Synopses & Reviews
The debut novel from "wholly original" (Vogue) memoirist Amy Fusselman, a tragicomic family saga that skewers contemporary issues of money, motherhood, and class through a well-to-do woman's quest to buy a Hamptons beach house.
Shelly Means, a wealthy stay-at-home mom and disgraced former PTA president, is poised to get the one thing in life she really wants: a beach house in the Hamptons. Who would have guessed that Shelly, the product of frugal Midwesterners, or her husband George, an unrepentant thrift shopper, would ever be living among such swells? But Shelly believes it's possible. It might be a very small house, and it might be in the least-fancy part of the Hamptons. But Shelly has a vision board, an architect, and a plan.
But what should be a simple real estate transaction quickly goes awry as Shelly's new neighbors disapprove of her proposed shipping container house at the same time that George's lucrative work as a VoiceOver artist dries up. But Shelly is dogged. She knows how to go into beast mode. But will it ever be enough to realize her beach house dreams?
A novel of real estate, ambition, family, and money from "one of our best interrogators of how we live now, and how we should live" (Dave Eggers), The Means is also a fantastical, fast-moving and very funny exploration of class, wealth, and the value of work.
Review
“Deadpan absurdity, pithy prose and moral je ne sais quoi....A trenchant comedy of class and the way we live now.” Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
“Recommended to anyone who enjoys humorous fiction.” Library Journal
Review
“Location, location, location: that is the real estate chant. In Amy Fusselman's The Means those words are intermingled with laugh, laugh, laugh. Fusselman is a prescient observer chronicling one couple's desire to live near where the other half live. She deftly captures the absurdity of the everyday and the American quest for more. The Means is funny, playful and at times painfully accurate.” A.M. Homes, author of The Unfolding and May We Be Forgiven
Review
“This charming novel bears the Fusselman touch that makes all of her books so brilliant: touching, uncanny, and deceptively simple observations that dismantle complex assumptions about the world.” Sarah Manguso, author of Very Cold People<’em>
Review
"Amy Fusselman's The Means is an absolute delight! Anyone who's ever wanted more than they had — so, all of us — will be unable to turn away from this wise, funny, page-turning story of relationships, motherhood, and real estate ambitions." Jessica Anya Blau, author of Mary Jane
About the Author
Amy Fusselman is the author of four books of nonfiction. Her latest, Idiophone, was nominated for The Believer Book Award and the University of Iowa’s Krause Essay Prize. Her previous three books are: Savage Park: a Meditation on Play, Space, and Risk for Americans Who Are Nervous, Distracted, and Afraid to Die; 8; and The Pharmacist’s Mate. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, ARTnews, Ms., and The Washington Post, among many other outlets. She lives with her family in New York City, where she teaches creative writing at New York University.