the shape of success
Money makes the world go around, the Bishop sisters learn, when they don’t have as much as they used to.
The three women grew up in a good Grosse Pointe neighborhood, not having to worry about money. Debra was the oldest, then Pam, then Harper. They looked after each other, and they made each other their target, in that way that sisters do. They grew up with money, so they thought life would always be easy. But the auto industry changed and Detroit lost a lot of wealth. Now, as adults, the sisters are struggling.
Debra is married to Perry, and they have a son Stevie. But Perry has cancer, and the treatment is exorbitantly expensive. Pam had a happy marriage, until she found out that her husband Doug had spent all their money, put them into debt, and even drained the trust funds they had set up for their kids Patrick and Vivian. Harper is just struggling to make ends meet each month. After a particularly difficult and drunken night with her sisters, as they all complained about their problems and debts, Harper needed to get away, so she took a job across the state for the summer, which turned into late October.
When Harper finally comes back to town, she is met by Pam, who is singing a very different song. She has leased a Lexus and talks about how much better things are for her. It turns out that shortly after Harper had left, Pam had bumped into a friend, Sue Fox, who helped rescue Pam from an embarrassing situation. And she had invited Pam to be a part of the Wheel.
A group of women meet twice a month for parties. They get together for support and friendship, and they bring the hostess of the party a gift. That gift is cash.
Each new member has to provide a buy-in of $5,000. That gets you on the board. Then you wait until it’s your turn, and every new member who shows up to your party gives you their gift, and that puts them on the board. And the Wheel turns, with women helping each other. Debts get paid. Lives are saved. Women are empowered, and they pass their good luck to the next woman who comes in the door. It’s a beautiful thing.
But anyone who has been in debt, on the verge of financial collapse, knows how desperate it can make you. Bad decisions get made. Desperate people do desperate things. Sometimes they even kill. And the Bishop sisters will find themselves in the middle of that as the Wheel rolls right over them.
Megan Abbott is back with a masterful tale of debt and desperation in a world where women still struggle for personal power. I am a big fan of Abbott. I love the depth and nuance of her writing as she parses out the tiny cracks in the relationships between these sisters. The secrets that bind them, and the ones that wedge between them, the details of the era, everything comes together to create this tense domestic thriller with unexpected twists and a stunner of an ending.
Abbott is one of those writers who takes everything I have to give through the course of her novel. It’s emotional and powerful and lingers in my memory for months. I can’t read too many books like that in one year, but I am always happy to reserve one of those spots for a new Megan Abbott book. I loved El Dorado Drive, and now I have time to recover from it before her next book hits bookstores.
Egalleys for El Dorado Drive were provided by G.P. Putnam’s Sons through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.
