The Latecomer

September 1, 2021

Born into wealth and given very advantage, triplets Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally Oppenheim are looking forward to college and the chance to go their own ways. But then a sibling is born from an embryo leftover from their in vitro beginnings, and life gets complicated. From the author of You Should Have Known, the basis of the HBO show The Undoing; with a 200,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2022
A fatal car crash sets the stage for a fraught marriage and family life. Drifting through his privileged existence, 20-year-old Salo Oppenheimer is further unmoored after a Jeep he's driving flips and kills two passengers. On a subsequent trip to Europe, a rapturous encounter with a Cy Twombly painting launches his passionate engagement with cutting-edge art. He's less engaged with Johanna Hirsch, even though he marries her (it's expected) and, after three childless years, agrees to IVF, which results in four embryos and the birth of triplets Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally. Salo's real life is in the Brooklyn warehouse where he keeps his art collection--and with Stella, a fellow survivor of the crash whom he meets again some years later; soon they are lovers and have a son. Korelitz deftly limns this tension-riddled setup and the resulting Oppenheimer family dysfunction. Harrison, supersmart and arrogant, looks down on his siblings. Shut-off Lewyn seems to have imbibed his brother's dismissive assessment of him. Sally keeps secrets from herself and others. Johanna, wracked by a longing for connection neither her children nor husband care to fulfill, learns of Salo's other family on the eve of the triplets' departure for college and decides to have the fourth embryo thawed and gestated by a surrogate; Phoebe is born in June 2000, shortly before Lewyn and Sally depart for determinedly separate lives at Cornell and Harrison for an ultra-alternative school that, somewhat paradoxically, nurtures his aggressively conservative views. Part 2, which chronicles the triplets' college years, is long and at times alienating; Korelitz makes no attempt to soften the siblings' often mean behavior, which climaxes in an ugly scene at their 19th birthday party in September 2001. It pays off in Part 3, narrated by latecomer Phoebe, now 17 and charged with healing her family's gaping wounds. The resolution, complete with a wedding, persuasively and touchingly affirms that even the most damaged people can grow and change. A bit slow in the middle section but on balance, a satisfyingly twisty tale rooted in complex characterizations.

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Starred review from March 21, 2022
Korelitz (The Plot) returns with an irresistible dramedy of errors about a singularly unhappy family. There’s no love lost among Salo and Johanna Oppenheimer’s triplets as they head off to college in 2000. Harrison, “the smart one”; Lewyn, “the weird one”; and Sally, “the girl,” each have their own separate ambitions. Then there’s Phoebe, “the latecomer,” born that June from the Oppenheimers’ leftover frozen embryo. The strife in the couple’s difficult marriage originates in the 1970s, when they were students at Cornell. Salo was driving a Jeep that rolled over, killing his girlfriend, Mandy Bernstein, and a fraternity brother. Salo and Johanna, a friend of Mandy’s, bond in common grief, but quickly realize they have little else to connect them, and, indeed, as time goes on, Salo loves art more than he does his wife or their children. He becomes a collector of outsider art, stashing his spoils in a warehouse while his family enjoys a privileged life on the Brooklyn Heights waterfront. While Sally and Lewyn sort out their lives at Cornell, and Harrison at an ultraconservative two-year college, Salo makes regular trips to the West Coast to visit a documentary filmmaker he admires, whose life was also shaped by the fateful accident. A birthday clambake on Martha’s Vineyard in early September 2001 sets the stage for a cataclysmic culmination that uncovers a series of festering, self-destructive lies. Korelitz builds several satisfying twists into the crisp and panoramic narrative, and a coda from high schooler Phoebe in 2017 offers an acute look at the family affairs. This is a sizzler. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME.

April 15, 2022
Korelitz's latest (after The Plot, 2021) focuses on the many children of Salo and Johanna Oppenheimer. Salo, an art collector dealing with the trauma of a deadly car accident, clings to Johanna as a coping mechanism. They pursue IVF, and Joanna gives birth to triplets. The siblings couldn't differ more: Lewyn is quiet and thoughtful, Sally yearns for connection, and Harrison is bold and forward. The novel sweeps through the triplets' early lives and the growing rancor among them, then documents their college years. Sally and Lewyn go to Cornell and clash there, while Harrison moves on to Roarke, a two-year farm school that toughens up its students. And now they have a sister. Baby Phoebe is the fourth embryo, removed from cold storage after 17 years. As in Korelitz's earlier novels, the writing style is embellished and verbose, ideal for readers who favor a complex tome with lots of back story. Some may be disappointed after the faster pace of the blockbuster Plot, but the many twists in the final third are worth the wait.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2022

This saga of the New York City-based Oppenheimer family begins with the meeting of Salo and Johanna Oppenheimer under less-than-ideal circumstances, leading to a strange marriage more of convenience than of love. Johanna struggles with infertility but later manages to have triplets--Lewyn, Sally, and Harrison--through in vitro fertilization. The triplets are not close, and the siblings work progressively harder to get away from the family. Johanna's longing for a happy family leads her to conceive a fourth child, Phoebe. But does the arrival of the latecomer yield the results Johanna hoped for? Korelitz (The Plot) touches on the themes of religion, the infidelity of Salo, wealth, and deceptions over the years, as well as, eventually, the grown Phoebe's hopes to reunite all of them into a real family. VERDICT Readers expecting a mystery might want to look elsewhere, as this is more of a literary tale defining what it means to be a family. It's a marvelous story full of plot twists, intricacies, and depth in events that the reader will not see coming. Perfect for fans of character-based novels such as those by Sally Rooney or Lauren Groff.--Bill Anderson

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.