Kirkus
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A strange and fascinating look at an eccentric, dysfunctional wealthy family in 1920s Detroit automotive circles. As the American appetite for horseless carriages grew, so did the environs of Detroit, the country’s “Motor City.” In the first adult novel from Sepetys, the fractious Lennox clan runs the automobile-glass manufacturing business begun by Scottish-immigrant grandfather Cormac. Unfortunately, by 1927, the Lennoxes have devolved into a quarrelsome group: Stepmother Lilah receives odd injuries, while father Duncan drinks to excess and needs constant trips to the bathroom for “the squirts.” Sister Cecile longs to keep up with the local rich folk, while brother Graham and sister Charlotte (known as Chet) plot their father’s downfall. Meanwhile, the youngest sibling, Marjorie (Lilah’s only child), hopes to become a fashion designer and is thrilled when she’s offered an artist residency in downtown Detroit. Her three fellow artists, all women, include one who’s obsessed with painting Christmas scenes, another who builds furniture, and a playwright who can be heard typing but is never seen; they’re all given daily schedules and tasks by a man called Dock, who has an apartment in the building’s basement. Sepetys has meticulously researched her home city and its affluent suburbs and it shows, from descriptions of architecture down to the upper-class lingo affected by the younger Lennox family members. Their arch pronouncements, straight from the Cole Porter zeitgeist, unfortunately don’t mesh as well with the part of the book where Marjorie discovers the real impresario behind the residencies, or with Graham and Chet’s shady side hustle. The book’s first half has the feel of one of Jay Gatsby’s Roaring ’20s soirees, but it fizzles out as somber—and all too authentic—reality settles in on the Lennoxes. Still, Sepetys offers a new perspective on American capitalism by examining an era and a region seldom covered in historical fiction. While the setup threatens farce, the denouement demonstrates the precarity of women’s fates in a boomtown. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.