The Last Grownup by Allegra Goodman, 2023
The magic trick:
A narrator who drives us crazy even though she mostly deserves our sympathy
Our second Allegra Goodman of the week follows yesterday’s story about a young woman moving forward after the end of her engagement. “The Last Grownup” isn’t probably that same woman. But this protagonist is similarly dealing with the end of her marriage.
The narrator here is interesting. We read the story from her perspective, and so it’s not difficult for her to settle into the role of victim. It’s her ex who has moved on and moved in with his new girlfriend. It’s her ex who didn’t want a third child with her but suddenly has found the interest with his new girlfriend. It’s her who is home alone with the dog wanting the best for her daughters and her ex and her ex’s new girlfriend. It’s her who we see doing her very best to handle everything with maturity and grace.
So it may seem strange that it’s also her who comes off as pretty exhausting to the reader – or at least to me. She over-anticipates things so that she can edit her reaction down to the appropriate response in advance. She tries to control everything around her, as a result. So of course she’s a ball of stress. She’s just too much.
Not a ton of fun to be around.
Which is sad to say, because, as noted, she really is the victim here. She’s not a bad person. She deserves better than this, surely. But… sheesh.
And that’s quite a trick on Goodman’s part.
The selection:
A sweet moment, a really good exchange. “I was proud of us,” Debra told her therapist, Suzanne, the next day. Truly, she was happy for Richard, and relieved that he was done dating women half his age. Heather was someone Debra could work with. Someone she could respect.
It was a good thing. It was the right thing—and at the same time she knew that Richard’s remarriage would sting. The greater good would be another loss. “Does that even make sense?” she’d asked Suzanne.
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