The Float Test

In the remarkable latest from Strong (Want), a grieving family’s reunion provides a stage for conflicts over who has the right to tell another person’s story. Jude Kenner, a corporate lawyer, returns from New York City to her hometown in Florida after her mother’s death, dreading the reunion with her three siblings. There’s Jenn, the bossy oldest sister and mother of six; middle sister Fred, a novelist with whom Jude isn’t on speaking terms (the details of their rift come out later); and the youngest, George, a trader who’s separated from his wife. When Fred finds a gun in their mother’s nightstand, a Chekhovian hint of danger enters the narrative. Jude soon retreats to New York, not disclosing to her siblings that she’s been fired from her job, while the other three stay behind. Jude, who narrates, takes the same liberties a novelist would to delve into her siblings’ lives (“A lot of what I’m saying here I found out later; the rest, as Fred would say, I’ve imagined my way into because why not”). Not only does the story yield a fascinating meditation on the nature of fiction, but it exhibits profound empathy for each of the characters. This is Strong’s best yet. Agent: Sarah Bowlin, Aevitas Creative Management. (Apr.)