Perfect Little World: A Novel

As Stephen King says, start your story with an interesting situation. Here, the author succeeds by creating an experimental Infinite Family, 10 babies and their parents living as one, mostly in solitude for a period of ten years. Too bad the characters aren't as interesting as the situation. Still I'm glad I read this book, and it certainly held my attention throughout.This next part contains spoilers. Where the book fell short, at least for me, is it seemed to buckle under the weight of its own overly-wide scope. The book has so many characters and took place over such an extended period of time that each new layer of suspense quickly evaporated. The main character, Izzy, lives with 18 other parents, most of whom are completely indistinguishable from one another. What did Susan (or Jill or X or Y or Z) look like or want out of life? Who knows? With over 30 stick characters (19 parents + 10 brats + 4 researchers + others) are impossible to keep track of. Or care about.In the first few years of living with her experimental family, Izzy drunkenly hooks up with one of the husbands (just making out), but then there's no post-make-out awkwardness or sexual tension. Izzy corners the Infinite Family's founder and head researcher, planting a kiss on Dr Grind, which is somewhat reciprocated, but again, nothing seems to come of it. What does Izzy think of Dr Grind as the years slowly boil on - does she have hot dreams about him? Don't know! Izzy takes art classes and attracts the attention of some damaged hunk, but again, nothing. One of the research fellows hooks up with one of the fathers and becomes pregnant, which sets up conflict of whether this younger 11th child should be allowed to join the family. Interesting, but again, just a loose end. Passion without consequences. Sex without tension - yawn! Izzy's son Cap starts to look like and take on characteristics of Hal, the crazy art teacher who impregnated Izzy before she graduated from high school, and who later killed himself before Izzy gives birth to Cap. Interesting, but again nothing comes of it. Later in the book, many women admit to Izzy that they hated her early on, yet again, nothing comes of it. Dr. Grind likes to cut himself but there's never any tension that he's going to snap and hurt himself. Or somebody else.On the plus side, the book is always moving forward, but it feels more like meaningless and unconnected action rather than the accumulation of ever-building plot. The pieces don't pile together and burst in to some final "ah ha" reveal. Given the great situation the author creates, the reader is hoping/praying that what happens within the astro-turf complex will be more surprising and imaginative, not just somebody drank too much, somebody got stoned, somebody had an affair, one person hated another person, all kids ate their marshmallow in a nanosecond. What happens in the complex should be eerily fascinating or mind-bendingly scary - but it wasn't. Given all the talk about death, I kept hoping the book would slowly boil in to some creepy weirdness, where one or more characters slowly go off the rails as a result of the unique cult-like situation. When there's a hint that the fish were killed, I was like FINALLY something juicy is about to pop. I was even hoping Cap would turn out to be the disturbed goldfish serial killer. But everyone's so normal they are boring.Izzy is smart and beautiful (of course!) yet wants nothing for herself. Unrealistic! She has no tragic flaws to make her human and layered. The author is so busy planting a wide garden of character flowers that Izzy never blooms. Dr Grind is a little more intriguing, especially childhood recollections of the constant friction parenting under which he was raised by his duo-psychiatrist parents (Frasier and Lilith, anyone?). Another high point is the author's rendering of art teacher Hal who gives his teenage student-girlfriend Izzy something like $50 as a graduation gift, then makes her pay for their movie date, where he behaves like a first rate borderline personality ass before he's yanked off the novel's stage, only to hopefully have his quirky personality reappear in the couple's son. Great characterization of Izzy's leading men.And what does it all mean? What's the big take away about families, or love, or death, or parenthood, or experimentation? Um, not sure. Here the author maybe could have tied how Izzy and Preston end up as some counter point to the constant friction method Preston grew up under, but no, just another loose end. To the extent the conclusion of a novel is suppose to be the single outcome that wraps it all up in a true yet unexpected way, the book falls way short. It's like the author started out on this fabulous path with no idea where the story would end, so it ended sort of nowhere. It just petered out in a way that was so predictable I would have bet money against the obvious.Writing a novel is incredibly tough. I think the author has real talent and must have put a ton of work in to this book. His writing is easy to absorb and images crisp, often described in refreshing terms. Yet I feel like he held back on showing us a closer look at how twisted people can be when living in a small and crowded cage, which would have been more fun to read (and probably more fun to write!). It's much more gripping to witness one insect fidget and squirm under the glare of the microscope than to watch slow tunnels forming inside the ant farm. I look forward to seeing what Wilson writes next. I just hope he lets loose and really hits it out of the ballpark.There were some great high points in "Perfect Little World," enough so to hold my interest. I enjoyed this book and have put Wilson on my radar screen of authors to watch.

Another masterfully written book by Kevin Wilson. His humanity shines through once again in his brilliantly written characters that feel realer-than-life and a story that's full of heart and what it means to be a family in a dysfunctional environment. It's a book that you wish it didn't have an end.

I absolutely loved Kevin Wilson's previous novel. This one, however, I just couldn't get into. I tried on several occasions, but it's just not for me. That doesn't mean it's not a great book, though. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

I bought this after reading a library copy and knowing I would want to revisit it. It explores issues of family better than almost any contemporary novel I've read.

A very interesting book about raising children in a very different way. I enjoyed reading it. Would be a good discussion book for a book club.