This is my fifth read by Teddy Wayne. Guess that makes me a proper fan. All of his books have been good, some more than others, The Great Man Theory was my favorite until this one came along, and well … it’s a winner!
Wayne specializes in portraits of men, usually young (though not in TGMT), as they take on the American Dream. But Wayne had never his taken his protagonists quiet as far as he had Conor O’Toole, the twenty-five-year-old tennis coach who comes up from his native Yonkers to spend the summer with the glamorous moneyed population of a seaside community. Conor O’Toole is an all-American sweetheart of a young man, a real bootstrapper, diligent and indefatigable, he pulls and pulls himself up to make something of himself. Learning tennis gave him the opportunity to attend college on a scholarship, propelling him toward his dream of becoming a lawyer. Conor is a principled studious young man, a devoted son, drop-dead gorgeous to boot. Sure, he may not be the most emotionally available of men, but that doesn’t stop women from throwing themselves at him. All Conor wanted out of this summer was to make some money teaching tennis while he studies for the bar. The summer had other plans for him. The more he gets involved with the locals, the more he finds himself entangled in a love triangle so messy, it’s obvious it isn’t going to end nicely. But you may not expect just how “not nicely” it will end. Against the backdrop of simmering privilege and entitlement, Conor O’Toole will unravel in the most spectacular manner. There are some parallels that can be drawn here to Caroline Kepnes’ You (especially the season 4 of the TV adaptation which technically had almost nothing to do with Kepnes’ original vision, diverting wildly and smartly from the dud of the last book), but The Winner is fundamentally very much its own beast. Like some darkly twisted version of Gatsby, it has a classic feel to it. It’s also immensely readable and tough to put down, like snack food with all the quality and nutrition of a proper meal. It’s so well written with such interesting, nuanced characters, and the way Wayne handles the mounting dread and that good ole’ walls-closing-in feeling is a thing of beauty. So yeah, a winner all around. Loved this book. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
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