Suburbia and its discontents
The dark side of the American Dream is a topic well-explored in books and film. From the bleak realism of Richard Yates and Rick Moody to the more chilling treatments of David Lynch, American success—and its most iconic representation as idyllic white picket-fenced suburbia—has been dismantled and all its icky bits exposed.
This idea of the seedy underbelly of suburbia, all the gossip, secrets and crimes brewing underneath tidy lawns, bake sales, and neighborly cheer, is one of the qualities that makes Liane Moriarty’s book Big Little Lies, and its HBO miniseries-adaptation, so appealing. While fans wait to hear whether there will be a second season of the show, here are some books to tide you over with a similar vibe, examining the idea of presentation vs.reality and asking, “How well do you really know your neighbors?”
A funny-dark depiction of middle-class malaise, in which the stifling boredom of suburban life drives its residents to the distractions of vices and secret lives; to alcoholism, affairs, gossip and internet porn, and where the arrival of a convicted child molester to the neighborhood brings an almost welcome sense of outraged purpose to the community.
A man slaps another couple’s son at a barbecue and the ripple effects of the incident rock the entire community. Told from the POVs of eight people present for the slap, this is a study of relationships and contemporary values as neighbors judge, take sides and nurse resentments while their own shortcomings and flaws go unexamined. Hypocrisy abounds as the “behind closed doors” phenomenon of suburbia is scrutinized.
This focuses on relationships between teenage girls rather than the women of BLL, but the hierarchies and conflicts correlate. A squad of cheerleaders fall under the spell of their charismatic new coach with results both unifying and destructive. Loyalties are tested, rivalries burn, and the girls navigate secrets, death, and calorie-counting as they are initiated into the womanly arts of control, power and patience.
Like BLL, this multiple-POV novel examines the interconnected relationships between residents of a suburban town and the tragic collision resulting from their lies, secrets, and carefully constructed appearances. It’s a crime story in which social media is used to manipulate vulnerable youth, parents are distracted with their own problems, and trust is abused, with multiple plot twists before its climactic ending.
This is the scope of BLL whittled down into one claustrophobic character study where we are privy to the slow collapse of a woman’s mental state over the course of a week as she is left with her two young children while her wife is away, revisiting the idea that we can never know what pressures and anxieties are bubbling under the surface of those around us, what personal griefs complicate a seemingly perfect life.
This is suburbia on acid, a slow burn (heh) that escalates into complete mayhem as a dysfunctional couple, bored in the suffocating cushion of the American Dream, tests the limits of bad behavior.
This takes place in a London neighborhood whose flats all lead out to a shared park, where “community” has meaning: neighbors consider themselves to be part of an extended family, children roam unsupervised from house to house, and people are trusted and trustworthy. When a thirteen-year-old girl is found unconscious and assaulted in the park during a block party, this idyllic community’s secrets begin to surface.
A less ‘literary’ treatment of the theme, but if you want a faster-paced suburban suspense thriller, this’ll do it: the boredom of suburban living inspires nostalgic regret in characters who have been keeping their pasts secret to maintain the comfort and security of a life they have grown to resent, while the investigation of a long-unsolved disappearance linking their lives is about to bring chaos to all.
A man returns to his suburban hometown after his wife kicks him out and he gives in to temptation; hooking up with an old crush with her own secret apart from the affair, a husband involved in some shady business, and a rebellious teenaged daughter. Although the town is plagued by a series of robberies, this is more a story of converging lives than crime, leading up to one single moment that will change them forever.
Threats encroach from within and without as, in the midst of a deadly California wildfire outbreak, a pregnant teenager arrives unannounced on her biological father’s doorstep, much to the shock of his wife, and adding fuel to the gossip and judgment fire of a community whose own secrets and lies begin to surface as the town’s evacuation is imminent.
Jinjer @ Intrepid Arkansawyer
July 6, 2022 at 8:24 pm
Sounds like a great list! I’ll start with The Slap.
karen t. brissette
July 7, 2022 at 7:33 am
thank you! i made these lists years ago for riffle, so there are probably even better, newer titles now, but i stand by the work! i still have a bunch to move over to the site, but i’m getting there! thank you for reading it! (: