Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Living… in New Canaan, Connecticut, an affluent suburb with easy transit into New York, where he works. While his son Paul is away at boarding school, Ben lives with his wife Elena and their rebellious daughter Wendy, who accuses him (rather melodramatically) of being a “fascist.”
Visiting… his neighbor Janey’s house, regularly. In order to spice things up in his bland life, Ben has been having a sexual affair with the seductive Janey – though he thinks his wife is starting to suspect something.
Profession… working in a soulless office in midtown Manhattan. Ben makes a nice living for his family, but he has to slog through a boring routine in order to do so. He’s on the same train into Grand Central every day.
Interests… his evening cocktail(s). Other than that, Ben has ceased to enjoy a lot of the things he used to. “Golfing, to me, is something I’m supposed to enjoy,” he explains to his mistress, “and I was on the goddamn golf team at college, so it’s something one would assume I do well, I used to do well.”
Relationship Status… reaching a tipping point in his marriage to Elena. Ben usually likes to deflect any hint of tension between he and his wife with humor: “The only big fight we’ve had in years is about whether to go back into couple’s therapy!” But as Elena starts to feel like she’s being taken advantage of, such a tactic won’t suffice.
Challenge… keeping his personal life from falling apart. His affair is not making him happy, and it’s causing his home life to disintegrate faster than he’d expected.
Personality… charming, affable, yet deeply unhappy. Ben is duplicitous, yet lies to keep his life in order rather than to hurt people. Suburban life has not managed to satisfy him, and he yearns for his wilder, youthful years.
Get to Know him in...
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In the weekend after thanksgiving 1973 the Hoods are skidding out of control. Benjamin Hood reels from drink to drink, trying not to think about his trouble at the office. His wife, Elena, is reading self help books and losing patience with her husband's lies. Their son, Paul, home for the holidays, escapes to the city to pursue an alluring rich girl from his prep school. Young, budding nymphomaniac, Wendy Hood roams the neighborhood, innocently exploring liquor cabinets and lingerie drawers of her friends' parents, looking for something new. Then an ice storm hits, the worst in a century.
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A “powerful” novel of two families and a brutal winter storm in suburban Connecticut by the award-winning author of Purple America (Newsday). A potentially devastating blizzard approaches New Canaan, Connecticut, while internal forces of desire, frustration, and ennui threaten to tear apart two quintessentially affluent, suburban families. Elena Hood rightfully suspects her husband, Benjamin, is having an affair with neighbor Janey Williams, while Benjamin resents Elena and his mounting feelings of ineptitude. As the snow begins to fall, Benjamin and Elena, as well as Janey and her husband, attend a neighborhood “key party,” where they and other respectable suburbanites agree to go home with whomever’s keys they draw from a bowl. Meanwhile, the Hoods’ and Williams’s teenage children are caught up in their own experimentations with sex and drugs as they test the boundaries of their structured upbringing. With author Rick Moody’s sharp eye for the nuances of suburban life and allusions to 1970s America from Watergate to the Fantastic Four, the novel’s landscape is vivid and immersive. This timeless, unforgettable novel is a compassionate portrayal of flawed characters and reflects Rick Moody’s sharp eye for the contradictions of suburban life. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Rick Moody including rare images from the author’s personal collection.
