Model Home: A Novel
- ISBN13: 9780743270489
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
This debut novel by award-winning writer Eric Puchner is a bitterly funny, deeply moving story about a family reckoning with failure, guilt, and love.Amazon.com Review
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… More >>
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I really enjoyed this book. It was well written and a realistic and gritty look at a
family struggling with life in the 1980′s. There were many times in the book when the author could have gotten smarmy or overly sentimental, but to his credit he skillfully avoided that tendency. He also did not end the book with an uplifting resolution to their problems. All in all, a good effort from start to finish.
Rating: 4 / 5
Funny, moving, and beautifully written. I just finished reading this and feel disoriented in the way that only comes from being completely wrapped up in a world so convincing that you forget that it’s not your own. As for the characters: love Lyle. Love her.
Rating: 5 / 5
I ran across Eric Puchner when I read a kind of review he wrote about the craft of writing. I found his article to be smarmy and annoying, but at the same time, I realized that I was reading some very excellent writing. The end of the piece mentioned his new novel, “Model Home.” And I thought to myself, “Well, I would like to read this in the hope the writing is as good as this.” And I was not disappointed in the least. It’s a fine and, in places, a heart-wrenching read chronicling the travails of the Ziller family as they literally lose everything, finally compelled to move into a failed real estate development in the desert. The characters we have all seen before – the failed father, the vengeful wife, the handsome elder son with dreams of rock and roll glory, the sometime “Wednesday Addams-ish” middle daughter, and the lovably quirky yonger son possessed of an old, old soul. But instead of making them “stock,” Puchner manages to breathe an immediate life into them all, making them fresh and three-dimesional. I found myself emotionally invested in the Zillers, and that is rare.
The prose voice Puchner chooses is disarmingly straightforward, but full of small, poignant observations about the everyday world, giving the novel a gripping immediacy. And, at points, the writing is laugh-out-loud funny, a beautiful contrast to the tragic unravelling of the Zillers yet to come. It is difficult not to love an old dog who howls at rocks and a kid who wears nothing but orange. The plot is refreshingly uncomplicated even if the characters are not, allowing them to be fully fleshed out and developed. And Puchner can write not just well, but amazingly so, possessing that rare gift of being able to communicate complicated emotional states without bludgeoning his reader with overwrought dialogue or condescending to his audience. And one portion of the text, the burn unit scene, is especially harrowing, making me, once, put the book down to get my bearings.
Comparisons to works like “Ordinary People,” “American Beauty,” and “Them” are, perhaps, unavoidable. But Puchner’s work stands on its own merits, and it is my hope that he will, one day, have the Zillers invite us all back into their lives.
Recommended with enthusiasm.
Rating: 5 / 5
‘Model Home’ by Eric Puchner is a novel that takes place during an eighteen-month period between 1985 and 1986 in the Los Angeles area. It is the story of a family that is trying very hard not to fall apart at the seams. Warren, the dad, is a realtor who has invested all of his family’s savings in a housing development that sits far out in the desert right next to a toxic dump site. His investment has gone belly-up. At first, when his car is repossessed, he tells his family that it was stolen. When the creditors come for his living room furniture, he tells his family that he is tired of leasing furniture and that he has ordered much nicer stuff that will arrive next month. Naturally, Warren is acting strangely. His wife, Camille, who works on developing videos for school sex education programs, thinks that Warren is having an affair. When the truth of their bankruptcy comes out, Camille is relieved that Warren’s strangeness is not due to an affair, and for a brief time Warren and Camille find themselves content with one another.
There are three children in the family. Dustin, the oldest, is a good looking teenager with a beautiful girlfriend, who likes to surf and is planning on going to UCLA next year. Gradually, he starts to fall for Taz, his girlfriend’s Goth sister who has scabs on her ears from picking at them and has pulled her own fingernails out. Lyle is the middle child, a girl who feels different and left out of the mainstream. She lives in L.A. and desperately wants a tan but all she can do is burn. She designs t-shirts with monograms like ‘Death to Sandwiches’ or ‘Like a Sturgeon’. She begins having an affair with Hector, the Mexican security guard at their housing complex. Jonas, 11 years old, is the youngest. He is obsessed with death and is focusing specifically on the murder of a ‘retarded’ girl in their neighborhood. On some days Jonas likes to dress all in orange, including his socks.
The family has been living in a plush housing development way beyond their means. Warren had thought he’d strike it rich with his real estate scheme and that nothing was too good for them. They soon have to leave their cush domain and move into one of Warren’s model homes in the desert – in that very same complex next to the toxic dump site. Naturally, they are the only family living there as no other homes have been sold. Camille now has a three hour round-trip commute for her job and Lyle is living with a friend because it is too far to commute to school. There is no money left to send Dustin to college since they’re broke so he keeps himself busy with his garage band. Jonas is like the lost child.
As the children are growing up, they are pulling away from their parents. Everyone in this novel is wanting to be something more, something better, or something different than who they are. Their ambitions often lead to tragic outcomes. This family has more than one ‘before’ and ‘after’ to face. As they face catastrophes, the reader watches as the thin fiber that has been holding this family together unravels. Despite the unraveling, the novel asks poignant questions about the nature of family and love. Can family members love one another despite the most severe pain, anger, and resentment. Are they still whole once they are damaged? What is the source of love and strength that inspires families to hold on?
Part of the plot deals with a character who gets severely burned. The author speaks with great knowledge about burn units, burn treatment and burn victims. The descriptions are graphic and remind me of scenes in The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. Puchner manages to conjure up the smells, agony, and sounds of a burn unit and the reader is pulled along into this traumatic event.
The writing in this book can be uneven. Sometimes it is so beautiful that it can take your breath away, especially towards the end. However, there are times when it tries to be too clever for its own good. Phrases and sentences seem to be slipped in just because they sound good. Overall, it is a rewarding novel to read. The author ties all his ends together and there are no red herrings among the characters. I appreciate that in a novel. Every character is developed and has his or her place. Each character is unique with their own set of idiosyncrasies and eccentricities. Puchner is a writer to watch and I look forward to new publications from him.
Rating: 4 / 5