This book actually put me into a bit of a slump. The story follows the life of The Oppenheimers with their 3 children (triplets) who want nothing to do with each other. The themes of class and privilege are strong in this book and it’s pretty annoying that they have everything they could want but they are so selfish. None of the triplets (or Salo and Johanna) are all that likable. The 300+ pages written from their perspectives were just really slow and I don’t think they were all that necessary. With the arrival of their sister, Phoebe (17 years later) things start to pick up. She was the only character I really liked a lot and the chapters from her perspective kept me engaged in what was going to happen in the story as she tried to bring her family much closer. All in all, once you’re done with the book, it’s a great story, but the prose feels very “run-on sentence” and it was hard to get through that much of a 500 page book that I didn’t think warranted writing about. Definitely check some of the 1-2 and 4-5 star reviews to see if this might be the book for you.

“This was the flaw in making a bargain with yourself. There is no one else there to agree to the terms.”

At just under 450 pages this book is a 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. It’s quite long and it takes quite a bit of the book for it to really get going. Like at any point during the first probably half of the book I could have put it down and not revisited it without feeling like I was missing something.

The characters, for the majority of it, are all essentially unlikable. The Oppenheimer triplets can’t get along, but there’s really no discernible reason why. The husband, Salo, is distant. The wife, Johanna, is withdrawn.

And then there’s the politics. Just…no. It’s enough to see the divisiveness on social media and on the news, I don’t need to read about it as well. I read to get 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 from that nonsense. But I soldiered on. “People with different ideas from one’s own were not the enemy; they were simply people with different ideas.”

But then the latecomer grows up, and she is exactly what the Oppenheimers have needed all along. The complex web of lies, secrets, and familial issues in this heavily character driven story all started to come together. And I grew to understand these broken people. To relate in some way, and even to root for them. Overall this one took quite a bit of time to get going but I am so glad I stuck it out!! If you enjoyed We Are The Brennan’s I think you will like this one too.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Celadon Books, and the author for the gifted physical copy and eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story follows The Oppenheimer Family from its literal conception to the children’s feeling upended due to the arrival of a fourth sibling.

It is very rare that I DNF a book, but I just cannot get through this one. It is so long and detailed, even 200 pages in I cannot relate to these characters or even figure out what the premise is of this story. Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon for the ARC but this is just not for me.

I did not enjoy the first part of this book but i heard it gets much better about 200 pages in. I resorted to skimming the pages to make it go faster. This was a book I would normally DNF but I'm in too deep to throw in the towel. I'm hoping for redemption in the last hour of reading. So far it is a one star for me.......
The Triplets are all a piece of work and I don't particularly like any of them. Thank goodness for Phoebe!!

So. What I have heard is true. It does get much better once you push through to the second half.
The slow build and character development of the first half is needed for the glorious ending. I am so glad that I finished this one. I have seen conflicting reviews, but that is what this community is all about.
Finally rating 3 stars

Thank you @celadonbooks and @netgalley for my early review copy. All thoughts are my own

I really enjoyed the plot and was so excited to dive into this newest one but it was really uninteresting. The characters were just so unlikable and very odd word choices throughout. Did not finish

This is the first book that I have read by this author. The Latecomer is a contemporary family drama about a dysfunctional, rich Jewish family. Definitely a family with flaws.
Could one accident that was tragic determine and shape the rest of a persons life? Character driven and complex.

Thank you Celadon Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Unfortunately I had to put this book down. I found the first few pages very wordy and a bit confusing. I couldn’t keep up with the present/past and who was who.. maybe if I kept reading I would have figured it out, but I didn’t want to.

DNF @ 25% - I really enjoyed the Plot so I was super excited to read this as an ARC. Unfortunately, it landed super flat for me. the story is told in three parts: the parents, the bratty children, and the latecomer. and yes, this is a generational story but everyone was so entitled that I found myself not even caring. I flipped to the last part to see if it was more intriguing and found that even the best parts of the book could not save this monogamous repetitive book sadly.

What does family mean to you? You hear this all the time and family means different things to different people. Typically, family remains close throughout the years. Unfortunately, for Johanna Oppenheimer, this is not how her family starts out. Johanna and Salo Oppenheimer met at a funeral where Salo was driver who survived a horrific car accident. Years later they run into each other again and end up getting married. Their wearisome attempts to start a family takes a toll on both Johanna and Salo. When Johanna finally gives birth to triplets via IVF, she feels that her dream of having a close family is finally happening. She can finally heal her husbands wounds. Much to Johanna's chagrin, her children want nothing to do with each other or their parents. It is not until Johanna's forth child is born, that everyone's definition of family begins to change.

This book reminds me of The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. Each chapter focuses on a different POV from someone in the family. Readers are fully immersed into that characters most private thoughts and feelings for that chapter. This allows the author to hold her readers hostage, forcing them to see the same story from all angles. She does a great job of showing that no matter put together someone looks - you never know what they are going through. This causes this book to be a slow build. If you like slow build books, definitely grab this unique puzzle of a book!

I *tried* to push through and finish this one, but once I got to 50% I gave up. I was very interested throughout the first few chapters, thinking the author was laying the groundwork for a dark and complex family drama. But it never picked up. It’s chapter after chapter about how the triplets don’t like each other. I think the idea behind this novel is great. I was so eager to read it. It was just far too slow for me. I needed something to happen! There was one revelation that I thought had potential to shake things up and grab my attention, but soon after the reveal the book fell back into its usual pattern. Maybe this book just wasn’t for me at this moment.

I absolutely loved the plot so when I got this approval, I was incredibly excited. Korelitz does a phenomenal job of writing and creating these raw/real plots. While the plot of this book compared to her other novel The Plot is completely different- it still has the same JHK feel. This book has so many layers and paints a phenomenal picture of your dysfunctional American family where you get so in depth with the characters you feel as though you know them personally. Following the wealthy Oppenheimer family in NYC who owns car dealerships. There are multiple stow shopping characters who you absolutely fall in love with and every chapter you cannot put it down because you want to know what happens next. I highly recommend and I think this book would be a phenomenal audiobook read!

A terrific, sharply written family drama, this book is long and a little slow to get going but I promise you it’s worth it in the end! This is one of those books where you should ignore the publisher synopsis which is one of those ones that manages to be both inaccurate and spoiler-y at the same time. Just know that it is a family drama which takes place over more than 40 years, but zeroing in on just a few short stretches of time during that time, and about each of the parents when they were younger, their triplets who do not get along, and the “latecomer” younger sibling of the title. All are flawed characters but really brought to life, and all the disparate threads really come together in the final section of the book.

Those that only discovered Jean Hanff Korelitz with last year’s The Plot should know that this one does not have any mystery/thriller vibes like that book; I have been a fan of hers since her book Admission many years ago so did not surprise me at all. Like both those books (and You Should Have Known and The Devil and Webster, all of which I enjoyed), it has smart and sharp writing and a pleasantly intellectual atmosphere - I’d compare also maybe to the writing of Meg Wolitzer or the book Fleishman Is In Trouble.

This is a long one so I know some people are going to complain about it, but I thought it was terrific and her best book yet. And I can’t wait to discuss it with some of my friends because there is so much to talk about - would make a great book club book!

4.25 stars.

What can I say, I find Jean Hanff Korelitz a tremendously intriguing writer! Thank you Celadon and NetGalley for this book.
I enjoyed the fast paced plot of The Plot last year and this year I savored The Latecomer a slow burn character driven family drama (with some wonderfully executed tension near the end). I admire a versatile writer who can engage me, have me thinking and talking about characters and plot development, and who can draw me in to a story so effectively. So I can only rave about The Latecomer, I am sad to have finished it (though highly satisfied with the whole story!).

A note, if readers are looking for The Plot this to me is different from that book, keep that in mind. Looking for a family drama that to me is like no other? This is for you.

3 Strengths
1. Character development. I usually don't rave about books where characters are possibly unlikable. I am not sure if that is a fair word for the characters in this book but they aren't kind to each other (which perhaps is what is so intriguing about the story, these triplets who have no connection with each other and don't want one). For me the story was mostly about the three siblings, Harrison, Lewyn, Sally, and each was so thoroughly described, wonderfully developed and real on the pages and yet challenging to like. I love character driven narratives and to feel that these characters were so distinct and real is impressive. The secondary characters were also well described, I love Rochelle in particular

2. Slow burn tension. This book took a bit for me to get into but then once the triplets were in college and I could see the narrative drawing me in and then seeing it was all building to a well executed climax... I was all in. I loved how this story took its time to really develop each character and then let it all come together.

3. Thought Provoking details. I thought as each triplet found a passion or their voice and how the story kind of kept turning on itself and on the reader to bring us more into a very messy set of individuals. I just loved the topics explored about art, identity, religion, academics, conservative mindsets, relationships...

highly recommend!

Well, this book was not for me. I struggled to get through the physical copy and would have DNFd, but grabbing the audio saved it for me. The story is too long with too many people that I didn't care about. It was a bit exhausting, and I just kept wondering...if anything was actually going to happen in this story.

Jean Hanff Korelitz's writing is so sweeping and emotionally authentic. It's epic and yet totally accessible. I loved this book almost as much as I loved The Plot. I really enjoyed the characters and the plot arc that swept over something like 35 years to really get to know the Oppenheimer family. Korelitz has a way of depicting flawed people sardonically, kind of like she's sitting back and winking at you about their flaws, and that makes it funny. I enjoyed every minute of this ride! I thought it was super cool how she used creative license to dial back the onset of assisted reproductive technology, so that all the pieces could come together on time.
It was kind of funny - I was trying to put the book down at about the 75% mark, to finish something else. And THAT'S when things ramp up -- a giant twist comes up and then many things are revealed in succession, boom, boom, boom. This felt really glorious after a leisurely paced first 75%! So then I couldn't put it down until I was finished.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this fantastic yarn. I will highly recommend it to anybody who loved The Plot -- and that was a lot of people! Really it will be an easy sell to any contemporary literary fiction readers.

Dense, dense and denser. That is what this book felt like to me. At almost five hundred pages, this entirely character-driven book was a slog for me. I read other glowing reviews on this book and I completely appreciate that the character development is nothing short of masterful. Personally, plot-driven books are more my thing and some editing could have lessened the denseness of this book and still managed to convey the overall complexity of the story.

I found the beginning of this book quite confusing, close to the 75% mark was when it all came together but I found it to be very long. It took way too long for me to get fully into this book.

thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

It was a super interesting concept and a cozy book.
As someone who is also a Latecomer, I had a lot to relate to.
Lovely prose!

I received an ARC of The Latecomer in exchange for an honest review. I have read two other of Jean Hanff Korelitz' books and enjoyed them, especially The Plot. This is a book about an extremely dysfunctional family, The Oppenheimer's. I like a book about family drama, but this book did not qualify as that. This was a very LONG book and one I was never anxious to see what was going to happen next. However, at about the 75% mark, the book picks up. If only the rest of the book had been written as well as the last fourth of the book.

What's really good about The Latecomer can also be what's bad. For instance, the concise title is somewhat confounding as The Latecomer does not appear until midway (despite being the unnamed narrator). The title of Jean Hanff Korelitz's earlier novel You Should Have Known was such a plot spoiler it was changed to The Undoing for the HBO miniseries, so perhaps Miss Korelitz is now going for "short and ambiguous." The Latecomer features some of the most descriptive and in depth writing you'll find, but you have to plod through lengthy sentences and stream of consciousness ramblings to find it. The Latecomer is a family drama-with much emphasis on "drama." If the Oppenheimer triplets starred in a TV show it would be called "This Ain't Us" as they are the antithesis to the devoted Pearson children of NBC's This is Us. You'll think The Latecomer is about Oppenheimer patriarch Salo and the devastating tragedy that happened while he was a student at Cornell University. While Salo is emotionally scarred for life and deems himself unworthy of happiness, this incident takes a backseat to the trials and triumphs of his children-starting with the infertility Salo and wife Johanna experience leading up to the triplets "test tube" conception. Years later two of the triplets wind up at Cornell, but are so estranged Lewyn lies about having a sister when first meeting girlfriend Rochelle. The Latecomer is a cornucopia of bad decisions, but denying his sister Sally's existence ranks among the worst as Rochelle turns out to be Sally's college roommate. The Latecomer meanders into social and political commentary with third triplet Harrison, a card carrying conservative in contrast his more liberal leaning siblings. There are less than flattering comments regarding a certain news organization and previous president that may turn turn off some. But it's The Latecomers message that negates any shortcomings. Bursting through the pontificating and miles of narrative, comes a clear and shining lesson: someone who looks, acts, sounds, loves, or prays to a different God than we do is not wrong-they just made a different choice and are no better or worse than anyone else. For this alone, especially in light of the recent racially motivated massacre in Buffalo, New York, The Latecomer can't arrive a moment too soon.