Playworld

September 30, 2024
Family dysfunction and the challenges of adolescence lie at the heart of this compulsively readable outing from Ross (Mr. Peanut). In the book’s most salacious and impactful plot thread, narrator Griffin Hurt looks back with vivid detail and analytical compassion on his teen years in the 1980s, beginning with the affair he had at 14 with family friend Naomi Shah, 22 years his senior. Other story lines delve into Griffin’s career as a child actor and his time on the high school wrestling team. Though the affair ends midway through the novel, Naomi’s friendship with Griffin’s parents, who don’t know about the affair, causes him continued distress. Ross also offers a poignant depiction of the pressure Griffin faces in show business, as his father urges him to take an audition with renowned director Paul Mazursky, whom Griffin’s never heard of, while he’d prefer to focus on wrestling. Ross casts the period in a dark light, touching on the turbulence of such historical episodes as the Iran hostage crisis and the Reagan assassination attempt and laying bare the moral emptiness of the adults in Griffin’s life. Readers will enjoy getting caught up in this sharp, discursive narrative.

November 1, 2024
A teen actor in 1980 Manhattan grapples with the consequences of fame, his eccentric family, and the advances of a family friend. This long-awaited follow-up toMr. Peanut (2010) and the well-received story collectionLadies and Gentlemen (2011) chronicles a season of upheaval in the life of a child actor on the cusp of adulthood. It offers a blast to the past in the vein of Garth Risk Hallberg'sCity on Fire (2015) and the existential angst of Donna Tartt'sThe Goldfinch (2013), but lacks much in the way of pathos. The book is written from the point of view of Griffin Hurt, an otherwise ordinary prep school student whose actor father pressured him into show business. What's meant to make Griffin unique is his role as popular Peter Proton on an NBC show calledThe Nuclear Family, but we barely see any of those experiences. Instead, the show and its accompanying fame serve as an albatross around Griffin's neck that interferes with his true passion: wrestling for the school team. Meanwhile, Griffin's parents are distant and self-absorbed, while his younger brother, Oren, although personable, mostly exists as a sounding board and partner in crime for Griffin. Instead, Ross pulls his inciting incident straight fromThe Graduate with the introduction of Naomi Shah, an older friend of Griffin's parents whose unhappy marriage and impulsive tendencies lead her toward predation. As Griffin lies through sessions with the family therapist and his storied career threatens to derail his own ambitions, his avoidance mirrors the novel's narrative pitfall: plenty of movement but no real change. With no true villain and nowhere for the story to go, readers may find themselves anxiously awaiting a climax that never comes. An intriguing coming-of-age story that's rich in atmosphere but falls short on resolution.

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December 1, 2024
Ross' (Mr. Peanut, 2010) second novel is an epic bildungsroman covering a year or so in the life of its narrator-protagonist, unenthusiastic teen actor Griffin Hurt. In 1980, the money 14-year-old Griffin brings home from The Nuclear Family, the popular show in which he plays radiation-exposed, bad guy-fighting Peter Proton, offsets the expense of the private Manhattan high school he all but flunked into. Unsure of everything, Griffin makes an odd connection with Naomi, his parents' beyond-wealthy friend, a wife and mother herself, and she pursues him. Their confusing dalliance lives in Griffin beside the other perplexities of dawning adulthood, like his subpar wrestling season (not to mention his abusive yet respected coach) and the relationship between his parents, performers themselves. While Griffin comes to understand the abuses inflicted on him, Ross' novel is free of lessons, as unjudging as poor Griffin, who can do nothing but weather the loss of innocence we can all see overtaking him like a cloud. Ross offers surprising narrative flights, stunning passages, and a nostalgia-soaked setting in so-real-you're-there, bygone New York City.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.