A LITTLE BIT BAD

A roman à clef disguised as a murder mystery, or vice versa? Either way, the suburban mother who narrates the story has to contend with a lot of trouble.

Perdita Jungfrau and Theo Vestergaard have two young children, son Atticus and daughter Honor, and live in San Diego. Everything should be coming up roses, but Perdie is unhappy with her lot: What happened to her feminist rockabilly band? Why does Theo gag whenever he’s asked to change a diaper? Will Atticus ever outgrow his pernicious allergies? Perdie spends most of her time watching true-crime shows while she nurses Atticus. She loves America’s Worst Murders Ever because “you always find out who did it in the end.” One day, her neighbor Jill’s roofer takes a bad fall and Perdie’s rush to his aid may, as she tells everyone, have saved his life. She takes a bad fall, too, metaphorically speaking, and decides she’s in love with Fernando Acuña. The narrative cuts from the early days of their flirtation in 2007 ahead to 2010, when everyone is shocked to discover Nando has been fatally shot at close range in an apparent robbery. Perdie’s narration, via Neyenesch’s prose, is mordantly funny and perfectly pitched, whether describing married sex (she says Theo was like an “asshole roommate” who “smelled good, and he knew how to make me come”) or the fact that her troubled brother Spencer imagines beating his steakhouse customers “over the head with the long-ass peppermill.” However, the humor shares space with unease. Nando’s girlfriend, Charleigh, seems to be stalking Perdie, showing up in her Volkswagen Beetle wearing green aviator sunglasses, while detectives question Perdie and her divorced parents about convicted felon Spencer’s whereabouts. Is it possible that, despite finding her soul mate, Perdie knew nothing about Nando? Anyone who has ever felt estranged from their nearest and dearest will appreciate how Perdie manages to take back control of her own life.

Original and hilarious, this novel about a Gen X midlife crisis reveals that base instincts can coexist with the maternal.