by Dana Spiotta
First published 2012
Denise Kranis has spent decades as her brother Nik's most devoted audience. They grew up together in Los Angeles during the late seventies and early eighties, when Nik always had a band and dreamed of musical success. Now in their forties, Nik creates his art in isolation, meticulously recording his work but never sharing it with the world. Denise carries the weight of caring for both Nik and their aging mother, whose advancing dementia threatens to erase her memories entirely. The delicate balance Denise maintains begins to crack when her daughter Ada announces plans to make a documentary about her uncle. The prospect of outside scrutiny forces the family to confront long-buried truths about art, sacrifice, and the stories they tell themselves to survive.
Genres: american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Los Angeles
Period: 1970s, 1980s, 2000s
238 pages · Paperback · Scribner
Content warnings: mental-illness