This Beautiful Life - by Helen Schulman (Paperback)

About the Book

The events of a single night shatter a family's sense of security and identity in this provocative and deeply affecting domestic drama in the tradition of Lionel Shriver and Sue Miller--a brilliantly observed portrait of modern life and the underlying truths we take for granted.

Book Synopsis

"ThisBeautiful Life is a gripping, potent and blisteringly well-written story offamily, dilemma, and consequence. . . . I read this book with white-knuckledurgency, and I finished it in tears. Helen Schulman is an absolutely brilliantnovelist." --Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

Theevents of a single night shatter one family's sense of security and identity inthis provocative and deeply affecting domestic drama from Helen Schulman, theacclaimed author of A Day at the Beach and Out of Time. In thetradition of Lionel Shriver, Sue Miller, and Laura Moriarty, Schulman crafts abrilliantly observed portrait of parenting and modern life, cunningly exploringour most deeply-held convictions and revealing the enduring strengths thatemerge in the face of crisis.

From the Back Cover

When fifteen-year-old Jake Bergamot receives--and then forwards to a friend--a sexually explicit video that an eighth-grade admirer sent to him, the video goes viral within hours. The scandal that ensues threatens to shatter his family's sense of security and identity--and, ultimately, their happiness. This Beautiful Life is a devastating, clear-eyed portrait of modern life that will have readers debating their assumptions about family, morality, and the choices we make in the name of love.

Review Quotes

"In another writer's hands, it might come out as a cautionary tale, but Schulman is careful not to paint anyone as villain or victim." - Hannah Gerson, New York Observer
"Holds a mirror up to the lives of moneyed, elite New York private-school families.... This Beautiful Life is set several years ago, when a pornographic teenage video was still something of a novelty. Given the time lag, hindsight might be expected, but Ms. Schulman doesn't rely heavily on that. Instead, more effectively, she gives Jake time to read The Great Gatsby and to ponder an eternal verity: Some people smash up the lives of others and retreat back into money and carelessness, letting others take the blame and clean up the damage." - Janet Maslin, New York Times
"Schulman's lush prose, incisive wit, fully realized characters, and ambitious reach beyond story to social commentary are . . . formidable. . . . Instead of beating the reader over the head with her keen observations, Schulman lets her protagonists advance the higher purpose of her book. . . . The finest novels, including This Beautiful Life, shove their readers a few degrees off-center, forcing us out of our certainties and into new vantage points from which to view the world we live in and the parts we play in it--'the whole catastrophe, ' as Zorba said." - Boston Globe
"This Beautiful Life is as much a bracing novel as a timely cautionary tale. . . . a powerful story of a good family in crisis. Schulman vividly portrays the circularity of events and the instantaneous connections of lives caught in a very real world wide web. How like the butterfly's wings when the mere tap of a key can unleash storms of such unimaginable consequence." - Washington Post
"Schulman's topical, unsettling new novel [is] set in Manhattan's world of private-school privilege but chillingly relatable for parents anywhere.... Raising tough questions about child rearing, morality and the way the Internet both frees and imprisons, Schulman's story resonates." - People (3 1/2 out of 4 stars)
"This Beautiful Life is as much a bracing novel as a timely cautionary tale.... Schulman has managed to capture this bizarre of-the-moment tragedy in a novel that remains deeply humane and sensitive.... This Beautiful Life is a powerful story of a good family in crisis." - Mary McGarry Morris, Washington Post
"Schulman explores the terrors of the Digital Age with this elegant, gripping portrait of a happy, privileged NYC family whose foundations are rocked when a provocative teen video goes viral." - Marie Claire
"A rich, engrossing, and surprisingly nuanced novel exploring timeless questions of guilt and responsiblity." - O, The Oprah Magazine
"Helen Schulman's trenchant social observations and precise, lucid writing are brought to bear on the timely story of a crisis in the life of the Bergamot family.... Schulman takes on a controversial topic with depth, evenhandedness, and warmth. Spare and focused, This Beautiful Life packs a wallop." - Kate Christensen, author of The Epicure's Lament and The Great Man
"With psychological acuity and cinematic pacing, Helen Schulman takes a hypercontemporary nightmare...and parlays it into a wildly compelling novel about parenting, privilege, and the fragility of happiness.... This Beautiful Life is moving, disturbing, and grandly incisive." - Jonathan Miles, author of Dear American Airlines
"A harrowing and moving account of just how much twenty-first-century technology has magnified the scope of the kind of imbecilities in which teenagers excel. It's poignant about the fragility of even those homes that are seemingly invulnerably insulated by privilege and caring and vigilant parents." - Jim Shepard, author of Like You'd Understand, Anyway
"Riveting. . . . As much as this book fiercely inhabits our shared online reality, it operates most powerfully on a deeper level, posing an enduring question about American values." - Maria Russo, New York Times Book Review
"With psychological acuity, reportorial texture, and cinematic pacing, Helen Schulman takes a hyper-contemporary nightmare--what if your good, grounded teenaged son bumbled into a digital-porn scandal?--and parlays it into a wildly compelling novel about parenting, privilege, and the terrifying fragility of happiness. Schulman is like a surgeon, cutting into the here and now to excavate the dark tumors lurking just beneath the shiny surface. This Beautiful Life is moving, disturbing, and grandly incisive." - Jonathan Miles, author of Dear American Airlines
"A painfully honest novel that examines with precision the delicate balancing act needed to nurture a family through these manic times. Reminiscent of Anita Shreve's Testimony and Anna Quindlen's Every Last One." - Library Journal (starred review)
"A gripping, potent, and blisteringly well-written story of family, dilemma, and consequence. While the setting is thoroughly modern, the drama feels as ancient and inevitable as a Greek myth. I read this book with white-knuckled urgency, and finished it in tears. Helen Schulman is an absolutely brilliant novelist." - Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Committed and Eat, Pray, Love
"Helen Schulman is one of the most gifted writers of her generation." - Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Good Squad
"This Beautiful Life is a gripping, potent and blisteringly well-written story of family, dilemma, and consequence. While the setting is thoroughly modern, the drama feels as ancient and inevitable as a Greek myth--where characters are hurtled into high-stakes moral chaos, trapped by their destinies, helpless to reverse their very human errors. I read this book with white-knuckled urgency, and I finished it in tears. Helen Schulman is an absolutely brilliant novelist." - Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Committed and Eat, Pray, Love
"In her new novel, Helen Schulman's trenchant social observations and precise, lucid writing are brought to bear on the timely story of a crisis in the life of the Bergamot family, four sympathetic, complex characters. Schulman takes on a controversial topic with depth, even-handedness, and warmth. Spare and focused, This Beautiful Life packs a wallop." - Kate Christensen, author of The Epicure's Lament and The Great Man
"In the hands of a lesser writer, this might have been simply a book about a scandal; Helen Schulman, though, has a long enough view, and a large enough heart, to have found in that scandal's outlines a mournful and affecting portrait of our brave new social world." - Jonathan Dee, Author of The Privileges
"This Beautiful Life isn't just an intimate look at family breaking down under intense pressure; it's also a sharp and unsparing indictment of a culture in search of scapegoats. In this timely and provocative novel, Helen Schulman maps out the contours of a contemporary American nightmare." - Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers and Little Children
"This Beautiful Life is a harrowing and moving account of just how much 21st century technology has magnified the scope of the kind of imbecilities in which teenagers excel, and it's poignant about the fragility of even those homes that are seemingly invulnerably insulated by privilege, and caring and vigilant parents." - Jim Shepard, author of Like You'd Understand, Anyway