White Elephant
By: Julie Langsdorf
Cover Art: Roger Ycaza
ISBN 10: 0062857754
ISBN 13: 9780062857750
ISSN:
ISFDB Publication Record #
ASIN: B07BDJZWDH
British National Bibliography System Number:
Canadian National Catalogue (AMICUS) Number:
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication:
National Library of Australia Bib ID:
OCLC Number: 1091292902
(OCoLC):
eISBN 10: 0062857770
eISBN 13: 9780062857774
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 2018024191 (ebook)
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 2018022061 (print)
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins (2019)
Contemporary Women Fiction,
The White Elephant looms large over the quaint suburban town of Willard Park: a gaudy, newly constructed behemoth of a home, it soars over the neighborhood, dwarfing the houses that surround it. When owner Nick Cox cuts down Allison and Ted Millers’ precious red maple—in an effort to make his unsightly property more appealing to buyers—their once serene town becomes a battleground.
While tensions between Ted and Nick escalate, other dysfunctions abound: Allison finds herself compulsively drawn to the man who is threatening to upend her quietly organized life. A lawyer with a pot habit and a serious midlife crisis skirts his responsibilities. And in a quest for popularity, a teenage girl gets caught up in a not-so-harmless prank. Newcomers and longtime residents alike begin to clash in conflicting pursuits of the American Dream, with trees mysteriously uprooted, fires set, fingers pointed, and lines drawn.
White Elephant is an uproarious, tangled-web tale of neighbor hating neighbor (and neighbor falling head over heels for neighbor). Soon, peaceful Willard Park becomes a tinderbox with nowhere to go but up in flames.
Reviews:
“White skewering its vacuity and vulgarity, Langsdorf captures the sensuous allure of confident, over-the-top American consumerism... Like Tom Perrotta’s “Little Children” and Maria Semple’s “Where’d You Go, Bernadette,” “White Elephant” exposes middle-class domestic malaise with a light comedic touch.”
(New York Times Book Review)
“An interloper’s plans to build a McMansion amid the cozy bungalows leads to angry town halls, scandalous romantic dalliances and shady high jinks.... All smart, satiric fun, the kind of comic novel that helps us see our own foibles while we’re laughing at those of others.”
(Washington Post)
“The ‘white elephant’ in this darkly comic social satire is a gaudy new home constructed in a quaint Washington, D.C., suburb. Conflict over the home pits residents against each other and turns their town into a battleground.”
(USA Today)
“If you’ve spent any time on the social media website Nextdoor, you know that neighborhoods are teeming with quiet (and sometimes not so quiet) resentments and bitter turf wars. The debut comic novel from Washington, D.C., author Langsdorf focuses on residents of a suburb locked in an angry fight.”
(Los Angeles Times)
“When a huge, garish home called the White Elephant infiltrates Willard Park, a quiet suburb, the neighborhood falls into utter comedic chaos. In the shadow of the home, neighbors begin to fight, lives are upended, and their once-peaceful town becomes anything but.”
(The Millions)
“Lively and entertaining.... This ambitious and intriguing work about the American suburbs is perfect for fans of Ann Patchett or Meg Wolitzer.”
(Publishers Weekly)
.