March 5, 2006
Nouveau tale rich in satire
'Rattled's' take on social serpents in suburbia is hiss-terical
Rattled
By Debra Galant
St. Martin's Press, $21.95
Suburban novels all have their cliches for the obvious reason that suburbia has long been cliched. Lawn-envy, covetous attention to what's in the neighbor's driveway, vicious infighting for class placement at the local elementary school - all that.
But the good news is that each incoming generations of arrivistes creates its own cliches, and in "Rattled," Debra Galant is viciously funny about the McMansion crowd of recent years.
Galapagos Estates is a newer development verging on woodlands in New Jersey. It has country appeal for Heather Peters, but mostly what she's after is to assume her rightful place in a community where the men make lots of money and the women spend it.
A 35-year-old blond who, in the right light, "could still pass for a cheerleader," Heather treats her high-earner, Kevin, as a foot soldier in her campaign for social ascendancy and her son, Connor, as an agent she can use to force her inclusion in the power group of third-grade mommies.
Kevin is resentful, and Connor's aggressive behavior borders on pathology, but ultimately Heather can be made to step back only by the rattlesnake she confronts in her backyard.
Galant's satire pits those who were there first against those who came later, specifically to occupy homes with basement gyms and media rooms. One of the firsters, a curmudgeonly handyman, bludgeons the snake to death while another, an eccentric environmentalist, has Heather arrested for killing an endangered species.
True, she didn't actually murder the snake, but she lies and says she did to a reporter - and so begins what becomes a national crusade of media appearances to have herself seen as a martyr to the cause of parvenus everywhere. And that is to do whatever they damn please as long as they have the credit rating to finance it.
Heather will come to ruin, of course, and her downfall is both gratifying and comic. Galant balances her cruel detailing of the more obnoxious traits of the McMansionites, though, by having wicked fun at the expense of the self-righteous firsters as well. The snake-killing handyman lives in a shack, puts skunk meat in his stew and makes a killing off those very newcomers he despises. He smells, too.
"Rattled" could be characterized as something of a tale of manners, but the real fun is that no one seems to have any.
Sherryl Connelly
