The Means: A Novel
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"The Means is such a fast-paced, breezy comedic novel that you may find yourself surprised that Fusselman deftly and directly leads you to existential dilemmas and the absurdity of capitalism and striving for more." – The Millions
Shelly Means, a stay-at-home mom and disgraced former PTA president, is poised to get the one thing in life she really wants: a beach house in the Hamptons. Surely, once she has her beach house, Shelly will at last feel at peace, in control, and content. It might be a very small house, and it might be in the least-fancy part of the Hamptons, but Shelly is hell-bent on achieving this idea of paradise.
But what should be a simple real estate transaction quickly goes awry as Shelly's new neighbors disapprove of her proposed shipping container house at the same time that her spouse George's lucrative work as a VoiceOver artist dries up. When George wants to cancel the beach house, Shelly goes deeper down the rabbit hole of capitalism: it's an investment property! It's a community! It's a place for their children to thrive! And, for a woman whose labor has buoyed her family for years, this beach house might just be Shelly's last stand.
The debut novel from "one of our best interrogators of how we live now, and how we should live" (Dave Eggers), The Means is a comedy about the suffering inherent in desire, capitalist delusion, and the value of unpaid labor.
"With its deadpan absurdity, pithy prose and moral je ne sais quoi, Fusselman's latest will appeal to fans of Marcy Dermansky....With its satire of the particular hypocrisy of the Hamptons, including homeowners associations, graft, and garbage and recycling practices, Maria Semple....We may be entering a golden age of the comic novel, surely one of the best possible outcomes of this desperate moment in history." – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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Amy Fusselman. (2022). The Means: A Novel. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Amy Fusselman. 2022. The Means: A Novel. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Amy Fusselman, The Means: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2022.
MLA Citation (style guide)Amy Fusselman. The Means: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2022.
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Amy Fusselman is the author of four nonfiction books: Idiophone; Savage Park: A Meditation on Play, Space, and Risk for Americans Who Are Nervous, Distracted, and Afraid to Die; 8; and The Pharmacist's Mate. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Atlantic, McSweeney's, and many other outlets. She lives with her family in New York City where she teaches creative writing at New York University.
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"The Means is such a fast-paced, breezy comedic novel that you may find yourself surprised that Fusselman deftly and directly leads you to existential dilemmas and the absurdity of capitalism and striving for more." – The Millions
Shelly Means, a stay-at-home mom and disgraced former PTA president, is poised to get the one thing in life she really wants: a beach house in the Hamptons. Surely, once she has her beach house, Shelly will at last feel at peace, in control, and content. It might be a very small house, and it might be in the least-fancy part of the Hamptons, but Shelly is hell-bent on achieving this idea of paradise.
But what should be a simple real estate transaction quickly goes awry as Shelly's new neighbors disapprove of her proposed shipping container house at the same time that her spouse George's lucrative work as a VoiceOver artist dries up. When George wants to cancel the beach house, Shelly goes deeper down the rabbit hole of capitalism: it's an investment property! It's a community! It's a place for their children to thrive! And, for a woman whose labor has buoyed her family for years, this beach house might just be Shelly's last stand.
The debut novel from "one of our best interrogators of how we live now, and how we should live" (Dave Eggers), The Means is a comedy about the suffering inherent in desire, capitalist delusion, and the value of unpaid labor.
"With its deadpan absurdity, pithy prose and moral je ne sais quoi, Fusselman's latest will appeal to fans of Marcy Dermansky....With its satire of the particular hypocrisy of the Hamptons, including homeowners associations, graft, and garbage and recycling practices, Maria Semple....We may be entering a golden age of the comic novel, surely one of the best possible outcomes of this desperate moment in history." – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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"A fast-paced and funny send up." — People
"Delicious." — Zibby Owens, gma.com
"A plucky jaunt of a novel." — New York Times Book Review
"With its deadpan absurdity, pithy prose and moral je ne sais quoi, Fusselman's latest will appeal to fans of Marcy Dermansky....With its satire of the particular hypocrisy of the Hamptons, including homeowners associations, graft, and garbage and recycling practices, Maria Semple....We may be entering a golden age of the comic novel, surely one of the best possible outcomes of this desperate moment in history." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Just like its title, Amy Fusselman's new novel is breezy-sharp, super-funny, and full of second meanings and surprising insights into The Means, and what it means to have and lack them. You don't have to want to live in a shipping container in the Hamptons to understand Shelly Means and the yearnings that drive her hilarious desperate measures. But if you need a hint, Twix the socialist dog will yell it at you. (SPOILER, but look: Maria Semple and David Sedaris are brilliant, but have they written a talking dog as funny as Twix? The answer, my friends, is no. You can only find this, and so much else, in The Means)." — John Hodgman, author of Vacationland and Medallion Status
"This charming novel bears the Fusselman touch that makes all of her books so brilliant: touching, uncanny, and deceptively simple observations that dismantle complex assumptions about the world." — Sarah Manguso, author of Very Cold People
"Amy Fusselman's The Means is an absolute delight! Anyone who's ever wanted more than they had—so, all of us—will be unable to turn away from this wise, funny, page-turning story of relationships, motherhood, and real estate ambitions." — Jessica Anya Blau, author of Mary Jane
"Location, location, location: that is the real estate chant. In Amy Fusselman's The Means those words are intermingled with laugh, laugh, laugh. Fusselman is a prescient observer chronicling one couple's desire to live near where the other half live. She deftly captures the absurdity of the everyday and the American quest for more. The Means is funny, playful and at times painfully accurate." — A.M. Homes, author of The Unfolding and May We Be Forgiven
"The Means is such a fast-paced, breezy comedic novel that you may find yourself surprised that Fusselman deftly and directly leads you to existential dilemmas and the absurdity of capitalism and striving for more." — The Millions
"Fusselman (Idiophone, 2018) delivers a well-paced story with gentle humor, compassion, and a sparkling, original look at the absurdities of everyday life in a world filled with inequities, financial and otherwise." — Booklist
"[An] entertaining debut. ... Recommended to anyone who enjoys humorous fiction." — Library Journal
"Damn funny. ... Fusselman presents a hilariously heightened reality." — Shelf Awareness
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August 1, 2022
DEBUT In Fusselman's entertaining debut, Shelly Means is a stay-at-home mom, resentful that her job is not considered "real" work. She spends a lot of money but only on discounted products and services. (She even bought their dog on sale.) She's just too busy to take on a paying job. Fortunately, her husband, George, has a great job, which allows them to live in Manhattan. But Shelly wants a beach house, too, so they buy a piece of property in affluent East Hampton and begin planning an economy-conscious house. Trouble arises when George loses his job and the East Hampton housing committee objects to their proposal, but a host of quirky and hilarious advisors push Shelly to move ahead with her plan. VERDICT With Shelly, Fusselman creates a character determined to see her vision to completion without regard for impediments of any kind, and the supporting roles (like a therapist who's also a real estate broker and party planner) will leave readers laughing. Recommended to anyone who enjoys humorous fiction.--Joanna M. Burkhardt
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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August 1, 2022
Shelly Means is easy to relate to. All she wants is a beach house--in the Hamptons, with a heated pool, a Japanese toilet, and a bunch of other amazing things that she's curated on a vision board. When reality sets in, Shelly pares down her vision to match her actual life, which includes therapist bills for some anger-management issues and a voice-over artist husband who is suddenly having trouble finding work. So what if the beach house is built from shipping containers, on a tick-infested lot in a less desirable neighborhood? In the Means family (as for most of us), the financial means don't always match the vision. But Shelly forges forward, buoyed by her adventurous spirit and Twix, her (hilarious) talking dog who provides wise commentary on issues of class, wealth, and the value of stay-at-home parenting. Fusselman (Idiophone, 2018) delivers a well-paced story with gentle humor, compassion, and a sparkling, original look at the absurdities of everyday life in a world filled with inequities, financial and otherwise.COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Starred review from August 1, 2022
You, too, can have a beach house in the Hamptons...sort of. "I used to think aliveness was a binary: a person was either alive or dead. But now I know that aliveness is more like something on a continuum, like the pain scale. And I want to be more alive. I want to be as alive as possible. My beach house would help me do that." Shelly Means, nonworking mother of two, wife of a struggling voice-over narrator, denizen of a part of Manhattan she calls the "discount caftan and incense district," is obsessed. Lucky for her, the woman who is providing online cognitive behavior therapy for her anger issues (Shelly threw her water bottle at the school board president) is also a real estate broker and knows just the tick-infested, nonwaterfront piece of land in a part of the Hamptons she and George can afford, once they sell their raccoon-infested lake house. And if they construct the house out of used shipping containers, give up all but the most basic amenities, and take out a loan, they may even be able to build on it. With its deadpan absurdity, pithy prose, and moral je ne sais quoi, Fusselman's latest will appeal to fans of Marcy Dermansky. With its sapient talking dog, readers of Susan Coll. And with its satire of the particular hypocrisy of the Hamptons, including homeowners associations, graft, and garbage and recycling practices, Maria Semple. Running jokes abound, involving, among other things, raccoons, Japanese toilets, nutrition bars called Generosity, Vulnerability, and Caring, and seltzer called Loving. We may be entering a golden age of the comic novel, surely one of the best possible outcomes of this desperate moment in history. Take it from Shelly's teenage son: "If you need money, you should write fiction. That's what Roberto Bola�o did after he had a family and wanted to make money: he turned to fiction." A trenchant comedy of class and the way we live now.COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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"The Means is such a fast-paced, breezy comedic novel that you may find yourself surprised that Fusselman deftly and directly leads you to existential dilemmas and the absurdity of capitalism and striving for more." – The Millions
Shelly Means, a stay-at-home mom and disgraced former PTA president, is poised to get the one thing in life she really wants: a beach house in the Hamptons. Surely, once she has her beach house, Shelly will at last feel at peace, in control, and content. It might be a very small house, and it might be in the least-fancy part of the Hamptons, but Shelly is hell-bent on achieving this idea of paradise.
But what should be a simple real estate transaction quickly goes awry as Shelly's new neighbors disapprove of her proposed shipping container house at the same time that her spouse George's lucrative work as a VoiceOver artist dries up. When George wants to cancel the beach house, Shelly goes deeper down the rabbit hole...
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