This is such a thoughtful, modern retelling of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome. I love re-invented classics, but balancing maintaining the integrity of the story and telling a new one is so delicate. Ali Benjamin does this perfectly in her novel.

This is the story of Zo and Ethan and the trials their marriage faces the 2018 presidential results, the #MeToo movement, small-town life, and a daughter with ADHD who is having trouble at school academically and socially. Zo is a documentarian/political activist who does not hesitate to share her anger and outrage with everyone around her, supported by her group "Them Witches." While Ethan is...a writer (?)...in limbo...having left the media start-up he co-founded whose owner, Randy, is now facing allegations from women he allegedly harassed. Their peaceful and bucolic life gets turned upside down as they begin to navigate their new world.

This book is written, primarily, from Ethan's POV until the very end where the perspective shifts to Zo, which I think worked as the narrative reached the climax event. I found myself having a hard time trying to relate to any of the characters who were flawed, yes, but the the point of unlikability. Ethan is in a mid-life crisis and begins a flirtation with their live-in baby-sitter (millennial Maddie), Zo wears her outrage on her sleeve and has seemingly checked-out of having an active role in her family, and Maddie is a cliché millennial (probably closer to Gen Z, tbh) who is floundering in her own life. The only character I felt any empathy towards is Ethan and Zo's daughter, Alex, who was diagnosed with ADHD, is unseen and misunderstood by her parents.

2.5 rounded up to 3. It dragged on a bit to reach the climax, especially with Ethan's conundrum with problematic Randy. The end was wrapped up a bit too quickly and I would have liked to learn more of Zo's healing and growing after the climax.

I honestly think I must have requested this by mistake... I am no fan of Ethan Frome, in its original or in a reimagining. I am no fan of rehashing, even in a fictional form, the events of 2018, horrifying Supreme Court nominees, or #metoo drama for the sake of entertainment. And I am apparently not a fan of the writing style on display here... It felt jumpy and disjointed and all over the place. And while that may well have been intentional, given the subject matter, it just didn't work for me and I wasn't able to finish...

This book is a picture of a moment in time that could have only happened during the Trump years. It also describes a place that any of us that vacation in the Berkshires recognize (although the names have been changed). It is the story of a marriage and the events that impact it. However (spoiler alert), I must say I was not prepared for the event that the title describes. I had to read it twice to actually believe what happened. In the end however, it turned out ok, hopefully like the Berkshires and the country...

Life in small-town Massachusettes challenges Ethan and Zo. It may even break them!
The co-founder of a lucrative media start-up, Ethan must now choose to blackmail a former client or go bankrupt. Filmmaker Zo becomes transformed thanks to newfound political activism and the #MeToo movement. A young nanny helps them manage their daughter's ADHD, but her questionable actions threaten the couple's peace.
I only finished this book out of obligation. It includes quite a bit of profanity and some sexual content that was unnecessary in my opinion.
The end did include a shocker - I appreciated that surprise. And the book brings up important themes of equality, sexual conduct, relationships, and activism.
"What exactly is the point of a tiny protest in the middle of nowhere, seen by almost no one? The point is that the person who does see might need exactly this, exactly now. The point is, her individual grief can become part of a collective one. The point is, this may or may not change the world, but it will almost certainly change her."

This book wasn't quite for me. I got to the 7% mark and realized that the book was written in such a manic tone that I couldn't even fall into what was happening (which really seemed to be not much except for a guy that probably deserved it had gotten flushed out by #MeToo). Other than that, a lot of the words felt like filler, and I wasn't interested or pulled in enough to continue reading to see if I was wrong. This could be a good fit for a reader who's excited by a over-animated way of writing (with lots of parenthetical phrases and asides).

This is the story of Ethan and Zo, a couple who live in a small town after successfully living in the big city. They have the house, the kid, but after a few years, their small-town life begins to feel like a big-time disappointment. In an interesting twist, Zo decides she wants a total stranger, Maddie, to move in with them. Maddie has just come out of a bad relationship and Ethan and Zo could use help working on their latest projects and with their young child, Alex. Set against the backdrop of 2016, the political atmosphere seeps its way into Ethan and Zo’s lives as Zo becomes increasingly more politically engaged and Ethan’s old firm undergoes a harassment lawsuit.

From the start, the writing style just did not click with me. It felt awkward and broken up in the wrong places which made it easy for my mind to wander off. Also, while I would have enjoyed the discussions surrounding 2016 political events/movements to give the story a specific setting, the way the information was presented made the novel feel outdated. I didn’t feel like the political events were written with a 2021 lens but with a 2016/2017 lens that boiled conversations down to grandiose generalizations without much insight. It really took me out of the story. Also, the character of Ethan wasn’t easy to follow as his perception of events felt very unaware and male-centric. He immediately perceives women, whether meaning to or not, based on what they provide or don’t provide for him. He perceives Maddie as attractive and Zo as difficult. It also does not help that Maddie comes off as very fun and laid back in perfect juxtaposition to Zo—and very manic-pixie-esque. He also doesn’t even want to know about the allegations going on in the firm he himself founded and from the onset he hates the politically engaged women Zo brings to the house. All this to say, he comes off as a cis white man who treats the serious topics of the time with little seriousness or self-awareness, yet we are expected to follow him first and foremost in the story. It just didn’t work for me.

Timely, emotional, and a good read. It was definitely hard to get into at first because I've been reading to escape more lately than wanting to read about current/recent events, but this one was an important read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC of this book.

This book is about a family torn apart by social, cultural, and a lot of outside influence. At the time I read this I was dealing with my own family tear-ups, so in a way, it helped me feel better and not at someone else's problems, fictional as it was, just that I'm not alone with this. Well written, I'd certainly recommend it, but not to everyone. 3.5 stars for me!

The Frome family moved out of Brooklyn to enjoy a quiet life in a rural Massachusetts town. Ethan is happily collecting checks from the media company he founded with his college roommate and friend, Randy, even though he longer works there. He depends on those checks to take care of his family. His wife Zo was a documentary filmmaker and now a mom to a hyperactive child, Alex. Alex is smart, funny and exhausting. She has no ''off'' button. To help with Alex they bring in a young adult to help. Maddie has questionable scruples and stirs up the household.

The setting for this novel is around the time of the Kavanagh Supreme Court hearings (Ugh!). Randy is caught up in some type of #MeToo scandal, threatening Ethan's income and Zo is spending her time protesting because she is so outraged at the current state of US affairs.

This is a modern story with modern social issues that affect these five people and this family. None of these charaters was very likable. Alex would be the most likable but her ADHD gets in the way. About 3/4 through Ethan takes this weird trip that is too long and is completed unnecessary. A solid *** for me.

Thank you Netgalley for an advance copy of this book.

This book just did not work for me. The characters are all unpleasant and they don't really change by the end. The conflict between Ethan and Zo is essentially just solved by Ethan deciding not to hate Zo anymore, but there wasn't a clear reason for this change. I also did not see the point of this being framed as an Ethan Frome retelling -- it didn't seem to add anything to the story. The setting in 2018 didn't work for me either. It felt like the author was trying to be part of a moment that we've already moved on from. Not that the issues we faced in 2018 are solved now, but things are constantly changing and the focus on topical issues of 2018 just made it feel kind of dated and like the author started writing this back then and just didn't manage to finish it until now.

I enjoyed this modern retelling of Ethan Frome. While it’s been many years since I read it, it was one of my favorite books when I read it in high school. This is an extremely modern take at that Edith Wharton novel. In The Smash-Up, Author Ali Benjamin covers a husband, wife and daughter navigating the world in the time just after the Trump election and Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court hearing. The novel covers the #metoo movement, the gig economy, parenting a child with ADHD (it does a great job describing this), marriage, and politics. I’m taking one star off for the mushroom scene, which I found overly long. Overall I really enjoyed this book.

I originally requested this book because the author is from the area that I grew up in, and there's nothing I love more than books set in familiar places. I really enjoyed the writing of this novel, every time I picked it up I got sucked in and read huge chunks at a time. I'd be super interested in anything Ali Benjamin writes in the future.

I honestly had higher expectations, but it was an insightful read filled with very flawed but ultimately lovable characters.

The Smash-Up is a very much au courant novel inspired by Ethan Frome and current events. Set in a small town in western Massachusetts, this tale takes a middle-aged Gen X couple, their ADHD middle school daughter, their live in babysitter and a number of other characters to tell a story about feminism, activism, and modern politics. Ethan and Zo moved to this small town years ago to escape the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn and to have a nice family life. Back in NY, Ethan had help found a media/marketing company and Zo was an up & coming filmmaker. In their rural lives, Zo finds herself full embroiled in activism, jumping on the wave of feminism following Trump's election, the #metoo movement, and the Justice Kavanaugh hearings. . Ethan is left wondering what happened to his life and his wife.

This book was witty and clever with many observations about modern day America especially in regards to #metoo and activism. I really enjoyed this one. Being a Gen Xer, I could relate to Ethan and Zo, as both try to stay on top of what is happening in America, on social media, and more. Ethan wants to do right but has his stumbles. He is left perplexed by what the younger generation is doing, but at the same time doesn't want to blindly assist friends from his own generation. Somehow I seem to be reading a bunch of #metoo related books (fiction and non-fiction) in a row, but perhaps we are just hitting the wave of when these literary response are being published. Next wave will be the pandemic-related books. :). I highly recommend this one to folks who like books with a sly eye towards current day politics and feminism.

What to listen to while reading...
(all of these songs are mentioned in the novel)

Paradise City by Guns N'Roses
People Have the Power by Patti Smith
Revolution by The Beatles
Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole by Martha Wainwright
What's Going on by Marvin Gaye
Straight Outta Vagina by Pussy Riot
Love Train by The O'Jays

First, a criticism. I hate that this is listed as “women’s literature” or “contemporary women” by some sellers. I fear these labels will turn potential male readers away. It’s a book for all of us.

The Smash-Up is an examination of what happens to a family when family happens. But larger, it’s a look at what happened when bad politics happens, when male fragility happens, when abuse of power happens, when a call-out of that abuse of power happens.

Needless to say, I loved this novel. It’s rich with heart and fury.

If the misery of the pandemic has made you forgotten the misery of the earlier portion of the Trump administration, this book is here to remind you. Primarily set in the week of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, and the Me Too movement is in full force. Ethan and Zo are in a slump in their marriage and careers and parenting their challenging 11 y. o. daughter, Alex, is an additional stressor. Alex is by far my favorite character in the book.
I read fiction to escape from reality, and although this one felt like reliving what I hoped to never live through in the first place, it is a good book. It is white privilege in full display. Zo has retail therapy but no job. Ethan’s finances are tied to a company he helped found but it is going off the rails due to his business partner’s improprieties. The only person working in the house is Maddy, the 26 y.o. living in the house and working at Ten Spot, where she will take requests to perform over a webcam. The sad reality is that Maddy has college loans with no college degree, has grown up with school shootings and natural disasters. Again, there is a lot of reality in this book of fiction.

Thanks NetGalley for an electronic arc of this one.

The Smash-Up by Ali Benjamin was not exactly what I imagined and unfortunately left me wanting more from the story line. This book is politically charged and full of culturally relevant issues that we have seen plastered all over news outlets for the past five years, including the 2016 Presidential Election, #MeToo Movement, the trial of Brett Kavanaugh, and events of mass casualty. While these events are culturally significant I am not sure that I want them to also become a part of my fictional world, but even if I must endure reality mixed in with fiction please do not have the characters haphazardly struggle through the experiences themselves as victims of their own reality.

The story is focused around Ethan and Zo, married and settled in a small town in the Berkshires, looking for a more tranquil reality after leaving their promising, fast paced careers behind. Ethan who sold out his shares in a lucrative media start-up and Zo leaving a career as a promising film-maker, find that even in their tranquil, suburbia society the events and news of today can disrupt even the smallest of towns. This book highlights how these events can infiltrate our homes, our lives, and our relationships.

The part I cant understand is why the author decided to have Ethan and Zo merely exist within this reality. It would have been nice to see them work to be a part of the solution rather than merely exist within its reality. Even Zo's attempts at activism felt forced rather than productive, she was too angry to be effective, and too volatile to be influential. If we are going to meld fiction and reality together lets use the opportunity and platform to create another narrative, to give ourselves another perspective to consider other than anger, hate, and violence.

I want to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

The Smash-Up is a modern retelling of Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, which I have not read. I’m honestly not sure what to say about The Smash-Up because I struggled with it and ended up DNFing. Sorry Ali Benjamin. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Great writing - my review will not do this book justice!
The way the author ties in current events and social mores with her believable, yet infuriating characters is amazing.
The title is taken from the "smash-up" which happens in the Edith Wharton novella, "Ethan Frome", and the story loosely follows this classic.
Ethan is basically a nice person, he does most of the parenting of his impossible manic / depressive 11 year old daughter, who is having trouble staying on track in school.
But he always wants to be the good guy, without having to take a stand one way or the other.
His wife Zenobia is the opposite- she is a stereotype of a very strident feminist, to the point where she stops working and devotes all her time to the womens resistantce and turns their house into a local headquarters for the movement.
Maddy Silver, the au pair, is good with their daughter Alex, but is an inconsistent babysitter and also likes to overtly flirt with Ethan. In fact, none of the characters in this book seem to actually work for a living.
I get the feeling that Ethan is kind of a do-nothing - he sold his share of a lucrative business to his partner, now he just waits for royalty checks to come in and for Zo to leave the house, so he can play up to Maddy.

The rollercoaster of certain events, happening politically and personally, leads up to a literal smash-up at the unexpected ending of the book. Very good reading!