daaalways.blogg.se

She leaves readers with the sense of having stood in the center of Clapham without ever having visited.

Straub effortlessly deposits details to expand these settings into fully physical places with a strong sense of identity. Perhaps simply reading about ordinary people living ordinary lives while we experience a pandemic lockdown enhances the enticement. Clapham feels enchanted in the same ways Straub’s other destinations are, whether the resort island of Mallorca ( The Vacationers) or the tree-lined streets of Ditmas Park, Brooklyn ( Modern Lovers). The plot of All Adults Here weaves complicated relationships through the fantasy of rural escapism, in a seemingly ideal village far removed from our own quarantine melancholy. With All Adults Here, Straub examines the ups and downs of small-town America with the critical eye of a skeptical urbanite. The skill of Straub’s writing is balancing soap opera-like plots with substantive emotional potency. All Adults Here follows Straub’s formula of a sprawling cast of intimately connected characters trafficking in secrets, gossip, and fragile egos. Goat farms, a five-and-dime lined main street, and a gilded age manor house serve as the setting for this family drama. Set in the fictional, Hudson Valley village of Clapham, Emma Straub’s All Adults Here explores the city dweller’s pastoral fantasy.