Long Island reminded me that I had another Long Island book on the shelf. Exhausting characters, but I guess that’s the point. I thought of Uncut Gems: yes, you can create tension and drama from a character’s repeated bad decisions, but it’s hard to know where it tips over into…why should I care?
There is a lot here, probably too much: the corrupting nature of wealth, the way family secrets remain unburied, the way traumatic events ripple throughout families. But it also felt…weightless, at times, like this is all for yuks and there are no real stakes.