Forbidden Fruits
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this deliciously scandalous and compulsively page-turning saga, Julia Hamilton once again paints a captivating portrait of an aristocratic Scottish family on the rocks as it faces its own history.
The Macarthur clan, the ruling family of New Town in Edinburgh, is successful at everything from business to politics to guarding the family secrets. Held together by Sir Jack Macarthur, the patriarch called the "Old Man," they build publishing empires, restore old buildings for the wealthy, teach at prestigious universities, and mingle with the wealthy, the stylish, and the powerful.
When Jack is on his deathbed, however, the family's success threatens to shatter as they learn that their well-kept secrets are about to be revealed by one of their own. Meanwhile, Ben Macarthur - the family's hapless architect - and his lover, Marianne Maclean - broken by a destructive affair with Luke Macarthur - find themselves swept up in the tide together . . .
"A great read: Slick and quite sophisticated, this is at once poignant and hilarious." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Like her first novel, Other People's Rules, Hamilton's sophomore effort exposes the perverse private lives of a seemingly wholesome, elite Edinburgh family. Patriarch Jack Macarthur is on his deathbed when a nosy reporter threatens to reveal family secrets. Jack has been supporting a mistress and illegitimate daughter for 16 years. His older son, Duncan, a golden boy who helps him run his publishing company, habitually makes the rounds of the gay club circuit, even though he's supposed to be settled down with his devoted partner, Charles. Jack's nephew Luke has a predilection for s&m. The crisis forces the younger son, Ben, to replace his father as head of the family. Ben is divorced, unable to settle down with girlfriend Marianne and changes careers more often than he changes his socks. Yet with the family's dirty laundry about to be put on display, Ben is the Macarthurs' best chance for salvaging their dignity. With no chapter breaks, too many back stories about irrelevant branches of the family and no dominating point of view, the novel is fragmented. The women in the book are particularly two-dimensional (the submissive mistress; the stuffy, repressed matriarch; etc.), and Hamilton tends to rely on pat descriptions ("Duncan was... a financial whiz kid, and the apple of their father's eye"). As long as readers don't expect too much subtlety, they may find the family's dramatic saga, full of random acts of violence and tragedy, to be luridly absorbing.
