The Smart One

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From the author of the national bestseller Girls in White Dresses, a gloriously funny new novel of sibling rivalry, thwarted expectations, and that place you return to when things to staggeringly awry: home.

Weezy and Will Coffey raised their children, Martha, Claire, and Max, to be kind, smart and independent. They helped with their homework, bought them a dog, and baked them homemade birthday cakes. It's true that Martha's a little too sensitive--she calls Claire several times a week to discuss natural disasters and local crime. And Claire has a short fuse with her sister--she becomes irate when Martha suggests that the two of them attend couples therapy. And Max, the baby and a senior in college, is a little too happy-go-lucky, though not as lucky as everyone would hope. Still, their parents did their best preparing them for the world. So why, Weezy wonders, is Martha living in her childhood bedroom after a career flameout? And why has Claire canceled her wedding and locked herself in her New York apartment? And how has Max managed to get himself into a girlfriend fiasco?

A story about the ways in which we never really grow up, The Smart One is a witty, gossipy, perfectly-drawn portrait of family life.

JENNIFER CLOSE was born and raised on the North Shore of Chicago. She graduated from Boston College and received her MFA in Fiction Writing from the New School in 2005. She worked in New York magazines for many years. She now lives in Washington, DC and teaches creative writing at George Washington University.