The Condition tells the story of the McKotches, a proper
New England family that comes apart during one fateful
summer. The year is 1976, and the family, Frank McKotch, an
eminent scientist; his pedigreed wife, Paulette; and their
three beautiful children has embarked on its annual
vacation at the Captain's House, the grand old family
retreat on Cape Cod. One day on the beach, Frank is struck
by an image he cannot forget: his thirteen-year-old
daughter, Gwen, strangely infantile in her child-sized
bikini, standing a full head shorter than her younger
cousin Charlotte. At that moment he knows a truth that he
can never again unknown something is terribly wrong with
his only daughter. The McKotch family will never be the
same.
Twenty years after Gwen's diagnosis with Turner's syndrome,
a genetic condition that has prevented her from maturing,
trapping her forever in the body of a child, all five
family members are still dealing with the fallout. Each
believes himself crippled by some secret pathology; each
feels responsible for the family's demise. Frank and
Paulette are acrimoniously divorced. Billy, the eldest son,
is dutiful but distant, a handsome Manhattan cardiologist
with a life built on compromise. His brother, Scott,
awakens from a pot-addled adolescence to a soul-killing
job, a regrettable marriage, and a vinyl-sided tract house
in the suburbs. And Gwen is silent and emotionally aloof, a
bright, accomplished woman who spurns any interaction with
those around her. She makes peace with the hermetic life
she's constructed until, well into her thirties, she falls
in love for the first time. And suddenly, once again, the
family's world is tilted on its axis.
Compassionate yet unflinchingly honest, witty and almost
painfully astute, The Condition explores the power of
family mythologies, the self-delusions, denials, and
inescapable truths that forever bind fathers and mothers
and siblings.
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