The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The Oppenheimer Triplets — who were thought of by not a single person who knew them as “the Oppenheimer triplets” — had been in full flight from one another as far back as their ancestral petri dish.

-- The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz. 

This is my book club's latest pick. I am about two thirds of the way through it and love it. But I'm nervous that something might happen in the last third that turns me off the story. I read The Plot by the same author and loved the first half but thought the second half turned predictable and hated the ending. 

The Latecomer is a clever family story about three IVF triplets who never got along and couldn't wait to leave for college and away from each other. Their parents are wrapped up in their own miseries. What I like is the direction each of the triplets seem to be heading because their paths are decidedly different --different from each other but also different from typical characters in contemporary fiction. I hope they all end up fulfilled by their life choices. But I fear something unexpected might pop up and ruin everything. 

Have you read this one, The Plot, or any of Jean Hanff Korelitz's other books?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Latecomer:

Still, our father had been looking at paintings — often quite difficult paintings — for years by then, and because of that he was able to read an essential truth about those three tiny people — that they had arrived as they already were and would ever be: Harrison wild for escape, Sally preemptively sullen, Lewyn full of woe as he reached out for the others.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

The Latecomer follows the story of the wealthy, New York City-based Oppenheimer family, from the first meeting of parents Salo and Johanna, under tragic circumstances, to their triplets born during the early days of IVF. As children, the three siblings – Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally – feel no strong familial bond and cannot wait to go their separate ways, even as their father becomes more distanced and their mother more desperate. When the triplets leave for college, Johanna, faced with being truly alone, makes the decision to have a fourth child. What role will the “latecomer” play in this fractured family?