The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz

This book was recommended by a friend, by way of her son's girlfriend (and of course it is also a New York Times Notable book--a list that I am reading my way through, this being the 41st book read from the 100 listed), and I have to say it is both a fun read, and a well constructed story. This centers on a wealthy, dysfunctional family, the Oppenheimer's, a New York family with triplets born via IVF who were “in full flight from one another as far back as their ancestral petri dish.” They couldn't be more different from each other, and they couldn't dislike each other more--I had a sort of romantic notion about multiple birth children being close, but here it is more about how they cannot escape each other, which makes them desperate to do so. The father is barely present, so aloof as to have little idea of this sibling distain, and throws himself into collecting art that no one thinks much of at the time, but later discovers it is spectacular. So he has talents, just not as a parent. The mother wants so desperately to have a happy family that she works hard to not see much of anything. The novel’s title contains the key to the story, a fourth child added to the family as the triplets leave home for college. Hers is the distinct narrative voice of the novel and it’s a pleasure to read. Her sharing of the family history and her role in its reconciliation drive the plot, which is well constructed and nicely wrapped together in the end.