Elizabeth McKenzie - The Portable Veblen

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Intelligent,  insightful and readable

I enjoyed this book.  It had its flaws, but it is well written and readable and it has some important things to say.

It's not an easy book to summarize, but it is principally a novel of character.  The main protagonist is Veblen Amundsen-Hova, a slightly quirky 30-year-old in Palo Alto, California, who is to be married to Paul, a medical researcher.  Veblen is named after Thorstein Veblen, the 19^th- and early 20^th-Century radical social thinker.  No – I hadn't heard of him either, but he coined the term "conspicuous consumption" among a lot of other significant insights, and his thinking and place in society plays quite a large part in this novel.

The book is chiefly about Veblen's humane view of the world, her recognisable self-doubt and questioning, and her rich (if slightly bonkers at times) appreciation of the wonder and beauty of the world, as opposed to the shallow, grasping materialism of some of the rest of society.  It's very well done for the most part; Elizabeth McKenzie paints very convincing portraits of a rich cast of characters and shows a believable range of reactions to the difficulties of life –including Veblen's monstrously self-obsessed mother, who is a brilliantly disturbing character.  There is also a well-aimed swipe at the greed, cynicism and corruption in the US health system, and plenty of intellectual content, including thoughtful reflections on what a life should be and what we van expect from it.

I may have made it sound a bit dry, but I found the whole thing engrossing and readable.  McKenzie does let things go a bit toward the end, I think, with a tendency to explain to us slightly clumsily what she has already rather deftly shown us.  Also, lot of people have convenient and not wholly believable insights and moments of self-awareness - and in one case an almost farcical Come-Uppance.  These aren't the saccharine little Life Lessons which sometimes pollute the end of novels, but it didn't feel of the same quality as the rest of the book to me.

Overall, though, this is an intelligent, insightful and readable book which I enjoyed.  I can recommend it.

(I received a free ARC via Netgalley.)