The Wentworths

With a wry touch, Arnoldi draws a mocking portrait of a powerful Southern California family that, while not the worst family on record, is remarkably warped by wealth and power. The Wentworths individual faults play off the milieu of familial grotesques: mother Judiths a dieting narcissist who abuses the servants, while patriarch Guss compulsive philandering has been inherited and surpassed by his sexually deviant son Conrad, defense lawyer to the scummy stars. Conrads sister, Becky, is the only offspring with a family of her own, and their problems (kleptomaniac son, depressed teenage daughter) hover closer to the edge of normalcy. The final family member, gay Norman, lives in a fantasy world in the pool house and offers analyses of his kins foibles. The Wentworths fortress of supposed superiority is threatened by two women: Angela, a conniving ex of Conrads, and Honey, Guss naïve paramour. As the family closes ranks, comedy and tragedy ensue. A page-turner both for its well-paced intrigue and for its witty, sordid description of just how awful these people can get, the books coup isnt the skewering Arnoldi ("Chemical Pink") gives her overprivileged clan; its the redemption they find after theyre served twisted justice.