Booklife Review

Bold and incisive, this hefty novel from McConnell (winner of the American Library Association Award for Non-Fiction for 2014’s American Honor Killings) charts two young men’s coming of age in the 1980s and ‘90s, and the decline, as they discover who they are, of their parents and the culture itself. A realist with a reporter’s understanding of systems and spiky satiric bent, McConnell explores secrets, scandals, and questions of inheritance among the late twentieth century country club set, the storytelling alive with glitteringly callous dialogue (advice to a young man not yet sure if he’s gay: “Try to be the top. You’ll have a much happier life, I can promise you”). McConnell’s target: nothing less than what young Darius Van Nest calls the “schizophrenia” of American life—as in, “You must act cheerful and humble, but you must also foster ruthlessness in your heart.”

Readers meet Darius when he’s a lonely prep-school boy, crushing on his teacher and calling the help his “slave”s. That teacher, who at first might strike readers as the novel’s moral center, soon concocts an excuse to brush her hand against the crotch of Barry, the bottle-blonde adolescent who, off-and-on, shares an intense friendship with Darius. The Beads takes vivid excursions into Paris and Giuliani-era New York, and McConnell’s subtle, densely woven plot abounds with far-flung characters and their schemes to gain or protect wealth: an oilman whose company faces liability in the murder of an activist in Mexico; the French tutor who long ago stole seemingly inconsequential drawings and sees opportunity as the art market booms.

Darius and Barry strive, as they mature, for something that matters in life. McConnell scrupulously avoids pieties, and especially in the uninviting first chapters, edges toward density, demanding readers work to keep up. But those who favor brash, prickly characters with opinions about, say, Al Haig, Institutionalism, and how to hide money from one’s family will be rewarded with bravura set pieces, urgent moral inquiry, dazzling prose, and charged insights.

Takeaway: Bold, brash novel of wealth, secrets, and self-discovery in late 20th century America.

Comparable Titles: Brandon Taylor’s Real Life; Ben Lerner.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A