Crooked Hearts
Robert Boswell1990

In this stunning novelistic debut, Robert Boswell lays bare the protective yet stifling private worlds that insulate families in his tale of the matchless Warrens. Intoxicated and immobilized by their attachment to a family that "is a drug," they love and betray each other in equally fierce measures. Epitomizing their collective resilience is the idiosyncratic Warren custom of throwing a party (complete with Christmas lights, drinking and dancing) to celebrate failure: unsuccessful science projects, dropping out of college, divorce, adultery, sickness and death.