought-provoking throughout.
October 13, 2021
A small community in Connecticut. Three couples of middle age all have their respective struggles: Margot has never gotten over the loss of her baby girl, their three sons can only make up so much for this; while she is grieving, her husband Richard is having extramarital affairs to forget about his homely negative mood. Gunter and Rachel are new to the small place, the Swede has serious problems of adaptation and can only wonder about the small town Americans, whereas his wife Rachel tries to be supermom and get her children into the prestigious Petra school. Virginia’s daughter already attends this institution but the mother is starting to wonder if the place is actually a good choice while her husband Trip has developed an end of time fear and wants his family to be prepared for the worst case which is sure to come soon. While the parents are occupied with themselves, their kids are educated in a quite unique institution with very special educational views.
Bethany Ball paints a rather gloomy picture of three middle-aged families. The love at first sight and life on cloud number nine is only a faint memory, if they are still interested in their partner, this is more out of convenience than out of love. Their children are strange creatures with which they have rather complicated relationships and whom they do not seem to understand at all. Life does not have much to offer outside the big city and so, consequently, the turn into “The Pessimists”.
It is upper class white suburbia life that the novel ridicules: the invite the “right” people to dibber parties even though they hate barbecuing and do not even like their guests. The women are reduced to being housewives even though they had successful careers in the city, yet, these are not compatible with life in a small town. They are not even aware of how privileged they are, they feel depressed and deceived by life, seemingly none of them got what they expected from life. Apart from being miserable, they pretend that all is best in their life to keep up the picture they want the others to see. Only brief glances behind the facade allow the truth to show.
This rather dark atmosphere is broken up repeatedly by episodes of Petra school. It is the absolutely exaggerated picture of an alternative institution which actually does not take education too seriously, but is highly occupied with spiritual well-being and a lifestyle nobody can ever stick too. The information mails they send out to the parents are simply hilarious and made me laugh out loud more than once – however, I don’t doubt that such places might actually exist.
A satire of small town America which is funny on the one hand but quite serious regarding the message behind the superficial storyline.
Bethany Ball paints a rather gloomy picture of three middle-aged families. The love at first sight and life on cloud number nine is only a faint memory, if they are still interested in their partner, this is more out of convenience than out of love. Their children are strange creatures with which they have rather complicated relationships and whom they do not seem to understand at all. Life does not have much to offer outside the big city and so, consequently, the turn into “The Pessimists”.
It is upper class white suburbia life that the novel ridicules: the invite the “right” people to dibber parties even though they hate barbecuing and do not even like their guests. The women are reduced to being housewives even though they had successful careers in the city, yet, these are not compatible with life in a small town. They are not even aware of how privileged they are, they feel depressed and deceived by life, seemingly none of them got what they expected from life. Apart from being miserable, they pretend that all is best in their life to keep up the picture they want the others to see. Only brief glances behind the facade allow the truth to show.
This rather dark atmosphere is broken up repeatedly by episodes of Petra school. It is the absolutely exaggerated picture of an alternative institution which actually does not take education too seriously, but is highly occupied with spiritual well-being and a lifestyle nobody can ever stick too. The information mails they send out to the parents are simply hilarious and made me laugh out loud more than once – however, I don’t doubt that such places might actually exist.
A satire of small town America which is funny on the one hand but quite serious regarding the message behind the superficial storyline.
November 21, 2022
3.75
I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would!! loved the witty and sarcastic writing paired with insufferable characters. something about this book was just addicting and the comedic relief from the absurdities of suburban life actually made me chuckle. loved the seemingly perfect characters who each have deep-rooted dissatisfactions that destroy their relationships with others. I really enjoyed reading about this group of contemporary white couples who live completely disconnected from reality and choose to remain stagnant in their resentments until a major event happens. I found this surprisingly entertaining yet insightful. I guess I'm starting to love satire!
totally recommend!!
I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would!! loved the witty and sarcastic writing paired with insufferable characters. something about this book was just addicting and the comedic relief from the absurdities of suburban life actually made me chuckle. loved the seemingly perfect characters who each have deep-rooted dissatisfactions that destroy their relationships with others. I really enjoyed reading about this group of contemporary white couples who live completely disconnected from reality and choose to remain stagnant in their resentments until a major event happens. I found this surprisingly entertaining yet insightful. I guess I'm starting to love satire!
totally recommend!!
Read
March 18, 2023i thought this book was well written, and a cohesive experience. i liked the way the ending was a bit absurdist. ball was also really good at developing a sense of dread around the petra school, and i wanted them all to leave it so bad. it was pretty fucking depressing and sort of hopeless at times though. makes sense i guess given the title. sometimes i did have trouble remembering which names and which kids went with which families, but barely. also i did really feel like the characters were ‘real’ and psychologically accessible, except maybe richard, who i guess i never got an in depth understanding of.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 271 reviews