The nest, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Knowing that one may inherit a sum of money at a certain age can sap initiative from the heir.  Leonard Plumb, Sr. knew that, so he arranged for his four children, Leo Jr., Bea, Jack, and Melody, to have access to the small sum he intended to leave each only after the youngest reaches forty.  He figured they’d have had sufficient time to find their own paths by then and it might give each a modest nest egg to use as they saw fit or give them a retirement cushion.  He died soon after making this decision.  In the intervening years, smart management by his cousin George and a booming stock market inflated the amount far beyond what he had intended.  And, regrettably, most of his children have a real and desperate need for the cash they have come to call “the nest” as Melody’s 40^th birthday approaches.  A few months before her February birthday, however, Leo Jr., a handsome, charming, successful man of dubious ethics, is involved in a bad car accident and the young waitress he had lured into his sports car (while he was drunk and high) is seriously injured.  Much of the nest, at their mother’s direction, is funneled into Leo’s recovery and rehab as well as paying off the injured Matilda.  Leo’s wife strips the rest of his assets away in the subsequent acrimonious divorce.  But Leo vows to make good on the money somehow – can he?  I came to really care about the characters in this debut novel, with the exception of the slippery Leo, despite their many flaws.  I still wish poor Melody had had a proper birthday, however.  It reads like a summer vacation novel, but is surprisingly complex and thoughtful.  353 pp.