K's Reviews > The Neighbors Are Watching

I suspect this may be a book my sister would like more than I did, although that's never a safe bet. This novel describes a circle of suburban neighbors -- Joe and Allison, a happy-seeming couple; Sam and Gloria, two lesbians adjusting now that their husbands have commandeered custody of their children; Dick and Dorothy, a stodgy couple with a self-righteous insistence on propriety; Jessalyn, who works as some kind of private call girl; the mysterious Sun family who talks to no one; and maybe one or two other people but I don't remember who. The catalyst for chaos on the block is the unexpected appearance of Joe's 17-year-old illegitimate daughter, 9 months pregnant. Joe and Allison's marriage is thrown into a tailspin; Sam annoys Gloria with her efforts to help Diana and Joe; Dick and Dorothy are horrified when Diana starts a relationship with their son Kevin, etc., etc. Little by little, we get to know the various characters in this story and their reactions to the chain of events set into motion by Diana's arrival.

This book was decently written but pretty bleak. The characters were certainly three-dimensional, which is nice, but no one was particularly likeable, not even well-intentioned Sam. I think it went on just a little too long, and I'm a little tired of books that paint suburban individuals as shallow, meaningless twits who live for gossip and not much else. It's decent, and I did give it three stars. I just didn't love it in spite of its good points.