Beach Reads: Get Lost in One of These

Sound the quitting horn! For my 9th annual beach reads edition, I’m recommending novels featuring colorful, troubled, haunted characters. Kindly indulge my starting with a personal story.

My wife, Megan, had pretty serious surgery a few months back. (She’s fine. I appreciate your concern. A breaded casserole would’ve been nice.) Girding for a long day at The Brigham, I packed Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. It’s hard to put down and pick up for that matter being roughly the size of a car battery. A gripping multi-generational tale that begins in 1980 with a hapless businessman’s kidnapping in his own driveway, it’s also hilarious. Well, as funny as torture, mental illness, drug & sex addiction, crippling debt, career failure, etc. can be. As in the author’s excellent debut, Fleishman Is in Trouble one of the main characters has such a wild break with reality that I could not stop laughing. Respectful, stifled laughter, mind you, as that basement waiting room was packed with nervous friends & relatives awaiting post-op news. As was I. At this point, Megan’s throat had been sliced open, and her head could’ve been rolling around the operating room floor for all I knew. I’m not an animal. But holy hand grenade, the writing. The detail. The abject psychosis and subsequent collapse. It does not let up and is beyond hysterical.

“I just added it to my cart,” a woman nearby told me in a hushed tone.

“I’m sorry?”

“That book,” she clarified. “I’m ordering it. Your reaction – it’s, what… the funniest thing you’ve ever read?”

Yup. I’m not urging you to read Long Island Compromise. Just encouraging it. A nudge. But know that Brodesser-Akner is relentless, stuffing her novel full, barely providing a break in the action, traditional chapters be damned.

Looking for something spooky instead? How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix is completely unhinged, a sound choice if you’re okay with a gaggle of insane puppets preventing two warring siblings from unloading their late parents’ property. Excellent nightstand material. There’s also Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake. With its Vermont landscapes, mysterious happenings, and a bonkers whodunnit twist, it may just be perfect for your waterfront vacation, ideally on a dock at dawn or dusk. Or try The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan. Set in coastal Maine, it centers on a disgraced booze hound and her lifelong fascination with an infamous Victorian house. Great story with a helpful reminder to maybe not secretly relocate that Native American cemetery even when it’s in the perfect spot for an inground pool.

Prefer crime with a shot of family drama? I’m late arriving to the Colson Whitehead party but catching up. Check out Harlem Shuffle and then Crook Manifesto for the ongoing saga of Ray Carney, furniture store proprietor who dabbles in fencing stolen goods. Starting in the late 50’s, Whitehead’s novels cover Ray’s myriad challenges over two decades. We feel the heat of the city, the grime on the cops, our hero’s pressure to deliver. Both are great. But if you desire something purely nasty, get Teddy Wayne’s The Winner. Conor is a New York tennis pro studying for the bar who’s granted free summer housing near the Cape (think Mattapoisett) in exchange for giving his landlord free lessons. He’s a sexual deviant and a very well-drawn bad guy. Great ending to this one.

May you find some escape this summer. You cannot go wrong with any of these books.

If you have anything to say about this – or book recommendations – kindly post below (rather than emailing me) to spark conversation. Thank you!