Leisure Living
It's strange to call a novel about rehabbing a mobile home park a nail-biter, but this one sure is—I was on the edge of my seat (on the edge of bankruptcy, on the edge of town). Leisure Living isn't just a lowkey real estate thriller, though, it's a rich commentary on our economic moment, and a melancholy, life-affirming story of fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives that I'll be thinking about for a long time. A great debut from distinctive and exciting new writer.
A mobile home park in upstate New York may seem an unlikely venue for the transformation of a ambitious young stockbroker into a human being, but Kaufmann's sure touch with language, the authenticity of his emotional understanding, and his wry appreciation of the tragicomic ins and outs of human existence make this a compelling and deeply rewarding read. I loved it!
Kaufmann took me on a journey through the classes in 21st century America, with stops at a mobile home park, a strip club, the trading floor of a Wall Street firm and everything in between and beyond. I followed him every step of the way, thrilled by the narrative, the plot, and his ability to let thinkers through the ages comment on our times. He earned my trust through exceptional honesty, rare emotional depth, dark wit and a brilliant clarity of execution.
Leisure Living follows the story of Joe Dubay, a thirty-ish Wall Street trader who thought that he had escaped the gravitational field of a mobile home park owned by his father when he left for college. At the beginning of the book, Joe’s father falls ill and Joe travels to the borderlands of northern New York to manage the family business. There, he is plunged into a bramble-bush of family secrets, decaying infrastructure, a predatory investment group, an old friend from his teens, her sons, and her abusive and dangerous brother and boyfriend.
Leisure Living showcases Kaufmann’s ability to explore issues of perception, knowledge, causation and memory through the most unlikely of lenses.
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