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Dr. Robert Hart has just been named Man of the Year in the cozy village of Sag Harbor, New York. A fundraiser event is held in his honor and his photo and bio grace the newspaper. He’s a successful private-practice doctor with a beautiful wife everyone admires, and he owns a lovely old home, tastefully updated and furnished, with quaint touches like a cupola and widow’s walk. He has one son, Jonah, a college student, who had struggled a bit for a time at college but is doing well now. Sure, Robert went through a divorce because he was unfaithful, but he was one of the rare ones whose affair turned into the successful 10-year marriage he now enjoys. He is living many people’s ideal life.
But little things start getting to him, and Robert’s thoughts turn to what may be paranoia. Jonah’s best friend and roommate from college, who is much of the reason Jonah found his footing since being at school, has come to visit with Jonah now that it’s summer, and the presence of both young men in the household that’s normally just Robert and his wife, Elizabeth, sets things off-balance. Elizabeth seems to be enjoying having the two young men around, even though she’s never wanted to have a child of her own, and the three are joking and talking and connecting —over some of her favorite literature, of all things — while Robert observes mostly from the outside. Nick seems to be particularly cozy with Elizabeth, and Robert worries if something might be going on that he doesn’t see. Elizabeth, after all, had an affair with him; what’s to stop her from having a little fling with a “boy toy”?
One dangerous thought leads to another, and Robert begins questioning himself and his family, and he begins to think he needs to be the man of the house and take action to keep his family safe and happy. More paranoid thoughts and questionable actions follow, one by one, until Robert is in a downward spiral that could have unthinkable consequences.
Man of the Year is told mostly from Robert’s perspective, but it also shares the perspectives of various other characters, including several important women in his life: his wife; the office manager who keeps everything running like a well-oiled machine; a friend from his youth who is married to another close friend from his youth — the only two people still in his life who knew him before he became such a success. They support him unfailingly, but every friendship has its limits when one person does things they can’t come back from.
The story is a series of questions: What’s going to happen when Robert really comes apart at the seams? Who’s going to be hurt? What really is going on, if anything, that Robert either senses as truth or is misinterpreting? Will his life completely implode, just days and weeks after he was named Man of the Year?
I thought I knew the truth of the story, and then I amended that thought, and amended it again. Turns out I was right in one part, but I did not see the revelations coming that unfolded — and then the real truth behind even those. I’m still pondering over the characters, the men and the women, and who they turned out to be inside, as opposed to how others saw them. Motivations, inner lives … some fascinating stuff here. A satisfying book of suspense that hinges on the characters and their views of life. This is one I want to discuss with others who have read it to see what their take was on the ending(s), told from the perspectives of a few of the characters.
Rated: High, for roughly 40 uses of strong language and other more moderate language; one fairly short but somewhat detailed sex scene and very brief references to others; some violence.
*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
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