The ripple effect of the #MeToo movement hits small-town Massachusetts — and one family in particular — leading to community unrest, marital discord and a painful reckoning about decades-old decisions that haven’t aged well.
You may remember the place from “Ethan Frome.”.
In her debut novel, Mbue tells the story of a Cameroonian couple who are building a new life in New York City when their jobs are upended by the 2008 financial crisis. We see the collapse of Lehman Brothers through the eyes of an executive’s chauffeur and the unfortunate domino effect of choices made by a wealthy few.
The three of them live with a boarder/babysitter named Maddy and their aging dog, Hypatia, in a half-restored house crammed with soon-to-be-returned furniture the family can’t afford. “For a woman named Silence,” Ali Benjamin writes at the beginning of “The Smash-Up.”.