Review: Domestic Violets

Norman, Matthew. Domestic Violets: A Novel. New York: Harper Perennial, 2011.

Matthew Norman's humorous novel depicts a 30-something son whose dead-end writing job and famous writer-father combine to squeeze his soul. Tom Violet lives in Georgetown, more or less on the largess of his father, with his growing-less-patient wife and daughter. He flirts with the hot younger woman at work and works intermittently on a novel; in short order he confesses to problems in the bedroom and the completion of said novel. Oh, and the economy is crashing, because it's the fall of 2008. Off he goes, careering off into the kinds of predicaments his famously amorous father enjoyed, while he battles boredom and a jerk at work. Tom Violet himself is an enjoyable character, but the rest of the bunch, save his daughter and his rather randy stepmon, are not particularly well-drawn; the entire affair is vaguely reminiscent of The Plagiarist, although it's much better than the Benjamin Cheever novel. The best parts of the book is the depiction of the Pulitzer luncheon (his father wins the prize for a book of short stories) and the resulting melee.