A NATIONAL BESTSELLER “Exquisite and harrowing.” —New York Times Book Review“This electrifying, gorgeously written memoir will hold you captive until the last word.” —PeopleNAMED A BEST FALL BOOK BY People Refinery29 * Entertainment Weekly * BuzzFeed * NPR’s On Point * Town & Country * Real Simple * New York Post * Palm Beach Post * Toronto Star * Orange Country Register * Bustle * Bookish * … York Post * Palm Beach Post * Toronto Star * Orange Country Register * Bustle * Bookish * BookPage * Kirkus BBC Culture* Debutiful
A daughter’s tale of living in the thrall of her magnetic, complicated mother, and the chilling consequences of her complicity.
On a hot July night on Cape Cod when Adrienne was fourteen, her mother, Malabar, woke her at midnight with five simple words that would set the course of both of their lives for years to come: Ben Souther just kissed me.
Adrienne instantly became her mother’s confidante and helpmate, blossoming in the sudden light of her attention, and from then on, Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help orchestrate what would become an epic affair with her husband’s closest friend. The affair would have calamitous consequences for everyone involved, impacting Adrienne’s life in profound ways, driving her into a precarious marriage of her own, and then into a deep depression. Only years later will she find the strength to embrace her life—and her mother—on her own terms.
Wild Game is a brilliant, timeless memoir about how the people close to us can break our hearts simply because they have access to them, and the lies we tell in order to justify the choices we make. It’s a remarkable story of resilience, a reminder that we need not be the parents our parents were to us.
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This is a well written memoir and it reads like fiction. The relationship of this girl with her wildly unusual mother and the way she dealt with it will keep you reading. I finished it in one day.
This book is a memoir, which makes it even more interesting because it is almost unbelievable that some of the characters could act the way they did. The author obviously worked on repairing the effects of a dysfunctional family environment, and we can learn from her. It is a very entertaining read, which I almost feel guilty saying, as real people’s lives were involved. Anyone who likes the dysfunctional family/psychology genre will enjoy this book. Very well written.
At first I was a little nonplussed by this memoir, perhaps because I have a class-oriented tendency to rebel against the need to feel sympathy for someone so privileged. But narcissism is a real and damaging generational phenomenon both in my family and the one I married into, so I couldn’t help being intrigued to watch how it damaged Brodeur and how she managed over time to heal from (much of) the damage. It’s a fascinating psychological and moral study that will have you rooting for her and the good guys the same way you do while reading a good novel. Very glad to have read it.
Brodeur’s story is one of the most talked about memoirs of the year — and for good reason. With eloquent prose and a surprising ability to write about her own life as a journalist would, she reveals — for the first time — the truth of her relationship with her mother, Malabar. While Brodeur’s story isn’t as redemptive as other childhood memoirs like The Glass Castle, it is still both memorable and important, and it kept me fully engaged.
When Brodeur was just 14, Malabar shared the juiciest details of a blossoming affair with her husband’s closest friend, Ben, forcing Brodeur to become her accomplice, confidante, and closest friend — but rarely her daughter. The family’s lavish lifestyle in Boston and on Cape Cod allowed for excuses to throw dinner parties, try new recipes, and travel — all ruses for Malabar and Ben’s illicit affair.
Malabar’s overt manipulation of Brodeur is increasingly awful. “You and I are two halves of one whole,” Malabar repeats to her daughter, making Brodeur feel complicit in her mother’s deceptive acts and behavior. Brodeur admits to feeling excited by the camaraderie the pair shared, but Wild Game takes readers on the journey of her realization that carrying the burden of her mother’s shame is no way to live.
While Wild Game is no The Glass Castle orEducated, and it doesn’t have a happy ending, per se, Brodeur’s story still resonates. She may not have endured physical hardship, but the mental torment she dealt with affects her to this day. Hers is a story of overcoming manipulation, oppression, depression, and a life lived in her mother’s shadow. A quick, unique read I recommend for those who enjoy memoir.
Entirely unique and utterly enthralling, Wild Game examines the ardor of a daughter’s love, caught up in the relentless needs of her mother. In this courageous act of radical self-reflection and truth-telling, Brodeur untangles karmic threads that bind families together across the generations.
A searing, indelible memoir of an extraordinary mother and her equally extraordinary daughter. Among Adrienne Brodeur’s many achievements in Wild Game — beautiful prose, a riveting story, elegantly told — what I found most moving is the love threaded through every page of this unforgettable book.
First, I would like to thank BookishFirst for providing me with a free print ARC copy of this novel. Below is my honest review.
First, I must say, that after reading a few reviews that have already been posted for this book, I am appalled at the number of people who are basically judging the quality of the book by the author’s privileged upbringing. To do so is to assert that someone who has family money does not have the right to suffer from severe depression or that somehow a child’s mental and emotional abuse is less valid because her parents have a beach house on Cape Cod.
Adrienne Brodeur has laid her past bare for the public to see, opening herself and her family up to scrutiny and judgment. She has done so knowing that her story is one worthy of being told. Never have I read of a mother as narcissistic and self-serving as Malabar. With complete and utter disregard for the feelings of anyone but herself, she launches into an affair that spans over a decade. She has no concern for the lives she destroys in the process. Brodeur has an exceptional writing style, making the book difficult to put down. The story moves quickly, beginning when the author was 14 and moving through subsequent decades. There is a quote in the book that I will not repeat here and spoil for anyone, but when stated by Malabar, I wanted to punch her square in her smug face. I was fully invested in this memoir and I highly recommend it. I am excited also that the film rights were sold and that we will get to experience this tale visually.
Strange family, awful circumstances. Good read.
I loved the writing and the story. Couldn’t stop thinking about it afterward. My only (tongue-in-cheek) complaint: it’s a tough read for a vegetarian…
At the age of fourteen, Adrienne Brodeur becomes her mother’s confidante as she embarks on an adulterous long-standing affair with her husband’s best friend. Eager for what she perceives as her mother’s love for her, Adrienne aids and abets the lovers’ meetings. Over time, new relationships develop within the two families and this memoire reads like a fast-paced novel. Eventually, Adrienne Brodeur acquires the insight to understand her own involvement in a situation she has reason to regret.
A compelling mother-daughter story that is fascinating to behold. I kept having to remind myself that it’s a memoir and not a crafted piece of fiction. A courageous retell that resonates.
Thoroughly enjoyed this one.
This was an entertaining book about a very disfunctional upperclass family. The mother has no morals and draws her daughter into her webs of deceit.
The descriptions of Cape Cod were so evocative, and the food they ate from the sea was described vividly, as the family were foodies.
The book sort of ends with no great closing but just drifts off
Very much enjoyed this memoir and the courage it took to tell this story. Would recommend it to others…. still unbelievable that a mother would do this to their child over her youth and young adulthood.
Wild Game is beautifully written and draws you into a very upscale white world and the torture of a young girl caught in thrall of a powerful and charismatic mother. I felt for the young author as she was inappropriately used as a confidante and go-between for her mother’s long time affair; but I was left, at the end, with a deflated feeling, a lack of insight as to what the book was ultimately saying, and so I took a star off for missed opportunity. The author could have dug deeper for a more impactful conclusion that would have uplifted and informed; the elements were all their for that, but it ended on a whimper.
WILD GAME by Adrienne Brodeur is a memoir written by a woman who, when she was 14, was drawn into her mother’s love affair with her father’s closest friend. Desperate for the love of this charismatic but utterly self-absorbed mother, our 14-year-old not only becomes her confidante but aids and abets the clandestine meetings of the lovers.
Sound like a soap opera? Given some of the complications, it does read like one – meaning that it has dramatic twists aplenty and is easy to get through. Like any successful soap, it has bad guys. The mom is one, her lover another. Both have spouses who are far nicer than they are. And the author, who grows up through a dozen years of this affair before the whole thing falls apart? Do we like her or not? Do we see her as victim or villain? Is it our job to judge?
These are the questions WILD GAME inspires. Memoir is, by definition, less reality-based than autobiography, so what we’re reading is the author’s emotional side of a personally emotional story. Does she articulate remorse for her own involvement in her mother’s affair? Not enough for me.
She does wrap things up by implicating that she will not be repeating her mother’s mistakes. Do I believe her? After the pages and pages she spends, almost gleefully detailing her mother’s love affair, this self-absolution gets short shrift. Nor do I feel she quite gets the injustice she does to her own perfectly lovely first husband because of the whole mess with her mother.
So why did she write this book? Why does any memoirist write? Catharsis? Self-defense? Forgiveness? Money?
In the author’s notes at the end, she says that she changed the names of everyone in the book except for herself, her mother, and her mother’s lover. Then she goes on to reveal the names of many of the people involved anyway. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?
But then, judgmental person that I am, I’m not sure what her purpose is at all.
This is short memoir but a terrifically well written one that makes you think really hard about mother-daughter relationships, lines that should never be crossed, and the damage secrets can cause.
You will not be be able to put this book down. The situation is interesting, the characters are compelling, and the writing is lyrical. The author manages to describe her narcissistic mother with equal parts of frustration and empathy, so as the reader, you both love to hate her and hate to love her–because you cannot read these well-rendered descriptions of Malabar, the mother, without loving her. In the end, people are complicated, and this memoir shows that in such a beautiful way. Also, I listened to this book, and the narrator is excellent!
I loved this memoir. It’s a page turner. I couldn’t put it down.
This is a truly exceptional memoir. Adrienne Brodeur tells the story of her complicated relationship with her mother. Malabar is the type of woman who always turns heads when she enters a room—beautiful, striking and engaging. When Adrienne is fourteen, Malabar wakes her in the middle of the night to share a secret—she has just kissed a close family friend, Ben Souther, and she is falling for him. For over a decade, Malabar and Ben conduct an affair behind their spouses’ backs, using Adrienne to help them keep their secret. As the author grows up, this complicity affects her psyche, emotional development, and even her own relationships. Brodeur does a stellar job dissecting the ways this secret has affected her and analyzing her relationship with her captivating and selfish mother. The writing is exquisite and the emotional work unparalleled. The audio performance by Julia Whelan is extremely well-done.