First published 1977
Richard Everett sits down to write his confession. At eleven years old, he already weighs too much and thinks too much about the adults around him. His father climbs corporate ladders while his mother drifts through their suburban mansion like a beautiful ghost. Richard watches them both with the sharp eyes of a child who knows he doesn't belong in their polished world. The family lives in the kind of neighborhood where success gets measured in square footage and private school tuition. Richard sees through the performance. He catalogues his parents' pretensions, his classmates' cruelties, and his own growing rage at being treated like furniture in his own life. His mother fascinates him most of all. She slips away from family dinners and disappears into her own mysterious pursuits. Richard decides to act. The violence he chooses will echo through decades of American childhood, but for now it belongs to one fat boy who refused to stay invisible. His confession reveals the rot beneath suburban prosperity and the terrible power of a child who finally demands to be seen.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-secrets, unreliable-narrator
Setting: America, Suburbs
Period: 20th Century
Mass Market Paperback · Fawcett
Content warnings: violence