Primitive People

By Francine Prose

Book Overview

A Haitian migr 's exposure to shallow suburbanites is "social satire at its slyest and best" from the New York Times-bestselling author (Kirkus Reviews).

When the heartbroken Simone flees her native Haiti, her best option to start a new life is a quick paper marriage to a Brooklyn cab driver and a job as an underpaid caregiver to two spoiled young children in the small community of Hudson Landing, New York. But her new boss is nothing like what she's been led to expect. The self-absorbed amateur sculptor Rosemary Porter and her morose, eccentric children George and Maisie--deserted by their philandering husband and father--rattle aimlessly around their crumbling suburban mansion.

The people of Hudson Landing seem welcoming at first, but as Simone settles into this new home, her sense of unease grows. Rosemary's sarcastic best friend, Shelly, seems as suspicious of her as her shallow boyfriend, Kenny, a children's hair salon owner who appears eager to befriend the new au pair. A neighbor known only as "The Count" strings dead animals from trees for no reason anyone can understand. As the local community roils with secrets and attempts to outdo each other with self-importance, Simone begins to wonder just where on earth she has fled to--and if it's any better than the violence and betrayal she left behind.

As always, National Book Award finalist Francine Prose "has a wickedly sharp ear for pretentious American idiom, and no telling detail escapes her observation" as Simone struggles to make sense of these odd people and this strange, new world (The New York Times Book Review).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1480445479
• ISBN13: 9781480445475
• Release Date: November 2013
• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

missing the boat?

I mean the other reviews. Wo wo wo wo---this isn't a novel with a "dark" plot or characters that are supposed to be realistic individuals. I admit this is the first book I've read by the author, but what this is is satire, these people are supposed to be caricatures. Even the title tells you that. Rich American WASPs are seen through the eyes of a newly arrived illegal immigrant from Haiti. It's the Americans (in Westchester County, I'm assuming) who are the "primitive" people, and not in the literal sense. It's good satire because the author's point is very true, and she has you laughing while shaking your head at the same time. Here is a divorced father who buys his kids their own life-size jukebox, and explains to the Haitian nanny he has a terrible dilemma, because he never knows what to get the kids for Christmas. The Haitian woman meanwhile thinks that kids from her country would prefer too many choices to no food at all. She's having a lot of trouble understanding the world she's been dropped into, and it is pretty crazy. You'll enjoy this book a lot if you see it for what it really is. In some ways it reminds me of Don DeLillo's White Noise, or William Boyd's books. Another story along these lines is that old movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy. We do live in a crazy environment, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.

The selfish shall inherit the earth

The moral of this dark novel could be formulated as " the selfish shall inherit the earth". An illegal Haitian immigrant is hired by a divorced wife to be a governess - unlike the other characters, mother and governess are both very decent people, although the mother can be neglectful and not as strong a person as the children need. The strength of this novel is in its portrayal of the children, caught in a bad situation. The Haitian angle and the governess' back story add interest, the father is charming and chilling, and the children's barber is a well drawn, interesting secondary character. It took me quite a while to get fully caught up in this book, but it was never dull.