Heather, the Totality - Hardcover

Weiner, Matthew

2.92

6,936 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316439908 ISBN 13: 9780316439909

Publisher: Little Brown & Co, 2017

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The explosive debut novel - about family, power and privilege - from the creator of the award-winning Mad Men.
Named a Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year

Mark and Karen Breakstone have constructed the idyllic life of wealth and status they always wanted, made complete by their beautiful and extraordinary daughter Heather. But they are still not quite at the top. When the new owners of the penthouse above them begin construction, an unstable stranger penetrates the security of their comfortable lives and threatens to destroy everything they've created.

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Review:

"I cringed and shuddered my way through this short, daring novel to its terrible inevitable end. Each neat, measured paragraph carpaccios its characters to get to the book's heart - one of Boschian self-cannibalising isolation. A stunning novel. Heather, The Totality blew me away."--Nick Cave

"Heather, The Totality gripped me at once and had me spellbound. It was partly the absolute certainty of the world he was describing, the sense that beyond these brilliantly chosen details there was a wealth of similarly truthful social and psychological perception unstated. And partly the slightly fastidious form, the sound of a voice a hair's breadth away from affectation, but so firmly where it was that there was no question of turning away and not hearing what was going to come next. Then there was the ice-cold mercilessness, of a kind that reminded me (oddly, I suppose, but there it was) of Evelyn Waugh."--Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials

"Short and rapier-sharp, Matthew Weiner's HEATHER, THE TOTALITY compels and unnerves in equal measure. Like the great Patricia Highsmith, Weiner renders the disturbing not just plausible but exquisitely, agonizingly inevitable. A tour de force."--Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl

"A miraculous and fearless novel, Heather is unprecedented. As well as being smart, sharp and readable, it proves there are still fresh and exciting ways to write fiction."--MJ Hyland, author of Carry Me Down

"Weiner's award-winning writing and producing of such renowned television shows as The Sopranos and Mad Men is neatly evident in his quietly thrilling debut novel. Written in descriptive and illuminating scene-like snippets-though nearly free of dialogue-this one-sitting read concerns the eerily shared delusions of a privileged Manhattan family and a man who stalks the periphery of their lives...The sense of doom is sharply rendered, characters are well developed, and their motivations are finely wrought. Readers will hope for more book-form fiction from Weiner."--Booklist

"Chilling and poised, I loved it"--Maggie O'Farrell, author of This Must Be the Place

"Mad Men creator Weiner crafts a finely honed tale that highlights class conflict." --Publisher's Weekly

"This short novel of upper-crust anomie and class-divide obsession is a scorcher! It's the classic noir construction: the short walk off the long ledge and the plummet to an indifferent Hell. Matthew Weiner demonically delivers the goods! Read this book in one gasping breath."--James Ellroy, author of L.A. Confidential and Perfidia

"Heather, The Totality is a tour de force of control, tone and razor-slash insight. In its clear-eyed anatomist's gaze and its remarkable combination of empathy and pitilessness I hear echoes of Flaubert and Richard Yates, with a deeply twisted twist of Muriel Spark at her darkest. I could not put it down."
--Michael Chabon, author of Moonglow

"A page-turning thriller."--Pop Sugar

Book Description:

The explosive debut novel - about family, power and privilege - from the creator of the award-winning Mad Men

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