The Book of George

Greathead (Laura & Emma) offers a wry and riveting story of wasted potential that follows its eponymous protagonist from the ages of 12 to 38. As a boy, George’s relationship with his parents is distant. When his mother, Ellen, divorces his clothes-horse father, Denis, George’s contempt for Denis grows. In college, George drifts further from Denis after he develops a thriving friend group. When Denis has a stroke, George puts off visiting him until it’s too late, marking the onset of lifelong feelings of guilt and depression. Greathead keenly depicts the ways in which George’s fractured family and grief contribute to his low self-esteem, which he masks under his narcissism and unjust critique of others, including his long-term girlfriend, Jenny, who supports him while he interns at a hedge fund and later quits working to pursue writing. George, though self-absorbed, shows enough potential for redemption to sustain Jenny’s interest as well as the reader’s, and Jenny delivers the book’s best lines (“Some people go through life trying to build others up.... You like to poke holes”). As George considers Jenny’s accusations, it’s a testament to Greathead’s skill that he becomes a character worth rooting for. This is a revelation. (Oct.)