The relief is almost unbearable, almost like joy. “I think I could squeeze you in.”
“Good,” he says, and then we just sit there for a while, close to each other but not touching, listening to the sold house creak and Hopkins yelling for my mother to come help her with something and Milton’s door closing shut below us, and it feels like everything is ending and starting all at the same time.
Reading Group Guide
Essay: The Only Normal One
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman of independent means and moderate disposition will, upon returning to her ancestral home for a visit of any length, suddenly come face-to-face with the realization that her family is totally bat-shit crazy.
The working title for this novel, which always made me smile, even though I knew it would never make it onto the actual cover, was Cousin Marilyn in Massachusetts. It was partially a J. D. Salinger tribute—“Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut” being the greatest short story ever written—but I was also referencing an iconic female character from my childhood, Cousin Marilyn from the 1960s TV show The Munsters.
Cousin Marilyn was blond and beautiful and normal and lived happily with a family of monsters. Nice monsters. Loving monsters. Caring monsters. But still…monsters. Vampires, werewolves, dead body parts put together to make a man. Like that.
Being the only nonmonster made Marilyn the family freak, kind of like in that Twilight Zone episode where the beautiful blond is considered ugly because everyone else in the world looks like a deformed pig. (You know, it just occurred to me that all my references come from black-and-white TV shows—clearly I never went to school when I was a kid, just pretended to be sick and watched old reruns all day long while my mother made me Jell-O.) Poor normal Marilyn stood apart from the rest of her kin, accepted and loved by them, but always visibly different.
She never seemed to find any of this disturbing—up to and including the fact that Grandpa liked to suck blood and little Eddie slept in a coffin—but you’ve got to figure that once in a while she lay in bed at night thinking, Why are all my relatives so…you know…monstrous? How come I’m the only normal one? Why couldn’t I have had a human family like all my friends do? And maybe even, I wonder if I was switched at birth with a harpy, and my real home is a nice split-level in New Rochelle?
Don’t we all occasionally wonder why the other members of our families are so much crazier than we are? Certainly almost everyone I know does. Of course, it’s like the statistic that eighty percent of adults over thirty think they look younger than their age. A certain percentage of us must be in denial. So while you may be the sane one from your perspective, odds are your sister Sue over there thinks you’re totally cuckoo and can’t wait to leave family dinner to go complain about you to her boyfriend.
Keats Sedlak, the protagonist of this book, starts off fairly certain that she’s the only one who’s escaped her family’s particular brand of lunatic brilliance and that her only hope for continued sanity lies in making a life for herself that’s as separate from theirs as possible. But as her family pulls her back in (families have a way of doing that, don’t they?), she finds her place with them again and realizes that maybe she does belong there after all.
She might be more competent, more social, more self-aware than anyone else in her family, but deep down she’s still very much a Sedlak, just as Cousin Marilyn was, despite her blond beauty, a Munster to the bone. We can ponder the mysteries of our crazy (and sometimes monstrous) families all we want, but two facts remain: they are us and we are them.
Reading Group Questions
Do you relate to being “the normal one” in a nutty family, or do you feel like an outlier or outsider in your more traditional family?
Were you rooting for Keats and Tom to stay together, or did their eventual breakup seem inevitable to you?
Have you ever known a couple like Larry and Eloise, who continue to live together after the decision to divorce is made? Is it possible to move on while you’re still under the same roof as an ex?
Have you been in the position of seeing one of your parents back on the dating scene? Is it inspiring? Uncomfortable? A little of both?
Keats tries to get Milton out of the house throughout the book—what has changed by the time she’s actually successful?
How does your impression of Hopkins throughout the book change when she shows up in the latter half?
Do you think that the Sedlaks are rude to or dismissive of Tom? Or is Keats projecting some of that attitude onto her family?
What do you think of the story of how Tom and Keats met? Do you think it’s charming or creepy?
What do you see happening to the Sedlaks after the book ends?
About the Author
Claire LaZebnik lives in Los Angeles with her TV writer husband and four children. She is the author of Knitting Under the Influence, The Smart One and the Pretty One, and If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home Now. For more information, go to clairelazebnik.com.
Praise for Claire LaZebnik’s Previous Novels
If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home Now
“Zany and sweet.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A clever yet poignant gaze at a young mother navigating budding romance, living at home with mom, and the treacherous labyrinth of a typical L.A. private school.”
—Gigi Levangie Grazer, author of Queen Takes King and
The Starter Wife
“What a wonderful, witty story! You laugh and cry and truly identify with Rickie as she discovers who she is and finds the best out about herself.”
—BestsellersWorld.com
“A sweet, surprising story about coming home, growing up, and moving on.”
—Beth Kendrick, author of Second Time Around
“I really enjoyed it…a fun read about a woman finding herself while she finds love.”
—MamaKittyReviews.com
“An affecting and entertaining novel, which I read in a weekend (from me, there is almost no higher praise). Rickie is a great heroine, flawed and funny, maybe drinks too much, but still an awesome mom. I love this book.”
—Mindy Kaling
“A thoroughly charming tale about an authentically-crafted family of believable characters…with conflicts and traumas with which average readers can relate.”
—Jhsiess.com
“Fierce, funny, and full of surprisingly heartbreaking twists and turns. LaZebnik roped me in with compelling characters but I stayed for her delicious storytelling.”
—Annabelle Gurwitch, coauthor of
You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up: A Love Story
“Rating: five out of five! This book reminded me of why I love reading so much!”
—StephtheBookworm.blogspot.com
“I loved this book…such a real story and clearly is something that so many young mothers go through…Claire LaZebnik is a wonderful writer.”
—DebiTrentBrown.com
The Smart One and The Pretty One
“A witty romp.”
—Marie Claire on The Smart One and the Pretty One
“Winning…moments of real depth combine with witty dialogue as LaZebnik deftly spins each turn convincingly to avoid easy answers.”
—Publishers Weekly
“This sparkling novel about two sisters is both witty and stylish. You won’t be able to resist LaZebnik’s charming take on modern relationships. Read it!”
—Holly Peterson, New York Times bestselling author of
The Manny
“A funny and endearing novel that truly captures the devotion and rivalry between sisters…whether they relate to the smart one or the pretty one (or both), readers will find this book irresistible.”
—Booklist
“Another alluring tale of two seemingly different sisters…Recommended.”
—Library Journal
“A deliciously intimate portrait of sisters.”
—W. Bruce Cameron, author of 8 Simple Rules fo
r Marrying My Daughter and A Dog’s Purpose
“A fun novel…perfect for reading on a beach.”
—WomansDay.com
“Claire LaZebnik explores the sister bond with warmth, wit, and honesty. I loved this novel.”
—Jill Smolinski, author of The Next Thing on My List
“Sisters everywhere will recognize themselves in The Smart One and the Pretty One. Claire LaZebnik has written a touching take on love, longing, and the ties that bind.”
—Heather and Rose MacDowell, authors of Turning Tables
“Claire LaZebnik has written a wonderfully smart and funny novel about the complexity of love and friendship between sisters. Filled with real warmth and astute observations, it made me wish I had a sister of my own. You’ll enjoy every heartfelt page.”
—Leslie Schnur, author of Late Night Talking and
The Dog Walker
Knitting Under the Influence
“At turns hilarious, at times heartbreaking, and so, so honest about life, love, and friendship. I loved it.”
—Melissa Senate
“Charming…smart, engaging characters, each of whom is complicated and real enough to be worth an entire book on her own.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“LaZebnik juggles periods of personal crisis while maintaining her characters’ complex individuality. Social knitters, especially, will relate to the bond that strengthens over the click-clack of the girls’ needles.”
—Publishers Weekly
“[A] funny and heart-tugging story about three twenty-something Los Angeles women who drink, cry, and, of course, knit together whenever they can.”
—Arizona Republic
“The characters and problems here are more realistically portrayed than in many chick-lit books, which makes this a nice combination of humor and heartache. Recommended.”
—Library Journal
“Fantastic…has great, believable, and well-written characters that bring the story to life. This is a story that no one will want to miss!”
—TCM Reviews
“A hilarious tale, sometimes sweet and touching and sometimes out-loud laughable. But mainly it is honest and hits home about life, love, and dating.”
—BookLoons.com
Also by Claire LaZebnik
Novels
Knitting Under the Influence
The Smart One and the Pretty One
If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home Now
For Young Adults
Epic Fail
Non-fiction (with Lynn Kern Koegel, PhD):
Overcoming Autism: Finding the Answers, Strategies, and Hope
That Can Transform a Child’s Life
Growing Up on the Spectrum: A Guide to Life, Love, and Learning
for Teens and Young Adults with Autism and Asperger’s
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Prologue
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
Reading Group Guide
About the Author
Praise for Claire LaZebnik’s Previous Novels
Also by Claire LaZebnik
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Claire LaZebnik
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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First eBook Edition: September 2011
ISBN: 978-1-455-50550-0
Families and Other Nonreturnable Gifts Page 27