It was supposed to be a much-needed break from their lives in Brooklyn. Cecilie, a New York Times reporter, and Reuben, a former NPR host and now a stay-at-home dad, and their baby son traveled to Denmark to stay with her mother and to reconnect with her friends. From the start, this trip was anything but restorative. Cecilia learned her former lover had been diagnosed with a fatal illness and refused to seek help. Reuben was drawn into a weird relationship with Mikkel, one of Cecilie's friends.
SOMETHING ROTTEN, a novel by Andrew Lipstein, is a character-driven story. Cecilie and Reuben are well-depicted characters whose stories are told in their voices.
They are both introspective and deep thinkers. Early on, there were reasons for suspicions to develop and grow. Cecilie began to wonder who she could trust. Had her friends changed since she moved to New York? Or had she changed?
Well-plotted and filled with complex relationships, the author gives readers a clear look into a contemporary marriage. While the characters might not be entirely likeable, they are interesting and their actions can be surprising.
Unique and profound, SOMETHING ROTTEN is well worth reading.
In his provocative, crackling new novel, Andrew Lipstein spins a wicked web through the heart of Copenhagen. You'll question everyone and everything—even the very nature of truth.
Cecilie is a fed-up New York Times reporter. Her husband, Reuben, is a disgraced former NPR host and grudging stay-at-home dad. Neither can wait to flee New York and spend the summer in Copenhagen, Denmark, Cecilie’s hometown. But their vacation begins to turn inside out as soon as they land: Cecilie’s first love, Jonas, has been diagnosed with a rare, fatal illness. All of Cecilie’s friends are desperate to get him help—that is, except for Mikkel, a high-powered journalist who happens to be the only one Jonas will listen to.
Mikkel’s influence quickly extends to Reuben, who’s not only intoxicated by Mikkel’s charm, but discovers in him a new model of masculinity—one he found hopelessly absent in America. As Mikkel indoctrinates Reuben with ever more depraved stunts, Reuben senses something is seriously amiss. Cecilie, too, begins to question who to trust—even herself. Drawn in by the gravity of the past, she can’t help but stray onto the road not taken.
A twisting, thrilling tale of loyalty and deceit, lovers and fools, Andrew Lipstein's Something Rotten proves that sometimes to be kind you have to be cruel beyond belief.
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