Primitive People: A Novel

Harper Perennial, 2001. Near Fine. Having acquired an audience of discerning readers with such novels as House hold Saints and Bigfoot Dreams , Prose comes into her own with this acerbic comedy of manners. Both deliciously wicked and poignant, it is a fable of our times. Through the eyes of her protagonist Simone, an illegal immigrant from Haiti who becomes a "caregiver" to the children of unforgivably self- absorbed parents, Prose illuminates some of the ludicrous aspects of our cu lture and of the perennial battle between the sexes. Morbidly depressed 10- year-old George and six-year-old sister Maisie are the casualties of their parents' failed marriage. Their brittle, bubblehead mother Rosemary, a scul ptress of absolutely no talent, has been abandoned and left nearly penniles s by their father, charismatic womanizer Geoffrey, and she is pathetically trying to cope with life in the derelict Porter family mansion in upstate N ew York. Although she is bewildered by American culture, Simone becomes the one stable element in the household, winning the children's trust and Rose mary's patronizing affection. As she meets Geoffrey, Rosemary's friends and other members of the community, Simone sees dark links between her violenc e-haunted homeland and the outwardly serene community of Hudson ' s Landing . Observing the complex betrayals of which the children are ultimate victim s, Simone is herself betrayed by her need for emotional connection. Prose h as a ventriloquist's skill in capturing contemporary jargon and a laser eye for describing the people who spout it. She offers hilarious sendups of ma ll culture and of pretentious, empty socialites, seen here in a stable at t.