"Making the comic novel succeed is a rich, tricky project in our age of desperate, sometimes weirdly eager apocalypticism. Madeline Cash has spotted that a combination of tenderness and satire may be precisely what our times require. Lost Lambs, her debut novel about the Flynn family, is a witty, quickfire book set in a small American town, punch-drunk on clever, skewering lists and infested typographically by the gnats that plague the local church the family attends (explagnation, extermignation)."
"It was easy for Catherine and Bud to be passionate when he was a young rock star and she was an aspiring artist. But since then they've acquired three daughters and a lot of Tupperware. Catherine succumbs to the advances of Jim, an amateur artist who gives her the youthful comfort of being understood. He's rekindled her artistic ambitions, prompting her to decorate the Flynn house with nude self-portraits and proclaim an open marriage."
"Harper, 13, is a child genius who has taught herself six languages but is mythically bored and regularly suspended from school. Louise suffers from the plight of the middle child, stuck in a prison of her own mundanity. Escape is offered by yourstruly, an online lover who advises her to invest in equipment to make explosives. Finally, there's 17-year-old Abigail, the family beauty."
A small American town hosts the Flynn family, whose marriage frays after past rock-star glamour and artistic ambition give way to domestic routine. Catherine, restless, begins an open marriage with Jim, an amateur artist whose influence revives her creativity while concealing a bizarre pottery collection. Bud, once a rock star, works for Paul Alabaster, a megalomaniac billionaire shipping magnate. Their daughters include Harper, a bored 13-year-old polyglot repeatedly suspended from school; Louise, a stifled middle child tempted by an online lover who urges explosive experimentation; and 17-year-old Abigail, a calculated beauty involved with a private-security ex-soldier. The tone mixes tender feeling with satirical wit.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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