Amanda Marquit, Shut the Door

Shut the Door

Amanda Marquit

St. Martin's, Mar 2006, $11.95

ISBN: 0312319304

Harry is in Cleveland on business for two weeks. His wife Beatrice misses making him breakfast, as their daughters seventeen year old Vivian and sixteen year old Lilliana make their own meals. To pass time as she waits for Harry to return, Beatrice continues to prepare her spouse's favorite meals.

Harry, on the other hand, is elated to escape his two tedious roles of husband and father. He plans to risk everything to find some fun and perhaps even purpose while in Cleveland.

Neither seems aware that two teens live in their household. For instance Lilli has relations with older males in her bedroom while mom cooks. However, she has met her match in her guitar teacher Paul who rejects her siren's lure, so she reacts by mutilating herself. The studious virginal Vivian decides to re-engineer herself with a piercing, dye, a tattoo, and a food disorder so that she can gain entrance to the in crowd, but that fails when high school Queen Katerina tricks her into lesbian posing. Still she is on her way to sexual freedom, even as her sibling turns to chastity.

SHUT THE DOOR is an intriguing look at a middle class family whose set roles no longer provide solace, so except for Bea still making brisket, each seeks something new that devastates the "truce" between them. The character driven storyline is at its strongest in the first three quarters of the novel as the audience becomes intimately involved with each character, as perspectives rotates between them. Ironically the tale loses a bit of steam once the cast is fully known, though the plot contains a surprisingly powerful closing twist. Amanda Marquit provides a fascinating family drama starring four individuals who no longer know one another though they live under the same roof.