A curious novel set in FRANCE
Happy as Larry: A New York Story of Cults, Crushes and Quaaludes
Location(s): Manhattan
Genre(s): Coming of Age
Era(s): 1970s
After her beloved dad suddenly dies, teenage Saskia gets a crash course in growing up in after-hours New York. Her downwardly mobile family move from Gramercy Park to the seedy Upper West Side. Her mom becomes increasingly nihilistic and embarks on a sexual walkabout, which costs her the trust of Saskia’s two older siblings, who consequently run away to join the Sullivanians, a predatory psychosexual cult. Ex-communicated by her siblings, Saskia becomes her mom’s mom. High school becomes all about getting high at school, as Saskia struggles with grieving, her hapless crushes, fixing her family, and the desire to be loved. This witty, heart-breaking, but ultimately affirming coming-of-age novel, which doubles as a love letter to a Manhattan of an edgier era, speaks to the chaos of closure and the satisfaction of self-determination.
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