Perfect Little World
Ratings8
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings8
Average rating3.6
"Stellar . . . Compelling . . . Realer and wiser and sadder and eventually reassuring about human nature than dozens of other novels." Booklist When Isabelle Poole meets Dr. Preston Grind, she's fresh out of high school, pregnant with her art teacher's baby, and totally on her own. Izzy knows she can be a good mother but without any money or relatives to help, she's left searching. Dr. Grind, an awkwardly charming child psychologist, has spent his life studying family, even after tragedy struck his own. Now, with the help of an eccentric billionaire, he has the chance to create a "perfect little world"-to study what would happen when ten children are raised collectively, without knowing who their biological parents are. He calls it The Infinite Family Project and he wants Izzy and her son to join. This attempt at a utopian ideal starts off promising, but soon the gentle equilibrium among the families disintegrates: unspoken resentments between the couples begin to fester; the project's funding becomes tenuous; and Izzy's growing feelings for Dr. Grind make her question her participation in this strange experiment in the first place. Written with the same compassion and charm that won over legions of readers with The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson shows us with grace and humor that the best families are the ones we make for ourselves. PRAISE FOR KEVIN WILSON "Wilson's novel is, more than anything else, a comment on social construct. On top of looking at outward factors to blame, this novel also asks us to look inward.. Wilson's intriguing, dystopian world leaves us with one moral that rings true for all families: whether created or born into - they are never perfect, but they are everything." The National Post "The author of The Family Fang invents another unusual family structure for his sweet and thoroughly satisfying second novel...Wilson grounds his premise in credible human motivations and behavior, resulting in a memorable cast of characters. He uses his intriguing premise to explore the meaning of family and the limits of rational decision making." Publisher's Weekly "Like an animated Edward Gorey cartoon, with a more realistic contemporary setting and a warmer, lighter touch ... Wilson pulls off his sweet-and-tart tone with a soupcon of unexpected spice." Washington Post "Persistently compassionate. . . . Wilson's best moments are funny and earnest . . . crisp language and smart plotting make Perfect Little World immensely likable and absolutely enjoyable." GQ
Reviews with the most likes.
Reading Challenge category: a book already in your bookshelf.
This book would be a good book club pick, I think it would spark a lot of discussion about the nature of family. I wish part one had had been shorter and part two more fleshed out.
This book was disappointing. There was a pretty obvious theme floating throughout the book that Wilson refused to address: Izzy's relationships with father figures. Izzy has not one but two problematic relationships with older men and the fact that these relationships are problematic (one of which is criminal) is not addressed at all. I think the book could have been really interesting if it had delved deeper into those relationships and paralleled them to her relationship to her father but unfortunately we never got any of that. Also I thought this book was going to be way more culty than it turned out to be. Again, very disappointed.
Also Wilson sort of touches on how this upbringing could actually be bad for the kids which too would have been really interesting. But then it's never addressed either! This book had no real conflict or nothing interesting to say. I would not recommend it to anyone tbh because there's no actual substance here. It's just a thing that happened. If a lit professor were teaching this book they'd have nothing to lecture on!
