Model Home - Hardcover

Puchner, Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743270487 ISBN 13: 9780743270489

Publisher: Scribner, 2010

Synopsis

Eric Puchner’s Music Through the Floor was one of the best-received story collections in years. His debut novel, a sweeping yet intimate story of the American dream in remission, viewed through the microscope of a single family, proves yet again just “how exhilarating it is to come across a young writer as technically gifted and emotionally insightful as Eric Puchner” ( The New York Times Book Review )..

The Zillers—Warren, Camille, and their three children—live the good life in a gated Southern California neighborhood, but the sun-bright veneer hides a starker reality. As Warren desperately tries to conceal a failing real estate venture, his family falls prey to secrets and misunderstandings, both hilarious and painful, that open fault lines in their intimacy. Their misguided attempts to recover their former closeness, or find it elsewhere, lead them into late-night burglary, improbable romance, and strange acts of betrayal. When tragedy strikes, the Zillers are forced to move to one of the houses in Warren’s abandoned development in the desert. By turns tender and disturbing, irreverent and profound, Model Home is a masterful display of Eric Puchner’s prodigious gifts and penetrating insight—both into the American family and into the imperfect ways we try to connect..

About this title

Review

"The only conclusion to come to after reading this novel is that Eric Puchner is a massive talent...Each character is perfectly drawn and deeply interesting. Go read this book." --"McSweeney's"

"Puchner's well-constructed tale of a house of pain built on a foundation of secrets echoes Updike and Easton Ellis." --"People" magazine, 4 stars

"Puchner is an extraordinarily talented writer... a master of mood and tone, able to make moments of pure hilarity follow heartbreak with the seamlessness of real life."
--"Boston Globe"

The only conclusion to come to after reading this novel is that Eric Puchner is a massive talent Each character is perfectly drawn and deeply interesting. Go read this book. --"McSweeney s""

Puchner s well-constructed tale of a house of pain built on a foundation of secrets echoes Updike and Easton Ellis. --"People" magazine, 4 stars"

Puchner is an extraordinarily talented writer... a master of mood and tone, able to make moments of pure hilarity follow heartbreak with the seamlessness of real life.
--"Boston Globe""

The only conclusion to come to after reading this novel is that Eric Puchner is a massive talent Each character is perfectly drawn and deeply interesting. Go read this book. --McSweeney s"

Puchner s well-constructed tale of a house of pain built on a foundation of secrets echoes Updike and Easton Ellis. --People magazine, 4 stars"

Puchner is an extraordinarily talented writer... a master of mood and tone, able to make moments of pure hilarity follow heartbreak with the seamlessness of real life.
--Boston Globe"

"The only conclusion to come to after reading this novel is that Eric Puchner is a massive talent...Each character is perfectly drawn and deeply interesting. Go read this book." --McSweeney's

From the Back Cover

Warren Ziller moved his family to California in search of a charmed life, and to all appearances, he found it: a gated community not far from the beach, amid the affluent splendor of Southern California in the 1980s. But his American dream has been rudely interrupted. Despite their affection for one another---the slow, jokey, unrehearsed vaudeville they share at home---Warren; his wife, Camille; and their three children have veered into separate lives, as distant as satellites. Worst of all, Warren has squandered the family's money on a failing real estate venture. As Warren desperately tries to conceal his mistake, his family begins to sow deceptions of their own. Camille attributes Warren's erratic behavior to an affair and plots her secret revenge; seventeen-year-old Dustin falls for his girlfriend's troubled younger sister; teen misanthrope Lyle begins sleeping with a security guard who works at the gatehouse; and eleven-year-old Jonas becomes strangely obsessed with a kidnapped girl. When tragedy strikes, the Zillers are forced to move into one of the houses in Warren's abandoned development in the middle of the desert. Marooned in a less-than-model home, each must reckon with what's led them there and who's to blame---and whether they can summon the forgiveness needed to hold the family together.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743270487
• ISBN 13: 9780743270489
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 360