THEIR PRIDE AND JOY

by Paul Buttenwieser ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1987

New York's German-Jewish elite is the focus of this family portrait/family tragedy, a more ambitious project than Buttenwieser's first novel (Free Association, 1980). The Gutheims and the Altmans are wealthy philanthropists, assimilated to the point where Christmas takes pride of place over Chanukah. While the families' happiest days are behind them, in late 1960 (the novel's time-frame) there are still many bright spots. Half of Manhattan would kill for an invitation to matriarch Frieda Altman's New Year's Eve dance; lawyer Alan Gutheim is being touted as next president of the Bar Association; son Phil is headed towards a Supreme Court clerkship. The more fragile members feel burdened by the family tradition of overachievement; young Carl, for example, though a gifted pianist, is no Wunderkind. But it is ""pride and joy"" Joan Gutheim who suffers the most, and is the center of attention (there is a fitful subplot about a hostile takeover bid that bruises family interests). She returns home from Bennington after three fainting episodes, tense and emaciated. Tests find nothing wrong; her mother steers her to work in a family-connected charitable settlement. Joan is in a double bind, loving the work but bitterly conscious she is a child of privilege, slumming. She has rough sex with a macho sports instructor, simultaneously seeking refuge in engagement to a devoted but uncomprehending old flame. Torn apart by her conflicts, she dies alone in an alley. Praiseworthy but flawed attempt to write a family chronicle of the Galsworthy/ Auchincloss variety. The flaws are a lethargic pace and Buttenwieser's ambivalence toward his families; the acuity that he brings to Joan's struggles is offset by a vacuous celebration of family get-togethers (what's to celebrate when, forget Joan, all four Altman kids are unraveling?) and a failure to find the right ironic distance from these affluent yet at-risk lives.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION