Matthew Weiner is a very successful screenwriter and my advice to him is : Keep your day job. I don't know whether to title this review Mad Man or Heather Gets Totaled. The conceit is something out of Dostoyevsky but it plays like a bad dream. There is no rhyme or reason why Mark and Bobby come together, why Heather is oblivious to what is happening around her and why Karen turns into some Bizarro World Stepford wife. The writing is hardly diversionary; it's sophomoric and trite. What's with the caps? This Author hopefully will find an Editor next time who will send him back to class.

Interesting novella--sort of a fleshed out storyboard, no dialogue. Mark and Karen marry, have a beautiful daughter they name Heather and live a comfortable, if not totally happy, life in NYC. A young man with a very different kind of background is part of a construction team working on their condo building. Mark starts to worry when he sees the guy eyeing his daughter. Strange ending with a bit of a twist.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read an arc of this story.

Short, to the point and a little shocking. It will take you an hour or two, try it.

First line: Mark and Karen Breakstone got married a little late in life.

Last line: Heather was touched by the tragedy and marked the spot with flowers and Mark and Karen waited a full month before putting their apartment on the market.

expectations probably nuked this novel. while not poorly crafted or written, the prose is adequate, the story is, at best, problematic and, most likely and at worst, wretched and toxic told for no need or reason by someone who has been revealed to be less than savory

there wasn't any moment when I felt engaged or interested in the narrative. also, this book reveals just how much of Mad Men Weiner wasn't responsible for, didn't write--ie, the good, complicated parts

No character development and no dialogue. Maybe novellas just aren't for me.

Intense, obsession, neurotic - a very strange little tale. A family that worships their only daughter way to much and they don't care much for each other. A daughter whose character is not very developed and is not a redeeming person. Then there is a psychopath who is extremely despicable - this character is written as if it is trying to convince us that if you come from a bad home (even though his is a terrifically bad one) that it is OK or a given for you to become a murderous psychopath. The fact is that I could not find a way to like any of the characters. They have no redeeming traits and the story line is just too disturbing in the worst way. Also a sad betrayal of women! This is one you can skip.

Heather, the Totality by Matthew Weiner is a short so-so debut novel.

Mark and Karen Breakstone live a very comfortable life in Manhattan and have an adored daughter, Heather. Heather is beautiful, intelligent and empathetic. After Heather is born, Karen devotes all her time and attention to her, leaving Mark out. Mark resents Karen's over-protectiveness and feels he has to compete in order to spend a small amount of time with Heather. Tensions between Mark and Karen escalate. Heather grows up and is aware of their strained relationship.

In stark contrast to the lives of the Breakstones, Bobby Klasky grew up in an unstable home, living in poverty with a drug addicted mother and her series of boyfriends. He grows up with a cruel, violent streak, and exhibits the traits of a psychopath. After he spends some time in prison, Bobby joins the work crew that is remodeling the penthouse in the Breakstone's building. He notices Heather and becomes obsessed with her.

Heather, the Totality has some underlying potential that make me believe it could have been a much better novel if Weiner had chosen to broaden his plot development and flesh-out his characters. The truncated length, almost a novella, and attenuated plot made it a fast read, but not particularly a compelling one. The narrative is written in third person with no dialogue, which doesn't help. While reading I found little reason to care about these people.

This is not a psychological thriller or even a dark look at the class divide. Yes, there are people from two different socioeconomic levels depicted, but, uh, one is a psychopath. Class differences do not definitively correlate to a destructive personality disorder that could be found in people from any background.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Little, Brown, and Company via Netgalley.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/11/heather-totality.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2182032975
https://www.librarything.com/work/19437897/reviews/148115370ly/status/929759360095543297

This novella length work is not a book at all. It's the treatment you would write for a movie or the outline and biographies that you would write before you wrote the actual book. There is no dialogue, just a recitation of people doing or thinking things. Rather than being suspenseful, the whole thing just felt sort of sleazy and leering. There is no way that this would have been published if the author had not been the creator of Mad Men. It was hugely disappointing. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

An unhappy couple from the fringes of society produces an "It girl." They deal with their unhappiness and obsession around Heather. Weird take on parenting, but a quick and satisfying read.

This is a tale of two families, one of privilege and another of poverty. Karen and Mark Breakstone are comfortably ensconced in a spacious Manhattan apartment with their adolescent daughter, Heather. Bobby Klasky is a 30-ish day laborer who grew up in drug-ridden squalor in a New Jersey slum.

The Breakstone family is child-centric; everything revolves around their perfect child. Bobby Klasky was born in a setting of neglect. Oddly, his only positive social support comes is the parole officer he connects with after committing a crime.

Written in a breezy style, Matthew Weiner’s tale of how these two disparate worlds intersect is gripping. The reader knows something bad is about to happen but isn’t’ sure what.

I loved Weiner’s ability to write “tight,” develop believable characters, and deliver a message about class and economic disparity.

Heather, the Totality by Matthew Weiner is a quick read that you can whip through in under a couple of hours. Mark and Karen are the parents of Heather. Heather charms the world with her smile and laugh from babyhood on. This book also focuses on a man named Bobby who seemed to be cursed before he was ever even born. Bobby's and Heather's worlds collide and it's up to Heather's parents to sort everything out. I feel as though this is a book that has underlying meanings to it that will leave you thinking about the story long after you've finished it.

A story so tightly wound that as you unravel it the story grows exponentially. Well written and well plotted!

I expected more from the creator of Mad Men, but his charismatic, terrible characters didn't make an appearance here before I stopped reading. It is stale reading and none of the characters seems particularly likable.

Heather is the glowing center of the Breakstone family. She's beautiful and magnetic, worshipped by all, especially her parents, Mark and Karen. To outsiders, their family seems perfect---rich, successful, happy---but, in reality, Mark is plagued by insecurity, Karen is deeply lonely, and their family life is suffering. As a result, Heather feels simultaneously neglected and smothered by her parents, and is irritated by their inability to provide a more balanced and stable version of love.

Bobby Klasky is having some issues of his own. After being released from prison, he's just trying to survive---working odd jobs to make enough money to eat and move out of his drug addict mother's trailer. He's doing okay for himself, but he's not mentally stable. In truth, he thinks people are disgusting, and he would really love to torture them and rape them and kill them until they're all dead---starting with the most beautiful person first.

If you think you know where this story is going, well, you probably do. Heather, the Totality is a predictable, expected, one-dimensional book that offers up nothing new in the way of character development, plot, or general insight. We've all read this has-been story a million times before---and, what's worse, there are better versions out there.

What bugs me most, though, are the women in this story. They are so unbelievable and cliche. Karen, as a mother, is all wrong. I know many, many mothers (good ones and really bad ones, too), and I've never met a woman with such little personality or dimension. And Heather...good grief. She is the nymph from a cheesy porno: gorgeous and innocent, yet damaged, naughty, and, gasp, so willing. Ugh.

In other words, you're going to want to skip this one. I know, I know, but it's Matthew Weiner! It's Mad Men, for crying out loud! Believe me, I feel the disappointment, too. But unfortunately, this little novel is no good. It's just no good. Do yourself a solid and let it pass you by.

I had high hopes for this book based on the author, Matthew Weiner, and his creation, Mad Men. Unfortunately, this lacked everything that made the show unique - the plot was predictable, the writing was overly simplistic, and I failed to appreciate any of the characters. This felt more like an outline for a story as opposed to a fully developed novel.

The basic story is about the Breakstone family: Mark, his wife Karen, and their daughter, Heather. Even at a young age, Heather's vivacious personality made people flock toward her and propelled her into success and popularity at school. Of course, she also attracts the attention of a worker (a former convict) at her apartment building.

This had potential, but it just didn't have any twists or dynamic characters to make this a more worthy read. I suppose I'll stick with old Man Men episodes...

I loved Mad Men. I mean ... Don Draper, right? He's a pretty fantastic character, and I loved how Matthew Weiner showed how a man with everything he thought he wanted nearly self-destructed when he realized that he had it all wrong.

So thanks to that television show, we know Matthew Weiner can write. We know that he understands characterization and agency. He knows how to tell a story.

Heather, the Totality might make you wonder about that, though.

For one thing, at a scant 144 pages, it is so fast-paced as to feel like Weiner had a strict word count. This is okay when he's breezing through Mark and Karen's backgrounds and beginnings, but when you get to the climax and denouement, it's problematic. I kept wondering if part of the story didn't make the ARC I read through NetGalley.

For another, Weiner veers between overwrought melodrama and taut suspense, with far too much of an emphasis on the former. He has a good eye and ear for Mark and Karen, and I particularly liked how he showed the fluctuating relationships between the two of them and their daughter Heather. Bobby, the troubled stranger who infiltrates their lives, seems unoriginal to the point of caricature. Nothing about him rings true because everything about him is hackneyed.

I won't even discuss the ending. The very ending is fantastic, but the climax is almost eye-rolling in its predictability, not to mention that whole "seriously you could take your time with this" thing.

I wanted to like this. I tried to convince myself that my complaints were minor and ridiculous, but Matthew Weiner has shown that he can do better. I look forward to reading that book.

This is a very short book and although the story was gripping I felt the characters were not fully formed . tells the story of a wealthy couple and their daughter. A released sociopath becomes obsessed with the daughter. There is a little background on each character . although I did read it to the end I felt it was sparse

2.5 stars.

I can understand the negatives reviews for this book because it was underwhelming.

People are complaining about the writing style but it didn't bother me that much. I guess this just felt like a slightly bulked out storyboard for a TV show, which would make sense as the author wrote Mad Men.

Some people think there is no character development in this novella, but I can't say I agree. Mark and Karen are well described throughout the book and though you don't get much history into each character, you learn enough about them as they grower older together and have a child. Same goes for Bobby. Heather, on the other hand, is more difficult to get to know. We didn't really get the chance to learn much about her.

I honestly feel like this book was a little above my level of understanding and maybe I didn't get the bigger picture, but to me this just felt like a boring story of overbearing, selfish parents and their confused golden child and a disturbed man. I know I'm getting this all wrong but hey, what can you do.

I call the story boring, and it was a little bit, but it wasn't the worst thing. I actually enjoyed Bobby's monolgue the most, even though it was filled with sick and depraved rape imaginings. I guess because he was the only character that had any character, it made his part of the story worth reading.

I agree with reviewers who said this felt cut off all of a sudden, because it does just seem to end out of nowhere, and in a pretty dull manner.

This novel reminded me of Hubert Selby Jr's work. Depressing, bleak, dark and slow.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This slim volume represented to me a storyboard for a film or a TV series. The book captured my attention immediately with the fear that two of the characters who lived on opposite sides of the Hudson River would someday meet and tragedy would be the result. The resolution was very interesting.

I was taken by surprise by this book. It was as if I was watching the events while they were occurring. The way that the brevity of the writing conveyed the intensity of the emotions happening held my attention and drew me into the story. Everyone seemed so alive and close by that I found myself wondering how can I tap someone on the shoulder and say, Hey your are not noticing something important! This story captures the complexity of human relationships and the struggle to move from awareness to action poignantly, especially the spiral of emotion that moves one from being uneasy further and further towards desperateness. It captures well the mystery of how people with so many advantages are still impoverished when it comes to being able to live their lives effectively. Hope Mr Weiner keeps writing!