This memoir wasn’t my favorite read ever. The complicated relationship the author had with her mother just didn’t carry the book for me. I found Malabar to be toxic and whiny person and couldn’t connect to the story. The book was an easy read but it took longer than usual for me to get through it since I just wasn’t connecting with it. I felt sympathy for the daughter, author Adrienne Brodeur when she was just a teenager who was trying to win her mothers love. The author helped her mother carry on an affair with husbands best friend for many years. As she grew up and still continued to help her mother hide and help continue her mother’s affair, I started to feel less sympathy. I just can’t get behind an adult continue this ruse that was created. At some point in becoming an adult you should know better. That’s just my opinion though. While an easy read, I just couldn’t connect to Adrienne or Malabar. To me a good memoir sucks you I pen connecting you to the author, but I just didn’t get that with this book.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Mariner Books in exchange for an honest review.

I am not normally a memoir reader but something about this book caught my eye, and I am so glad I took the chance and requested it. Wild Game is a fascinating examination of a mother-daughter relationship in all its complexities. It is a heartbreaking read and one that is quite difficult at times, but I was utterly sucked in.

It feels weird to review the things that happen in someone's life, so I will focus on things other than the content. The writing is brilliant, distant enough to make for a well-told story but close enough that the emotions are still there. There is just as much in what is not said in this book as there is on the page, and that creates a really powerful tone throughout. The mother-daughter dynamic is intriguing and intense, and that's really what powers the story moreso than the mother's affair.

Overall, if you like the sound of this book you should give it a try. It is thoughtfully written, deeply engaging and poignant, which is everything a good memoir should be.

Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

I've always heard such great things about this memoir and I was eager to get a moment to finally read it.

I'd love to learn more about Ms. Brodeur and her family. The memoir was such an interesting perspective and I was honestly surprised by the twists and turns like it was a fiction novel. As the reader, I felt able to relate to both Adrienne (or Rennie as she's called by her family in the book) and her mother, Malabar.

Some people come into this world in a set of unfair circumstances. Whatever that may be, you can hopefully rise above it. However, I'm not sure Malabar was ever quite capable of freeing herself from the parents she had and the abuse and neglect she suffered by them. Even more unfortunate, Malabar did the best she could with raising her own children, but as she was never able to confront her own demons, boundaries with her children were often blurred. As shown when Malabar excitedly wakes her young daughter up to tell her about an illicit kiss she's just had. She's hoping this is not a fluke and that this one kiss will lead the way to a relationship. Malabar enlists Rennie's help to hide and nurture her affair, using her unfairly.

I hesitate to use the word enjoyable, but it was reassuring to see Rennie come to the realization that her relationship with her mother wasn't fair and was at times harmful to her personal well-being.

I will never understand why this book "sparked a fourteen-bidder auction among American publishers, and film rights sold nearly instantly" because this book was pointless. I have no idea who the people are in this memoir and really could have cared less to read about them. It was superficial and mostly talked about how wonderful her mother was but yet then talked about how horrible she was by having her keep this horrible secret from everyone. Then talked about food in a very detailed description and the environment. This book, in my opinion, was just a whine fest about why she turned out the way she did and how she felt betrayed by her mother.

Very entertaining memoir of a very dysfunctional family! What mother burdens her daughter with a secret that ruins not only her daughter's life but several others as well? Well..... Rennie's mother did and so she wrote about it. Her mom has an affair that Rennie keeps secret for over 10 years starting at age 14! Well written and worthy of a reading binge.

This book blew my mind. How a mother could subject her daughter to her infidelity and then make her complicit just boggles my mind. A seriously dysfunction family to read about.

A superb memoir on mothers, daughters and love. I completely enjoyed this novel and it kept me reading as I wanted to know as much as I could. A truthful lens into intimate relationships.

I really admire Brodeurs honesty and bravery in telling the story of how she became her mother's confidante.at such a young age when she was supposed to be sheltered and protected. The story is immediately captivating and very well written

I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this at the moment. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!

I just couldn’t get into this one. It had so many depressing aspects, such as adultery, suicidal ideas, incest and more. It made me sad to think of the damage this mother caused her daughter.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

3.5 stars.
Diving in, i did not think i`d be so invested in the story and the characters but i was wrong. It made me sit back and think alot, but also feel alot; Shocked, angry, confused, happy... and often wierded out or annoyed. Adrienne was an interesting character, she grew as a person. Her mother ...wow, that was an complex and annoying character, i don`t know how to explain it. The story sucked me in and i really liked the ending.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC. This book was a lot. I had to remind myself this was someone's memoir. The mom and the daughter, what in the world kind of relationship was that?

This story was fascinating to me, reflecting back on my own teenage views of the world and what I thought was right or wrong. I can’t fathom the thought of my mother confiding in me about an elicit affair. In fact I prefer not to know.
As I was reading through the chapters, I couldn’t help but constantly reflect on this thought in the back of my mind. And although I too like Adrienne grew up with a stepfather, I’d be so incredibly angry at my mother.
I don’t think I could have kept a secret like this for as long as Adrienne did.
The story kept be hooked from the beginning, I needed answers! Haha
I would definitely recommend this read to my friends.

I love a good memoir, primarily when it deals with mother-daughter relationships. I am proud the author was able to document her pain in such a clear way. I could not put this down and, at the time, felt so sad for her and upset at the adults in her life. I don't think people understand the trauma they give their children that fester and grow as these children grow.

4★
“When my mother aimed her light at you, let it shine on you and allowed you to feel that you held her interest and amused her, it was nearly impossible to look away. Malabar could be intensely charismatic, a breath of fresh air, an irresistible combination of clever and irreverent, and [X] was enchanted.”

How on earth to set your moral compass as a fourteen-year-old when your mother chooses you as her confidante about her adulterous affair? Not only that, because you so admire and adore her, you become her co-conspirator.

“Sweetie, you can’t tell anyone. Not a soul. Not your brother, not your father, not your friends. No one. This is serious. Promise me that, Rennie. You must take this secret to your grave.” I promised immediately, thrilled to have landed a starring role in my mother’s drama, oblivious to the fact that I was being outmaneuvered for the second time that night.”

Adrienne, ‘Rennie’, is desperate to win top billing in her mother’s affections. Malabar is still grieving for Christopher, her first-born, who died as a toddler. Through no fault of her own, Rennie was born on Christopher’s birthday, so she never really got the whole-hearted celebration of the anniversary of her gracing the world with her presence (as I choose to think of my own birthday). She does have another brother, Peter, whose own sense of place doesn’t figure much in this autobiography.

It is like reading the gossip pages of privileged, well-to-do Americans who live and work on the East Coast and holiday on Cape Cod. Malabar and her two children live with Malabar’s wealthy second husband, whom they all adored – but – Charles has suffered a series of strokes, and while he’s still a charming and wonderful man, he’s not as strong a presence as he was.

His best friend of many years is Ben Souther, who is married to Lily, a relatively frail cancer survivor. Ben is a hunter-gatherer-forager who has trophy heads and brings whatever his latest game is for Malabar to cook for them all.

This is not as strange as it sounds. Malabar is a chef who writes food columns and can cook anything and everything. I’m not a food-show viewer usually, but I did get sucked into Junior MasterChef in Australia this year, where children as young as eleven were making the most incredible dishes and knew so much about ingredients and foods that I’m sure they have all been reincarnated from past lives.

Malabar is exceptional.

“My mother rarely followed recipes. She had little use for them. Hardwired to understand the chemistry of food, she needed only her palate, her instincts, and her fingertips. In a single drop of rich sauce placed on her tongue, she could detect the tiniest hint of cardamom, one lone shard of lemon zest, some whiff of a behind-the-scenes ingredient. She had an innate feel for composition and structure and how temperature might change that.”

She is exceptional in more ways than one.

“She also had a keen awareness of the power of this gift, particularly where men were concerned. Armed with sharp knives, fragrant spices, and fire, my mother could create feasts whose aromas alone would entice ships full of men onto the rocks, where she would delight in watching them plunge into the abyss. I knew about the Sirens from reading Greek mythology and marveled at my mother’s powers.”

Plus, she is gorgeous.

[My Goodreads review includes a sepia photo of Malabar.]
Malabar, photographed in 1951 in New York City. Photo: Courtesy of Adrienne Brodeur

Last of all, or maybe first of all, she is selfish. Malabar has convinced herself and Rennie that she deserves something after the heartbreak of losing a child and suffering along with Charles, although they both claim to love him. Rennie, at fourteen, is impressionable and enjoys the sense of daring as she embarks on ways to put the wooing pair together.

She talks about how it affected her own relationships later, and how she finally came to terms (more or less) with the toll her devotion to her mother took on her own life. Malabar blew hot and cold with her daughter, depending on whether she 'needed' her or not. When she needed Rennie, it was always urgent. When she didn't, Rennie was ignored.

It is a great read, full of intrigue and recipes against the great backdrop of Cape Cod.

“The sun finally pushed through the sky in broad columns of slanted light. The tide was dead low, that still hour that marks the sea’s withdrawal and illuminates the teeming life beneath the surface of our bay: moon snails pushing plow-like across the sandy bottom, horseshoe crabs coupling, schools of minnows moving in perfect synchronicity. As the procession of sunbeams merged into one, the day became long with light, and a space in my mind opened like that between a boat and a dock.”

If you’d like to read part of the beginning, she has shared it here, in the August 2019 issue of ‘Vogue’.

https://www.vogue.com/article/adrienne-brodeur-wild-game-vogue-august-2019-issue

She changed all the names except for hers, her mother’s and her father’s, but with a name like Malabar, she and the others are easy to find easily online.

Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the preview copy which I’ve had for far too long and from which I’ve quoted.

This book was absolutely engrossing and fascinating. It sucked me in so much that I finished it in a day and couldn't stop telling my sister about what had happened next.

Brodeur's story of her mother's affair and her own entanglement in that affair was so enthralling. My jaw was literally dropped while reading some of the details of Brodeur's involvement - at points, it was hard to believe this is a memoir. The writing felt so lush and descriptive, particularly with the descriptions of Brodeur's mother's cooking and her paramour's hunting of wild game.

I found this to be a sad, but poignant illustration of the traumas our parents can leave us with, and how we learn to face those traumas, set appropriate boundaries, and grow beyond them later in life. Highly recommend and would consider this a favorite for this year.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Very occasionally, I’m part way through a book and I have to phone my best reading buddy and say, “Can you please start reading X immediately because I’m going to need to debrief.” She always complies. I did this recently, and a week later we spoke about Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur for a full hour.

Brodeur’s memoir is about her experience growing up with her charismatic and complicated mother, Malabar. When Brodeur was fourteen, Malabar woke her at midnight to confess that she had kissed her husband’s (Brodeur’s step-father) best friend, Ben.

Brodeur instantly became her mother’s confidante and accomplice, helping her Malabar and Ben spend time together.

Deception takes commitment, vigilance, and a very good memory. To keep the truth buried, you must tend to it.

The affair had ramifications for both families, and would impact Brodeur’s life in ways that she could have never predicted. There are many startling twists in this story, and moments that left me gobsmacked but I’ll leave out the detail for fear of spoilers. Instead, I’ll address the broad themes that made this memoir engrossing.

Firstly, the book begins with Malabar’s confession, but you have to wonder about what came before. I’m both fascinated and appalled when parents claim they are ‘best friends’ with their child – almost always these ‘best friend’ feelings are complicated and not reciprocal. And Brodeur’s story is a perfect example. She basked in her mother’s attention as a child, but as an adult saw that Malabar’s ‘love’ left her completely isolated.

What I knew then was that nothing made me feel more loved than making my mother happy, and any means justified that end.

I’d been the grownup in our relationship for so long – the one who advised and consoled and did the holding…

Brodeur is open about her own role in the deception – it would have been easy to claim she was manipulated by her mother (which she was) and that she was too young to know better (also possibly true) however, she is clear that she had something to gain – her mother’s love.

…at the very age I should have been breaking free, Malabar bound me to her with her secret. And although she’d been the one to initiate our unhealthy dynamic, I had perpetuated it.

Malabar’s narcissism was extraordinary. As Brodeur describes, Malabar grew up with a toxic, abusive mother, and experienced trauma – I had to keep this at the forefront of my mind as a possible explanation for Malabar’s manipulative behaviour, cutting remarks, sense of entitlement, and complete lack of thought for others, particularly her own children.

Finally, at the broadest level, the story reveals how family dynamics become ingrained, and reverberate through a person’s life and relationships.

Lying wasn’t wholly new to me. It comes with the territory when your parents get divorced and the two people you love and need most become adversaries.

In our family, being right trumped being truthful. There was no room for uncertainty, so you never let your guard down.

I had a sense of unease when I was reading this book, one that I rarely get when reading memoir – essentially, there’s a lot of dirty laundry, and it’s all relatively recent. Names have been changed, but I’m sure it’s no stretch to find out who’s who in Brodeur’s life. I wonder about the status of family relationships since Wild Game was published.

Mention must be made of the exceptional sense of place in this story – the descriptions of Malabar’s cooking and the Cape Cod house are superb.

…steamed, soft-shell clams that my mother and I had plucked from a nearby sandbar at low tide earlier in the day… dunked the bodies into hot broth and melted butter, and popped them into our mouths. A burst of ocean.

Unsurprisingly, this memoir is being made into a movie. – it will be a case of ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ and I hope that the filmmaker captures the emotional complexity of Brodeur’s story.

If you read this book, feel free to contact me and say, “The necklace! The wedding! Christopher!” – I reckon you’ll need a debrief.

4/5 Gripping and infuriating.

I received my copy of Wild Game from the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

My mom had an affair and made me her accomplice. its a lot for anyone, never mind a 14 year old. I was involved for years, but I took it as something that made me want to be a better wife, to have stronger and healthier relationships. No one here is a monster, but there is a lot of maturing the mother needed to do. It makes me angry when a parent leans on their child with adult situations. This is what your sisters and best friends are for. people who can separate feelings and tell you when you are wrong. offer guidance and opinions. Great discussion book.

Unfortunately, this memoir did not resonate with me as I was not able to connect with the narrator nor other people depicted, and I decided to put it down about halfway through. This mother-daughter relationship memoir is told through the eyes of the daughter. It begins the summer she is 14, when her mother confides that she is on the precipice of an affair. Not quite as scandalous as it sounds at first, as the mother is remarried after divorcing the daughter's biological father, but still a bit disturbing. Overall, just not my cup of tea. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

I was so invested in this story. I was both horrified and enamored by this mother/daughter relationship and how those secrets your exposed to at your most tender younger years stick to your thoughts and shape you for a lifetime. Fantastic glimpse into a woman who had to play the games of parental infidelity