Something Rotten

Lipstein (The Vegan) explores contemporary masculinity and culture clashes in his fascinating latest. Reuben, an NPR host, loses his job after he accidentally leaves his camera running during a Zoom work meeting while having sex with his wife, Cecilie, a journalist for the New York Times. The pair regroup for the summer in her native Denmark, where Reuben feels rudderless. Not only has he been canceled and made a laughing stock, but his self-worth has been shaken to the core, leaving him with a “vague guilt that seemed to follow him like a scent.” In this vulnerable state, he’s drawn to Mikkel, a charismatic investigative reporter who has just exposed sexual assault allegations against the leader of Denmark’s far-right nationalist party. Mikkel acts as instigator and sage to his timid American acquaintance, who is fascinated by the Dane’s “ironic, combative, lewd, bacheloresque... brand of masculinity” and drunkenly accedes to Mikkel’s urging to shave his head and get an ill-considered tattoo. Cecilie, meanwhile, reconnects with her ex-boyfriend Jonas, who has been diagnosed with a fatal brain disorder but, with Mikkel’s input, is refusing the operation that could save his life. Mikkel’s motives are opaque, and the question of whether he wants to help, hurt, or merely toy with the passive Reuben and Jonas animates Lipstein’s tense narrative. The revelations, when they come, are satisfying, and meaty considerations of ethics and truth round out the novel’s entertaining depiction of an American innocent abroad and his European Svengali. This razor-sharp morality tale is Lipstein’s best yet. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group. (Jan.)