The opening of the book was very strong and held a lot of promise. The story was engaging but the characters weren't fully developed. An enjoyable but forgettable read.

Given the writer's link to Mad Men, I jumped at the chance to read this. However, it was terribly written with no prose or character development. Because of the writing style, it was a quick read but it wasn't enjoyable. None of the characters were likeable and it was generally poor.

It was an interesting idea, but I just didn't care about any of the characters, because I didn't know anything about them. Just lots of summaries of events whilst years and years pass and then something happens. Was it in or out of character? I don't know? What will be the repercussions? I don't care. Disappointing. It was easy to read so clearly the author can write. He just needs to write more. Lots more.

I wanted to love this, and it definitely had flashes of brilliance, but overall it felt super rushed. The ending, in particular, seemed to have been written out as though they were some kind of 'write for your life! QUICKLY!' deadline in place.

Firstly this is short very short, you can easily read this in one sitting.

Without giving away the plot this is a story of 2 family groups , deliberately placed at opposite scales of the social spectrum but they have more in common than they would like to think as both families are dysfunctional. They are brought together by the daughter of the rich family and well any other information would give away the plot.

Why should you read this book , well the writing especially of the middle class family is pin sharp , i read sections out to my wife such was the humour and the sharpness of the work. , the second party in the book is less defined closer to stereotype but the book holds it together and avoids this trap (just)

The finale will annoy many but i didnt mind it seemed honest and real.

Highly recommended it is long enough to make its point and to tell a story which seems contemporary

Wow, this is bad! How a writer of the iconic Mad Men and The Sopranos can pen this is a mystery - was he 12 at the time? With no dialogue (really, NO dialogue), a story that flits through 18 years in a nanosecond, random capitalisations (the Woman, the Trainee, the Father, the Worker), and a completely bonkers 'plot' (couple meet on a blind date, marry, dote on their daughter, dad worries psychopath is letching over her, takes him upstairs and pushes him out of the window, the end) this feels like a joke read <scratches head in puzzlement>...

57DDC4F9-FFCD-4C67-8D6D-D4937A1C1A57-17995-000009FCFA80B378Matthew Weiner is the creator of Mad Men. A man, i thought, with a great feeling for story and character. His first novel will be a corker, I thought. I was wrong.

This is a very short book, coming in at under 150 pages. More novella than novel. But good things can come in small packages and it is very disappointing that this isn't one of them.

There is a story here, and quite a good one at that, but its execution leaves much to be desired. Weiner gives us 144 pages of exposition. No dialogue, no showing, just page after page of tell. The characters are fairly two-dimensional and not at all likeable. I think the author intended a wry, waspy look at rich Manhattenites, a cross between The Bonfire of The Vanities and American Psycho. For me, this book fell short of the mark.

Sorry to not recommend this one.

I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Heather, The Totality is an absorbing portrait of a girl, the way her parents revolve around her, and what happens when someone else is pulled into her orbit. Mark and Karen Breakstone have a fairly ordinary life of luxury which is fully cemented when their daughter Heather arrives into their lives. As she grows up, their respective relationships with her change, but they both continue to keep her as the central figure in their family. Meanwhile, a man who lives far away from their privilege will soon also be brought into contact with Heather, and again she will become a central focus.

Weiner, known best for the TV series Mad Men, writes in a distinctively blunt and detailed prose style as the narrative starts by setting up how the Breakstones come to be and then showing how their family unit moves and evolves. In between this, he cuts to snippets of the story of Bobby, a troubled young guy who escapes his drug addict mother and time in prison to work on a construction crew. The result is a surprisingly absorbing book that details the tiny elements of human life and how different people can become focused on one person. Heather as a character reflects the way parents see their own children in specific and personal ways, meaning that it takes until her perspective is explored to see how her parents’ may or may not be unfounded. Weiner uses these various perspectives and the minutiae of life to show a privileged life in its anxieties and successes, and what happens when an outsider lurks on the edge.

The plot is mostly understated, brewing arguments and thoughts, and its pacing is likely to feel familiar to those who’ve seen Mad Men, especially in the progression of Sally Draper in that series. There is lingering menace, but mostly it is a short and sharp novel about the small details of life and intricacies of family units. It is one for drama fans, not full of action but an intriguing portrait of a family that could be read in a single sitting.