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First, suburban sex crime. Now, evil-nanny syndrome. Suzanne Berne's first two novels
are, as they say, straight out of today's headlines. The books themselves, thankfully, are
anything but tabloid. In A CRIME IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, her 1997 debut (and winner of the
UK's Orange Prize), a quiet suburb is shaken by the rape and murder of a child, and an
apparently normal family is rocked by violence of a psychological kind. A PERFECT
ARRANGEMENT, Berne's latest, also takes place in the ordinary and terrifying sphere of
domestic life --- in this case, what happens when a brilliant nanny, Mary Poppins style,
enters (or is invades a better word?) the highly imperfect Cook-Goldman family.
A PERFECT ARRANGEMENT begins right smack in the middle of Mirella and Howard's morning
mess (literal and figurative) as they struggle to get their daughter Pearl ready for
school and their possibly learning-disabled son Jacob fed and settled, let out the dog,
launch themselves to work --- and all the other innumerable things that seem to need
fixing whenever you have ten minutes to get out of the house. The first chapter is from
Mirella's point of view; subsequent chapters alternate between her, Howard, and the new
nanny Randi.
Immediately we know that All Is Not Well with Randi. But we don't know, exactly, what the
problem is or how it will play out, which sets up a terrific page-turning tension from the
start. Without divulging too much, I can safely say that Randi herself exemplifies the
chasm between the image of the perfect suburban/small-town family and the considerably
more painful and disordered reality. For Randi is every homemaking stereotype come to
life: nutritious meals, elaborate birthday parties, Christmas cookies, and creative games
issue from her as if she were a walking, talking issue of Good Housekeeping.
So what's wrong with that? After all, Mirella too has bought into the idea that she must
be the Perfect Mother, even though she is a full-time lawyer as well. She is torn by the
warring demands of momhood and her profession (of course), just as Howard is washed by
doubts about his career and guilt about a fleeting affair --- and if both Cook-Goldmans
feel a bit like people we have met before, the honesty and intelligence of Berne's writing
largely avoids cliche. It helps that the minor characters are particularly well drawn:
Howard's brother and sister-in-law; the Indian family across the street; and Martha, the
family's endearingly named golden retriever. Aging and essentially passive, the dog is a
presence that seems to represent the assumption that life will unroll peacefully and
inevitably, with only minor crises, day after day --- an assumption that is rudely
shattered.
The dramas of the plot do heat up rather violently toward the end of A PERFECT
ARRANGEMENT. There are confrontations galore --- very Hollywood, very cinematic --- that
sit oddly with the low-key irony and realism that inform most of the book. And, in fact,
this novel is not as subtle and bitter, as finely and economically crafted as A CRIME IN
THE NEIGHBORHOOD. The older book has the clarity and lack of extraneous detail that comes
with perspective --- indeed, it is remote from us in two respects: The point of view is
that of a woman looking back on her 10-year-old self, and the action is set in the '70s.
In the new novel, there is no escaping into the distance; the effect is more of being
jammed up against all the untidy details of right now. Berne is brave to attempt this, and
if A PERFECT ARRANGEMENT is not quite perfect, she has nonetheless written a smart, moving
and highly readable book.
--- Reviewed by Kathy Weissman
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