The Beads - by David McConnell (Paperback)

About the Book

A wealthy New York family's fortune unravels over generations, plunging them into a spiral of dysfunction.

Book Synopsis

"An entertaining, deeply imagined literary melodrama." -Kirkus Reviews (Starred)

In David McConnell's The Beads, members of a wealthy New York family begin to unravel after having wasted their incredible fortune over more than a century. The patriarch gets lost in a maze of his own neuroses. The mother luxuriates in a life of idle pleasure. The neglected son, Darius, nurses an obsession with his ultra-normal best friend, Barry. As if that weren't enough, a teacher whom the boys share obliviously commits a shocking crime.

Years later, Darius has traded responsibility for an escape to Europe, where he gets a much-needed lesson in decency from a kind German aristocrat. Meanwhile, Barry stumbles into a father/son relationship with a philandering lawyer who may actually be his biological father.

Once shielded from the real world by privilege, McConnell's fragile characters tally what they owe others and what they dream they're owed themselves as time passes indifferently for everyone, beat by beat like the telling of a rosary. Set against a backdrop of late nineties' Manhattan, The Beads boldly pierces the armor of old money and tries to locate love, if it even exists amid the tangled affectations of a great city.

Review Quotes

"The Beads is the decades-long saga of a rich, unconventional family. Exquisitely written, it closely observes the social world as well as nature in brilliant, original detail. It traces the eccentric sexual arrangements its characters make across the generations and classes. It follows with absolute clarity and dramatic consistency a large cast. All of which explains its structure and punch but leaves out the delight it brings the reader through its skittish humor and elusive sensibility. This book is a triumph!" -EDMUND WHITE

"Those who favor brash, prickly characters with opinions about, say, Al Haig, Institutionalism, and how to hide money from one's family will be rewarded with bravura set pieces, urgent moral inquiry, dazzling prose, and charged insights." -BOOKLIFE

"From a tangle of inappropriate, unpropitious relationships, McConnell unspools sharp-eyed psychological insights. An entertaining, deeply imagined literary melodrama." -KIRKUS REVIEWS (Starred)

"The Beads is the decades-long saga of a rich, unconventional family. Exquisitely written, it closely observes the social world as well as nature in brilliant, original detail. It traces the eccentric sexual arrangements its characters make across the generations and classes. It follows with absolute clarity and dramatic consistency a large cast. All of which explains its structure and punch but leaves out the delight it brings the reader through its skittish humor and elusive sensibility. This book is a triumph!" -EDMUND WHITE"Those who favor brash, prickly characters with opinions about, say, Al Haig, Institutionalism, and how to hide money from one's family will be rewarded with bravura set pieces, urgent moral inquiry, dazzling prose, and charged insights." -BOOKLIFE"From a tangle of inappropriate, unpropitious relationships, McConnell unspools sharp-eyed psychological insights. An entertaining, deeply imagined literary melodrama." -KIRKUS REVIEWS (Starred)