Emily Culliton

More like "The Melancholia of Marion Palm." The main character is an embezzler, and a good one, seemingly her only skill and joy. Her husband is a trust fund baby and, although he ignores it, Marion knows the gravy train is running out of juice. She steals from the private school where she's employed part time and where her daughters are charity cases to the tune of $140k, and then bolts when it appears that discovery is imminent.

Strangely enough, out-of-place Marion is the most sympathetic show more character her world of Brooklyn gentrifiers. Her husband is a poet/blogger/serial adulterer. The children are neglected by both parents and will have to grow up on their own, with minimal guidance. Marion uses her only skill, her mathematical ability, to keep her family living above their station until she goes underground.

The author's style is to report events in a deadpan manner, which can be amusing in spots:

"Low ceilinged, spirit-crushing, [Penn Station} is a structure seemingly built to make its current occupants question their significant life decisions."

"Where Marion's from, neighbors give a halfhearted wave to each other and then go back to minding their own business. They may complain to each other about a shared inconvenience but never the faux but chic suburban small talk with yoga mats and canvas grocery bags and flaxen-haired children. So proud to be acting neighborly in a city. That type of exchange belongs to the delusional rich, Marion believes."

"She's never felt free or unburdened. She's never gotten ahead, like hedge-fund managers or politicians. Maybe she is not very smart. The other possibility is that lack of guilt in men is socially more acceptable and admired. Or perhaps if Marion had no guilt and was very attractive, she might have made her way in the world." show less

Marion Palm is not beautiful or noticeably successful. She is good at a few things, though, and embezzlement she excels at. Little by little over time, she has stolen over $180,000 from her daughters’ school. Then she vanished as she sensed she was about to be found out.

It becomes clear early on that Marion Palm is underestimated and that helps her hide her bad deeds. She leaves her husband and two daughters with barely as second thought. They almost seemed like more of a habit to her than show more a source of love.

The people she left behind have to try to make sense of where she may have gone and why. Her husband is pretty clueless and his self-obsession does not drive much sympathy. Her daughters, one eight and one thirteen, on the other hand, are tender and have been left adrift as they try to piece together what is going on.

Marion’s misfortune has more to do with her personality than with her stolen money. Her care for others is obligatory and her focus is always on herself and her own preservation. She is a true sociopath that easily takes what she feels or convinces herself is owed to her, she leaves those who need and love her, and she doesn’t express guilt. show less

Mom Embezzles

Few people really enjoy living in obscurity. This doesn’t mean that they desire citywide, nationwide, or worldwide visibility. It simply means they would like to be recognized for something, to standout in some way, even if that means being a little bad. And they certainly want their family and friends to see them, perhaps not to praise them but to at least acknowledge they contribute to the general weal. In many ways, Emily Culliton’s Brooklyn mom fits the bill, wallpaper show more in a family of four, well off but just not well enough, an uneducated misfit in an upper middle class of smarties, a misfit filled with cunning that feeds off a weak or missing moral core. She’s not likable but she’s enjoyable to watch. And that goes for the circle surrounding her: self -absorbed husband Nathan, rebellious daughter Ginny, lonely struggling daughter Jane, worried and infuriated fellow school workers and volunteers.

The plot is simple enough. Marion, married to once promising poet Nathan Palm, realizes that his small family inheritance is smaller than she thought when she married him. After spending sprees, children, and expensive private school education for the children, she decides to take advantage of her part time job as sort of comptroller at her daughters’ school and embezzle funds. She has a background, is skillful, and possesses an interest in the criminal practice and women who resort to it. She ups and leaves her family without even a goodbye after she gets wind the schools suspects her. But while good at stealing, she’s not quite as accomplished at navigating herself out of Brooklyn. So, she hides in plain sight and becomes, of all things, a cleaning woman to rich Russians visiting their apartment in Manhattan.

Left in the lurch, her family has to learn to adapt, which also means communicating with each other and coping with thoughts of why she left them. They don’t know about her extracurriculars. Prepare for loads of angst, for some growth, and some psychological scarring. Her other family, the school board and coworkers, collectively lose their minds.

The story offers up some plot twists, including a decidedly unrealistic and comical one at the end. Culliton tells it with present-tense, declarative sentences, often with character thought bubbles that are non sequiturs revealing aspects of their feelings and preoccupations and provide comedy. It’s an interesting style, but makes for a choppy journey. And, honestly, many will wonder where all this comedy reviewers cite is hiding. All in all, a good debut but not quite as stunning as reviews might lead you to conclude. show less

Mom Embezzles

Few people really enjoy living in obscurity. This doesn’t mean that they desire citywide, nationwide, or worldwide visibility. It simply means they would like to be recognized for something, to standout in some way, even if that means being a little bad. And they certainly want their family and friends to see them, perhaps not to praise them but to at least acknowledge they contribute to the general weal. In many ways, Emily Culliton’s Brooklyn mom fits the bill, wallpaper show more in a family of four, well off but just not well enough, an uneducated misfit in an upper middle class of smarties, a misfit filled with cunning that feeds off a weak or missing moral core. She’s not likable but she’s enjoyable to watch. And that goes for the circle surrounding her: self -absorbed husband Nathan, rebellious daughter Ginny, lonely struggling daughter Jane, worried and infuriated fellow school workers and volunteers.

The plot is simple enough. Marion, married to once promising poet Nathan Palm, realizes that his small family inheritance is smaller than she thought when she married him. After spending sprees, children, and expensive private school education for the children, she decides to take advantage of her part time job as sort of comptroller at her daughters’ school and embezzle funds. She has a background, is skillful, and possesses an interest in the criminal practice and women who resort to it. She ups and leaves her family without even a goodbye after she gets wind the schools suspects her. But while good at stealing, she’s not quite as accomplished at navigating herself out of Brooklyn. So, she hides in plain sight and becomes, of all things, a cleaning woman to rich Russians visiting their apartment in Manhattan.

Left in the lurch, her family has to learn to adapt, which also means communicating with each other and coping with thoughts of why she left them. They don’t know about her extracurriculars. Prepare for loads of angst, for some growth, and some psychological scarring. Her other family, the school board and coworkers, collectively lose their minds.

The story offers up some plot twists, including a decidedly unrealistic and comical one at the end. Culliton tells it with present-tense, declarative sentences, often with character thought bubbles that are non sequiturs revealing aspects of their feelings and preoccupations and provide comedy. It’s an interesting style, but makes for a choppy journey. And, honestly, many will wonder where all this comedy reviewers cite is hiding. All in all, a good debut but not quite as stunning as reviews might lead you to conclude. show less