Wild Game

Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me is a 2019 memoir by American writer Adrienne Brodeur. The memoir is centered around the author's relationship with her mother, Malabar Brewster. Brodeur helps her mother hide an affair[1] from her (the mother's) husband. The story begins in July 1980.[2] Brodeur was 14 years old at that time.[3] Brodeur accompanies her mother and her lover (known in the book as Ben Souther) on walks and waits for them as they go off on their trysts.[4]

Wild Game
First edition
AuthorAdrienne Brodeur
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreMemoir
PublisherMariner Books (US)
Chatto & Windus (UK)
Publication date
October 15, 2019
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages234
ISBN978-0-358-36132-9

Ilana Masad of National Public Radio stated that the novel, "for all its luscious prose and tantalizing elements, is ultimately about the slow and painful process of losing a mother."[2] Masad wrote that the work "reads very much like a novel with a first-person narrator".[2]

Emily Rapp Black of The New York Times wrote that the author "does not reject her mother, [...] but neither does she become her or soft-pedal the ways in which Malabar continues to wound her."[5]

Background

The author used her parents' actual names but changed the names of other parties.[2]

Brodeur's mother, Malabar, was a food writer for The Boston Globe.[6] The book's title comes from the title of a would-be cookbook that Malabar planned to write with her husband, Charles, her lover, Ben, a hunter, and Ben's wife, Lily.[6]

Brodeur stated that her mother supported her efforts to have the book written; by the time it was completed, the mother's illness was too severe for her to read the book.[7] Malabar, by 2019, had dementia.[5]

Reception

Wild Game was named a national bestseller.[8] It won the New England Society of New York 2020 Book Award in the nonfiction category [9] and was ranked by People (magazine) as one of the 10 best books of 2019.[10] Amazon (company) also ranked the book as a best book of 2019.[11]

In her The New York Times review, Rapp Black wrote, "The book is so gorgeously written and deeply insightful, and with a line of narrative tension that never slacks, from the first page to the last, that it’s one you’ll likely read in a single, delicious sitting."[5] Jennifer Haupt of Psychology Today wrote that the book is "inspiring" and "moving, masterful".[3] In a review published in The Guardian, Elizabeth Lowry called the book, "Polished but very dark ... A memoir of sex, animal innards and a daughter who is too polite to her narcissist mother".[12]

Publishers Weekly, which deemed it a featured book, wrote that it is "page-turning" and "This layered narrative of deceit, denial, and disillusionment is a surefire bestseller."[13]

Film adaptation

In 2018, Kelly Fremon Craig was announced to be adapting the book into a film for Chernin Entertainment.[14]

References
  1. "Mrs. Malabar S. Brodeur Rewed". The New York Times. 1974-03-17. Retrieved 2020-05-01. - This marriage announcement is mentioned in the Masad NPR article.
  2. Masad, Ilana (2019-10-17). "A Daughter Becomes An Accomplice To Her Mother's Affair In 'Wild Game'". National Public Radio. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  3. Haupt, Jennifer (2019-10-15). "Adrienne Brodeur Talks About Keeping Her Mother's Secrets". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  4. Ermelino, Louisa (2019-05-24). "Adrienne Brodeur Relives a Lie-Laden Childhood In 'Wild Game'". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  5. Black, Emily Rapp (2019-10-15). "A Mother's Secrets, a Daughter's Lies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  6. Winik, Marion (2019-10-11). "'Wild Game' is an eloquent — and lurid — tale of a mother-daughter bond gone awry". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  7. "Author Adrienne Brodeur On Her New Memoir 'Wild Game'". NPR. 2019-10-15. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  8. "Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me". www.barnesandnoble.com. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
  9. "2020 Book Awards Winners". New England Society of New York. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
  10. Hubbard, Kim (12 December 2019). "The 10 Best Books of 2019". People. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
  11. McIntee, Dominique (13 November 2019). "The 10 best books of 2019, according to Amazon". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
  12. Lowry, Elizabeth (24 January 2020). "Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur review – the reader wants to scream". The Guardian. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
  13. "Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me". Publishers Weekly. 18 April 2019. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  14. Kit, Borys (January 25, 2018). "'Edge of Seventeen' Filmmaker, Chernin Entertainment Team for 'Wild Game'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
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