Hmmm....mixed feelings on this. It's nice to read a novel with an overt focus on the rural South and male despair, but I was left with a feeling that I didn't have a clear idea of what the book wanted to say about the people in it, or who it was addressed to.

Joel, the brother who's moved to New York City, is an arrogant professor. Alice, his wife, doesn't know why she married him and just wants to buy land and start a farm. Emmett is adrift and not very sharp, working at a cargo distribution center and attempting to be a screenwriter. Sure, it's "about" class and privilege, but it's mostly about this aimless and airless trio struggling to find any person or project to give their lives meaning.

The brothers' mother and grandmother (and various townspeople) are so stereotypical as to not even register as characters. I kept thinking about Patricia Lockwood's PRIESTDADDY, and how her portrayal of family members with differing political and religious beliefs were rendered with both warmth and idiosyncratic detail. (I also kept comparing the work scenes to Heike Geissler's Seasonal Associate, a book written by a woman who actually worked in an Amazon warehouse.)

The pity is doled out almost equally between the coastal elites, the Fox-newsed provincials, the prodigal son lazing between these two poles. If there's no center anymore (religion, marriage, family, ideology outside of textbooks), what is saving us from 300 pages of a humorless world that is grimly blah?

Well-written, but ultimately depressing and in a sad way, not very interesting. I did enjoy Groundskeeping and I did manage to relate to some of the characters, but not enough.

The second book by this new author. I loved his first book, Groundskeeping, which tells the story of a writer from rural Kentucky, torn between his nostalgic childhood and his new understanding of the world.
Fulfillment rips off the bandaid. There is no nostalgia about life in rural Kentucky. Emmitt works in a mundane job and dreams of being a writer of screenplays, but confronts reality at every step. His brother Joel has escaped and lives a meaningless life as a small time writer and philosophy professor in NYC. Both are miserable and make decisions that make life worse.
The book is mostly depressing, but is well written and thought provoking. I am looking forward to the third book.

I was offered a preview copy of this novel through Netgalley because I’d read and reviewed this author’s debut novel, Groundskeeping. I’d loved Groundskeeping and felt a distinct draw to its protagonist and his small town. Unfortunately, Fulfillment left me less than fulfilled.

Cole knows his Kentucky setting well and I can smell the cigarette smoke dampening the musty carpet of his mom’s dream home and feel the thrum of the conveyor belts in “the hub”, a clear ode to an Amazon shipping hub. What is less successful are his characters, none of which I felt drawn to or even felt like rooting for. Joel, the older, scholarly brother has no redeeming qualities and his wife is both lost and self absorbed in her loneliness. The younger brother, Emmett, is both lost in his brother’s shadow and in his own indecision. Their mother Kathy is a Southern archetype and cliche.

Cole’s prose remains writing workshopped perfect and true, but one ends this novel asking “so what?” Was it worth my time for a dry synopsis of Trump-era Kentucky or the over-narrated descriptions of Millenials lacking direction? 3.5 stars. Cole has chops but this suffers as his sophomore slump.

In full disclosure I received an electronic version of Lee Cole’s “Fulfillmen”t from the Alfred A. Knoph publishing company through Netgallery. I had read and gave Cole a four-star rating of his first book “Groundskeeping”.
Lee Cole has a great command of words and when you are reading his work you insert yourself in the story. Sometimes this is good, sometimes not, because Cole’s characters always seem conflicted and not particularly likeable. It is a timely book, especially toxic politics and class divide but in a gentle way, not like castor oil shoved down your throat. The book has some very funny sections that come throughout the entire read.
The main characters are half siblings, Joel the author and occasional college professor and Emmett the want to be screen writer and fulfillment center worker. The parts at the fulfillment center reminded me of those in the book “Nomadland” but not as harsh. There is also Alice Joel’s wife who dreams of living on a farm. Joel and Emmett become estranged and then come back together, sort of. The book really is about looking for that fulfillment of the book’s title.

this book was great! I love the themes of socioeconomics, class, privilege, and all the encompassing themes that surround that. It was very well written, and called out a lot of unjust things, which I love. It was very spot on and eye opening!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

This book's topic is much heavier than the romance stories I've been enjoying recently. However, it is a stunning work by a very talented author. The characters and plot aren't something you will fall in love with, but it will keep your interest. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Near Paducah, Kentucky, in a vast distribution center for a global shipping giant, Emmett spends his days unloading boxes on an assembly line. He has returned home—again—after yet another six-month cycle of hope and failure, another job and dream that didn’t work out. This time, he starts off back with his mother in his childhood home, forced to confront not only his own disappointments but the presence of his brother, Joel, the golden child.

Joel, a successful author, views the world through the lens of leftist ideology and intellectual abstraction, retreating into research and philosophy as his personal life crumbles. His wife wonders if she can endure a man who seems more invested in his ideals than in their marriage.

Cole’s writing is stunning, sharp, and deeply observant, capturing the tensions between success and failure, ambition and stagnation, privilege and self-awareness. The characters, frustrating yet compelling, fumble for meaning with answers sitting right in front of them. They are cushioned by safety nets they barely acknowledge, making their struggles feel both tragic and maddening.

This novel isn’t easy—it doesn’t give you characters to love, only to understand. But it is an undeniable achievement in storytelling, and I was completely taken in. The ending? Absolutely perfect.
#KnopfPantheonVintage #Fulfillment #LeeCole