by Dana Spiotta
First published 2002
Mina works at the concept restaurants owned by her best friend Lorene, catering to Los Angeles's wealthy clientele obsessed with spiritual treatments and style. She lives with her screenwriter husband but has somehow acquired two lovers. Her father, a failed Hollywood director, hides from creditors in a yurt. Her troubled brother Michael tries to reconnect with her, forcing Mina to wonder if she still has emotions buried somewhere. Lorene charts her own perfection between Spiritual Exfoliation sessions, confident yet slowly unraveling. Lisa cleans houses to survive, worrying about food terrorists and child kidnappers until ordinary moments feel threatening. In this centerless city of Spirit Gyms and Miracle Miles, all three women struggle with lives built from consumer fetishes and cultural references. Mina must decide whether to keep drifting through her fragmented existence or face the possibility that she has gotten everything wrong.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, fragmented-existence
Setting: Los Angeles, Hollywood
Period: 21st-century
Paperback · Scribner