Jean Hanff Korelitz is becoming a favorite author, this is the third book I have read by this author, liked all of them but this is by far my favorite. This story is about a wealthy New York family, the Oppenheimers, who, thanks to IVF, eventually have 4 viable embryos, Johanna, mom, decides to have three of the four eggs implanted and gives birth to triplets. Her biggest wish and desire is for these three children to have a strong family bond and love each other. Actually though, just the opposite happens, the three really cannot stand each other as people. With dad, Salo, involved with his art and the triplets leaving for college, Johanna decides to unfreeze embryo number 4 and have another child. Kind of weird, right? I just loved the writing and family dynamics from each of the children's point of view. I heard the author speak and love that Steve Martin, being a huge art collector, influenced her choice of artists to talk about in the story as well. Readers who enjoy family dramas, like 'The Most Fun We Ever Had and 'Ask Again, Yes' will love this one. I read and listened to this one and enjoyed the audio book as well.

I absolutely loved Jean Hanff Korelitz's last book, The Plot, so I was very excited to get an ARC of The Latecomer from Bookish First. But it did not live up to my high expectations. The book is well written but the first two thirds are so slow. It also does not help that most of the characters are very unlikeable and don't even like each other. I did not start to really enjoy the book until the last third when the latecomer finally made her appearance and there was more character development for all the characters. Phoebe is the most developed and mature character in the book despite being the youngest sibling. The rest of the characters were all redeemed in some way by the end and I liked the relationships that developed among the siblings. I also liked Jean Hanff Korelitz's writing style and would definitely read other books by her in the future.

This book was really slow. Too slow in some places. The writing really wasn't cohesive or interesting.
I hate to say it put me to sleep 3 nights running.
I found the character building to be tiresome and one dimensional.
It sounded so great but it really barely held my interest. I did finish it and while I can appreciate that the author has talent, the book missed every mark for me.

2 stars

The Latecomer By Jean Hanff Korelitz
Rating (4/5) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Publisher date - May 31st 2022
I received an arc copy from Netgalley! This is the first novel I have read by Jean and it won’t be the last. In fact , I just purchased The Plot today. The Latecomer is a story following the Oppenheimer family, Johanna and Salk along with their triplets and later the “latecomer” Phoebe. This is a slow build , in depth character study type of read. It took about 100 pages to get fully immersed into the story. Once you get passed that, the story takes shape and then I found myself unable to put it down. If you enjoy a coming of age story , with multiple points of view , this one is definitely worth reading.

When Salo and Johanna Oppenheimer decide to have children, the process is not easy. They embark down the road of IVF, harvesting four embryos and implanting three - resulting in Sally, Lewyn, and Harrison. A family entirely without happiness. Will the fourth child make the difference?

I honestly don't know how to write about this incredible book. I read The Plot by Korelitz and was thoroughly pulled in by the literary thriller, so I was excited to be given the opportunity to read The Latecomer. This book threw all of my expectations out the window, and I couldn't have loved it more. It may be important to some that this is not a thriller, but a very intricate and detailed slow burn of a family saga with some very unlikable characters. But it was compulsively readable and could not put it down. The storytelling was masterful and well worth the time. It's hard to say much more than that, but I wholeheartedly loved this book and will recommend it far and wide.

This was a slow burner for me. I really enjoyed it by the end but it took a while to get into it. I love sprawling family sagas but some of the family members were vastly more interesting than others.

Salo and Johanna Oppenheimer had tried having children. It was recommended that they try IVF. Eggs were harvested and 4 viable embryos were available. With no guarantee as to implantation, the doctor implanted 3. The arrival of the Oppenheimer triplets was a joyous event for their mother. How would three children that were born together get along? What happens to the fourth embryo?

Jean Hanff Korelitz explores family dynamics in this deep look into the Oppenheimer family. She explores the bonds between siblings - are these bonds real? Does a sibling relationship change with tragedy? Her perspective on early childhood being an indicator of adult life is interesting and her characters are equal parts charming and frustrating.

Being a sibling is complicated and messy. This book does an outstanding job of showing the frustrations siblings have with each other and their parents. Can they develop sustainable relationships without their parents? Check this wonderful story out and see.

A masterfully layered family drama with deeply complex characters.

Much like the beautiful roses on the front cover, the Oppenheimer family is both alluring and thorny. With the family bedrock being a combination of privilege and tragedy, you’ll find the parents and triplets equal parts mystifying and unlikeable. Yet even the thorniest of roses produce beauty, and when the bonus child… the latecomer… enters the picture, so does a modicum of hope.

Dense in detail, the first half of the book was an investment. While the prose was intricate and beautiful, I found myself longing for brevity.

But the slow build of these meticulously crafted characters paid off in the second half. Suddenly, the ambitious character study unfolded into drama and cultural commentary that kept me turning page after page, speeding towards the end. Patience in the first half was highly rewarded in the second half. The Latecomer section was my favorite, and I would’ve loved even more from Phoebe.

Korelitz use of art as a vehicle to understand the family, both past and present, was incredibly unique and created an emotional connection to these highly unlikeable characters in a manner that couldn’t have been executed otherwise.

Cultural commentary on wealth, religion, education, and birth order was also expertly woven into the storyline in a distinct and compelling manner. Korelitz’ magnifying glass look into this flawed family conspicuously symbolizes flaws within society as a whole.

Completely differing from Korelitz prior mystery/thriller works, The Latecomer is a slow build family drama worth your time.

Thank you to @celadonbooks for this #gifted copy.

The Latecomers introduces us to Johanna and Salo Oppenheimer. Salo suffers Stendahl Syndrome in front of a piece of art in a museum which begins the move away from family for him and into this bright new world of art. His wife, Johanna, has always wanted to be a mother and it is just not happening. With wealth behind them, she convinces Salo to undergo several rounds of IVF, a new procedure at the time. Only four healthy embryos are made. Three are implanted into Johanna with the expectation that she will lose them like she has in the past and then they will use the last embryo with a surrogate. But low and behold Johanna’s pregnancy sticks and all 3 embryos survive. Triplets Harrison, Lewyn and Sally are born. As the children are growing up it becomes clear that they have no bond with one another. When they had off to college, Johanna tells her husband that she needs to have another baby. The fourth embryo is then used and Phoebe is born by surrogate.

The first half to 2/3rds of the story focus on the triplets in a silo fashion. There are chapters for each and rarely are the others mentioned. Two of the siblings go to the same college and don’t even tell their friends or roommates that they have siblings let alone ones living on the same campus.

How this fourth child affects the bigger family is the premise for the last third of the book. As Phoebe becomes a 17 year old senior she spends some time with each of her siblings. A seeming happenstance turns into something much more explosive than I would ever have predicted.

The Latecomers is a slow burn, character driven novel that takes on family bonds or lack thereof, privilege, grief, marriage satisfaction, and identity. While I did not particularly like any of the triplet characters until they were well into their thirties and I still didn’t like one at that point. The author drew them very distinctly. I did like the character of Phoebe and her desire to want to be part of a whole family.

There were a few plot twists that I wasn’t expecting but not in the way of her previous novels. The Latecomers is much more literary fiction. There were ideas put forth that were thought provoking. I also found myself googling the artists mentioned.

For a book that was perhaps not depressing at times, but maybe somber, I was happy to see a hopeful ending.

Thank you to @netgalley and @CeladonBooks for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinions. The Latecomer publishes May 31, 2022.

*Thank you to Celadon books, Jean Hanff Korelitz and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

The Latecomer, Korelitz's amazing novel after The Plot, is truly epic. It centers on the Oppenheim family, Salo and Johanna, and their triplets with the addition of Phoebe, the latecomer. Salo, in his early days at Cornell, was in a car accident that killed two of his friends. He was driving the car. Johanna believes it is her life's mission to make it better for Salo. Her heart is set on having a family with him, and after many years of infertility, they are blessed with four perfect embryos. Johanna gives birth to triplets, saving one embryo to freeze.

Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally should be as close as triplets ought to be, fulfilling Johanna's wish of the perfect family to give Salo. However, this is not the case. Almost from their birth, the triplets can't stand each other. They grow up selfish and complacent, openly hostile to each other. While their mother does everything to give the impression that they are a close-knit family, the reality is that rather than a family; they are five separate people living in a big beautiful house in Brooklyn Heights. When Sally and Lewyn leave for Cornell and Harrison for a small college in the woods of New Hampshire, Johanna makes the unpopular decision to have the fourth embryo implanted in a surrogate. Phoebe is the latecomer, the fourth embryo born 17 years after the triplets.

"The Latecomer" by Jean Hanff Korelitz is heavy, full of drama, and characters you are not sure you even like. There are issues of race, addiction, infidelity, grief, and outstanding privilege. It reminded me a little of the movie, The Royal Tenenbaums, with Sally playing an excellent Margot. The Latecomer is beautifully written at almost 500 pages, which fly by in an instant.

Review of The Latecomer:

What happens to the family ties that bind, crack, split, and then get forced back together?
This story.
It was a very full book, covering the parents meeting and having a set of triplets with some surprise characters along the way.
Built on each characters growth and happenstance, I sometimes loathed all of them and their privilege. It made for an interesting interplay between my own beliefs and theirs which I enjoyed exploring. I don’t always like reading a book where the characters are so cringe worthy at times, but the plot helped carry the story for me in those moments.
This story has a very Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom vibe to it, though I found it much less depressing.
That is the theme of this book however…
Unhappiness.
How it gets carried or repressed. How it can destruct the entire foundations of growing up.
Lives built on secrets and lies.
If you like a good family drama, this one’s for you!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
For as long as it was, I wish I had felt more for the characters, but it was a good read none the less.

This book was well written and densely layered. Very different than the Plot, which initially drew me to request this book. A pleasure to read.

This story follows a dysfunctional family with multiple layers of issues both uncovered and addressed. And both as a family dynamic as well as individuals surrounding issues of loss, wealth, race & privilege. While I know the slow build up was intentional, I found it too slow until about a little more than halfway through. I was compelled to understand where the story was going so, I stuck with the story. The pace did pick up and the intention of all the groundwork that was previously laid did come to fruition in a surprising way. I’m still processing and thinking about this book - something I usually revel as an indicator that a book has made an impression on me. Most certainly I found the content thought provoking and the story, well-written.

I was super excited for this one but it just didn’t do it for me. I liked the plot but it was slow at first and hard to get into. The ending was great and I do recommend if it sounds like something you would be interested in

I absolutely loved The Plot by this author and although I didn't read her previous book You Should Have Known, I did love the HBO adaptation The Undoing, so I was very excited to read this book! I was surprised as I began reading, however, how slow the beginning was for me. The writing was descriptive with much attention detail, which I usually love, but in this case it was almost an overload of sometimes dry narration and back story, with generally unlikable characters. I was nearly reluctant to keep reading, but I remembered how much I've enjoyed this author's previous stories, so I was encouraged to keep reading and I am very GLAD I did! At the half-way point in the book, the individual stories began to come together in a more coherent whole as the youngest (and for me the most endearing) family member comes of age to discover who she is, what is her place in her family and in the world, as she strives to break down the invisible barriers that have kept her family emotionally distant and physically apart. The ending is extremely satisfying with a resolution that gives hope for the future of the family and all of its members.

Very grateful for the opportunity to read and review this title. While I think the concept was fascinating, it was realllly long. The third part narrated by "the Latecomer" was the best portion in my opinion, but it was a long road to get there.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Latecomer, written by Jean Hanff Korelitz, introduces us to the dysfunctional Oppenheimer family of ill-prepared parents and three disparate triplets. Sharing a birthdate and a birth mother does not equal identical cloned children. Personalities aren't formed by parental influence, although children do benefit from acceptance, love, and care. Sometimes, character traits are simply the result of genetic predispositions. These triplets did not win the jackpot. Dad is a loner, burdened by a lifetime of guilt for a college car crash that resulted in the death of two people and unable to connect, on any level, with his entire family. The mother overcompensates this disturbing family behavior by encouraging camaraderie and peaceful co-existence. She is unsuccessful. Eventually, it all goes to hell when secrets come out. This is a betrayal that the family cannot forgive. So, the answer? The kids are grown and in college, and his wife decides it is time for a do-over and makes a wild request. We have a deliciously mind-blowing novel with a dysfunctional family saga covering many generations and all started by a father who found love and happiness hard to embrace. The story is slow to build with twists and turns. Out of the ashes comes a family that, for better or worse, continues to travel through life distantly together. #guilt #art #literaryfiction #marriage #separatefamilies #dsyfunctional #ivf #eccentricity #netgalley #celadonbooks #thelatecomer @celadonbooks @netgalley @jeanhanff
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Thank you to NetGalley, and Celadon Books for this ARC; my thoughts and review are my own and without bias.

#bookaddict #booksofinstagram #bookhaul #bookstagram #bookstagramer #bookshelf #booksbooksbooks #readersofinstagram #reader #booklove #bookobsessed #instabooks #readABook (Pub Date: May 31, 2022)

This is a truly spectacular story, a complex, multi-layered family drama that spans over decades. We follow the Oppenheimers, a wealthy Jewish family. Parents Salo and Johanna meet under tragic circumstances. They marry and have triplets through IVF, and 17 years later have their last child, the latecomer the book is named for. The triplets are distant and uncommunicative with each other to the dismay of their mother. They long for independence and to be away from each other. We follow their individual journeys and learn who they become and it’s absolutely fascinating. Latecomer Phoebe is left in the detritus of this fractured family.
Korelitz is such a skilled writer and she makes this story so multifaceted. At times, it is tragic and moving. At other times, it is hilarious and lyrical. It held my attention and I desperately wanted to know what became of this family. This is an overall satisfying read and I’m so glad that I found it.

I really liked her last book but this one just wasn’t for me. It was absolutely beautifully written and there so many things to love but the pacing was just off

This was beautifullyyyy written, and I liked how part of the setting was in Ithaca, being a Western New Yorker myself!

As for the story overall, it was just okay for me. It's heavily character-driven, and I found it difficult to connect with any of the Oppenheimers. There were also strong undertones of religion and art, neither of which interest me personally. Part Three of the book was much more engaging for me than the first two, but I was never got the feeling of "oh my god I can't put this down!" I may have liked it more if it was 100 pages shorter.