Mark and Karen Breakstone could be any other mid-40s couple. They met through a setup by mutual friends, fell in love easily and quickly, and are slowly checking the boxes toward domestic bliss: marriage, financial security and then, finally, a baby. But this is a story from "Mad Men" creator and writer Matthew Weiner, and fans of his iconic TV show know it can't be that simple. Spoiler alert: It isn't.

Mark's career takes off in ways they couldn't have imagined, and the Breakstones find themselves quite wealthy, establishing a posh lifestyle on Manhattan's Upper East Side. After leaving her career to care for the baby, Karen finds herself resenting her husband, his success and little things about their marriage. Thankfully, Heather is an angelic, easy baby, and she grows into a caring, intuitive and beautiful young woman. She is both the glue that keeps her family together and the thing that might tear them apart, each parent vying for her attention and affection, even at the peril of their own relationship. And when Heather catches the eye of Bobby Klasky, a construction worker renovating their apartment building, things take a dark turn.

Bobby is a career criminal with a tragic past and a misanthropic present. Weiner tells Bobby's story in parallel to the Breakstones', switching back and forth between both narratives at an almost breathless pace. The novel seems to be building toward an inevitable, brutal end, and it is—just not in the way you might think.

Heather, the Totality is a sharp, slim page-turner, though much simmers underneath the surface of Weiner's deft prose. In his portrait of an American family in crisis, Weiner makes us question ourselves, our motivations and just how far we would go for the people we love.

 

This article was originally published in the November 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Mark and Karen Breakstone, who live and work in Manhattan, marry later in life and have one child, Heather. As their daughter grows up, strangers continuously comment on her beauty and intelligence, making Karen overprotective. Consequently, Mark feels left out of the intense mother-daughter relationship. Heather is well aware of the escalating tension between her parents, and she is also disconcerted by the socioeconomic gap between her family and the people who work in her family's upscale apartment building. One person in particular, construction worker Bobby, catches Heather's attention as someone she could help, because his unusual appearance causes tenants to ignore him. But when Bobby's gaze lingers a little too long too often on Heather, Mark becomes suspicious of Bobby's intentions. VERDICT In his fiction debut, Weiner, creator of the Mad Men TV series (and executive producer on The Sopranos) delivers a razor-sharp, fast-paced dark look at the class divide. Fans of Richard Yates will enjoy this chilling addition to noir literature. [See Prepub Alert, 4/10/17.]—Russell Michalak, Goldey-Beacom Coll. Lib., Wilmington, DE

Mad Men creator Weiner crafts a finely honed tale that highlights class conflict. Mark Breakstone, a Manhattan financier, and his charming wife, Karen, may not quite be able to afford a penthouse apartment, but the couple have a wonderful daughter, Heather, who grows to be a beautiful teen, smart and full of empathy for others. Both her parents cherish her, despite the normal disappointments, arguments, and misunderstandings. These dramas play out in their heads or in minor squabbles, rendering the Breakstones as pitiful and mundane as many other families, despite their wealth. In contrast, Bobby Klasky is a pitiless, textbook sociopath, with a drug-addicted single mother and a record of violence toward animals. Convinced of his superiority over everyone, Bobby chooses the alluring Heather, whom he first spots on a Manhattan rooftop from an adjoining building where he's doing construction work, as the victim of his rape, torture, and murder fantasy, which he plans to carry out in the real world. Weiner somewhat telegraphs his final twist, but the results of that twist may still surprise. Agent: Jin Auh, Wylie Agency. (Nov.)