Jean Hanff Korelitz is back with “The Latecomer,” a story about siblings whose fractured family is about get an earth-shattering addition.
Below is an excerpt:
The Oppenheimer triots, who were not known by anyone as “the Oppenheimer threets”, had been flying apart from each other since their childhood. None of the three – Harrison (the smart one), Lewyn, the weird one, and Sally (the little girl) – had ever felt any genuine affection for the other or thought of anyone with anything remotely resembling a sibling relationship, let alone as siblings in a loving, eternal family relationship.
This was despite years of hard work from at least one parent, not to mention the incredible benefits they had enjoyed. Each of them had a lingering discontent that dominated their lives. It was evident from the time they were old enough for them to learn their common origin story, evaluate their parents and make their own minds about the two other. They had been together for 18 years, from their petri dish to the crowded maternal womb, to their shared Brooklyn Esplanade home (and their shared summer cottage on the Vineyard), and their shared education (or indoctrination) at the highly acclaimed Walden School in Brooklyn Heights. There, a socialist ethos was in stark contrast to the high tuition. And they never grew closer to each other, not even out pity for their mother who wanted it so much.
They were 18 years old, and they wanted to leave their home. It did, and we did it–and that has made all of the difference.
Jean Hanff Korelitz, “The Latecomer”. Copyright (c. 2022) by the author. Reprinted with permission from Celadon Books, a division Macmillan Publishing Group LLC.
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