Dan Pope

Benjamin Mandelbaum, a man in his mid-forties, has just been kicked out of his house by his wife Judy after she suspects he has had another affair. After two previous affairs, this suspected third marks the end of their marriage. Ben takes his dog and moves back home to live with his father, Leonard, in Wintonbury, a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut. Leonard, 84, has started dating again, much to Ben's surprise.

Ben claims to miss his family, but once he discovers that an old high school show more crush, Audrey, has moved back to town and is now living just up the street with her busy lawyer husband, Andrew, and troubled teenage daughter, Emily, that point seems to escape him. Ben and Audrey start having an affair almost immediately after meeting. But there is a whole lot more trouble brewing behind the scenes and everyone seems to have secrets they are keeping and information they are withholding.

The quality of the writing is excellent. Pope manages to give each character tells their own story in their unique voice, explaining their unhappiness and revealing shocking secrets. Adultery looms so large in the plot of this dark drama featuring a plethora of dysfunctional lives in two families that it was overwhelming for me. I wanted the adults to snap out of it and start looking at the consequences of their actions. Pope does manage to infuse a little humor while presenting us with this collection of very flawed people. Housebreaking by Dan Pope is recommended.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Simon & Schuster for review purposes. show less

I haven't felt this emotionally arrested by a depiction of suburban Connecticut since Rick Moody's classic The Ice Storm. Filled with tragic characters who struggle and triumph like actual people do, Housebreaking offers a snapshot into the worlds of two families that are both experiencing the minutiae of everyday life, the infrequent bursts of passion that people read about, and the pathos of finding one's identity. I laughed, I cried, and I felt hauntingly represented by the individuals in show more this story. Cheers to Dan Pope! show less

I devoured this book. Dan Pope has given readers a tragi-comic novel of the suburbs, where all is clearly not as well as the manicured exteriors appear.

Ben Mandelbaum, a 40 something man with two kids in college, has just been kicked out of the house by his wife. He moves back into his childhood home with his newly-widowed father. Shortly after moving in, he learns that his high school crush has just moved into the house down the street from his father. And thus begins the intersecting show more stories of lives in a small town in CT -- sadness, lust, regret, hope, angst, and more.

Pope lushly describes his characters (I still feel like I can smell the cheap perfume worn by one) and each has a distinct voice. One quibble is that the reader is left hanging a bit wondering what happens with Andrew, one of the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

A tale of suburban boredom and the struggles of trying to maintain. Employs a tactic more often seen in film, of fully describing a time period from each character's point of view and then combining, to at least a partial, cohesion. Really enjoyable read!