February 16, 2006
February '06 Book Reviews
Rattled by Debra Galant, St. Martin' Press, Fiction, 256 pages, $21.95
Heather Peters, her lawyer husband, and their young son, Connor have moved into a Mc Mansion in Galapagos Estates in New Jersey. Heather is an organized little powerhouse who color-coded the moving boxes only to learn that one of the movers is color blind. She calls Connor’s teacher to become a class mother, lying about her rivals in order to prevail, which she does, but she’s found out quickly enough when she brings slice and bake cookies to her first school function. She is the kind of person who pays her handyman $45 per hour to change light bulbs, while it appears likely that Connor will starve to death without benefit of school lunches. Heather wants to make her mark on Galapagos Estates, but her social trajectory is broken when an endangered timber rattlesnake, wearing a tracking device, slithers onto her patio, and this is no stray. It seems the lake behind Heather’s house is ‘home sweet swamp’ to bundles of them. The handyman, prompted by a screaming Heather, kills the snake, and this environmental crime sets off a sequence of events that will change many lives in many ways. When the corpse is found in Heather’s garage, she takes credit for the killing which lands her on the front pages and gets her a gig on the Today show wearing a new Chanel suit. When she’s arrested, Heather trades the Chanel for an orange jumpsuit and a cell in the local jail. But this is also the story of Heather’s revenge and grudging redemption.
This is a dead-on accurate portrayal of what happens when the ‘I want it my way and I want it yesterday’ set comes to town. Those of us living the quaint life will recognize each character from the evil developer to the fanatical tree hugger to old-timers who still live in the homes in which they were born, to smarmy local politicians, and of course... the new people.
Rattled is wickedly funny. It is a small masterpiece of social satire that will have you laughing out loud. Available February 28. Please don’t miss this one. Nancy Sapir
