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Perfect Little World
“Wilson’s ambition alone is exciting. . . . [His] writing has a Houdini-like perfection, wherein no matter how grim the variables, each lovely sentence manages to escape with all its parts intact.” —Boston Globe
When Isabelle Poole meets Dr. Preston Grind, she’s fresh out of high school, pregnant with her art teacher's baby, and totally on her own. Izzy knows she can be a good mother but without any money or relatives to help, she’s left searching.Dr. Grind, an awkwardly charming child psychologist, has spent his life studying family, even after tragedy struck his own. Now, with the help of an eccentric billionaire, he has the chance to create a “perfect little world”—to study what would happen when ten children are raised collectively, without knowing who their biological parents are. He calls it The Infinite Family Project and he wants Izzy and her son to join.
This attempt at a utopian ideal starts off promising, but soon the gentle equilibrium among the families unspoken resentments between the couples begin to fester; the project's funding becomes tenuous; and Izzy’s growing feelings for Dr. Grind make her question her participation in this strange experiment in the first place.Written with the same compassion and charm that won over legions of readers with The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson shows us with grace and humor that the best families are the ones we make for ourselves.
When Isabelle Poole meets Dr. Preston Grind, she’s fresh out of high school, pregnant with her art teacher's baby, and totally on her own. Izzy knows she can be a good mother but without any money or relatives to help, she’s left searching.Dr. Grind, an awkwardly charming child psychologist, has spent his life studying family, even after tragedy struck his own. Now, with the help of an eccentric billionaire, he has the chance to create a “perfect little world”—to study what would happen when ten children are raised collectively, without knowing who their biological parents are. He calls it The Infinite Family Project and he wants Izzy and her son to join.
This attempt at a utopian ideal starts off promising, but soon the gentle equilibrium among the families unspoken resentments between the couples begin to fester; the project's funding becomes tenuous; and Izzy’s growing feelings for Dr. Grind make her question her participation in this strange experiment in the first place.Written with the same compassion and charm that won over legions of readers with The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson shows us with grace and humor that the best families are the ones we make for ourselves.
Kindle Edition
First published January 24, 2017
About the author
Kevin Wilson
17 books3,951 followersKevin Wilson is the author of two collections, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (Ecco/Harper Perennial, 2009), which received an Alex Award from the American Library Association and the Shirley Jackson Award, and Baby You’re Gonna Be Mine (Ecco, 2018), and three novels, The Family Fang (Ecco, 2011), Perfect Little World (Ecco, 2017) and Nothing to See Here (Ecco, 2019), a New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna book club selection.
His new novel, Now is Not the Time to Panic, will be published by Ecco in November of 2022.
His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Southern Review, One Story, A Public Space, and elsewhere, and has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2020 and 2021, as well as The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the KHN Center for the Arts. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife, the poet Leigh Anne Couch, and his sons, Griff and Patch, where he is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of the South.
His new novel, Now is Not the Time to Panic, will be published by Ecco in November of 2022.
His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Southern Review, One Story, A Public Space, and elsewhere, and has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2020 and 2021, as well as The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the KHN Center for the Arts. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife, the poet Leigh Anne Couch, and his sons, Griff and Patch, where he is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of the South.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,748 reviews
September 14, 2018
this is the first book i have read by kevin wilson, although i own both of his others. i wasn't immediately wowed by the synopsis, but from its first sentence (the first chapter 1 sentence, after the confusing-at-the-time prologue), i was hooked:
Three hours after she had graduated from high school, Izzy sat on a park bench next to her art teacher, Mr. Jackson, and told him that she was pregnant.
after that opener, i went on a page-folding frenzy: 9, 11, 15, 28, 43, etc, because his writing instantly drew me in, and i remember thinking, "oooh, why haven't i read this guy before - this is wonderful!!"
and it continued to be wonderful - i liked the story very much while i was reading it, but when i finished, i was left with a vaguely unsatisfied feeling; something was missing to the novel as a whole experience, and while it was very strong in both story and writing, it was a bit lacking in the character department.
but good things first - this is definitely worth your reading-time. i cannot stress it enough - the description didn't make it sound appealing to my personal tastes at ALL, but his writing just hit my sweet spot.
as we have learned from the opening sentence, izzy is fresh outta high school and carrying her art teacher's baby. her mother is dead, her father is lost in drink and grief, and when mr. jackson is suddenly taken out of the daddy-picture, izzy is faced with the prospect of raising her child alone, with only the money she earns from her job pig-shredding at the BBQ restaurant to support them.
fortunately, izzy's pregnancy coincides with the recruitment-period of The Infinite Family Project, a ten-year-long experiment in parenting run by wunderkind dr. preston grind and his research assistants, in which ten expectant couples (or, in izzy's case, a soon-to-be single parent) would all live together and raise their families collectively, and where the children would not even know who their biological parents were until their fourth year. the project is incredibly well-funded by an elderly benefactress wanting to establish her legacy, so the participants lack for nothing money can buy, and the children and parents both have more advantages than they would otherwise: private chefs, tutors, instant close-knit extended family, and employment and higher education opportunities for the parents without the stress of rent or other expenses.
the hypothesis is that having a larger support system will make the children better able to handle life's challenges, and will take some pressure off of the parents, leading to a better environment all around.
this is dr. grind's pet project; a reaction to his own unusual upbringing: the son of two child psychologists, he was himself the subject of an experiment in child-rearing, one much more cruel than his own.
According to the Grinds, the world itself was harsh and unpredictable, exacerbated by human beings who were programmed to selfishly consider only their own interests. The failure of many parents, in their opinion, was that they tried to create a false and ultimately unhelpful view of the world with regard to their children, seeking at all times to provide comfort and to make life free of complication. This resulted in children who, as they became adults and were forced to interact more closely with the true world around them, were incapable of processing the actual unfairness and destructive qualities of society.
i appreciate their goals. their methods, however, are another matter. they developed The Constant Friction Method, whose aim was to introduce as much tension and instability into preston's life - disrupting his feeding and sleep schedules, handcuffing him in a locked room at the age of three, challenging him to find the keys allowing him to escape... dr. grind's experiment is a clear reversal of their ideas, and one he hopes will result in well-adjusted, happy, and high-performing children and relaxed, effective parents.
and for the most part, it seems to work, as far as the children are concerned. their test results place them at or above the development of children raised in a more traditional environment and that part of the project seems to be living up to the expectations of all. however, as in all situations involving groups of children and their parents, it's rarely the children who are the cause of the problems, and this is no different. many of the potential complications were addressed during the planning stages of the project, and measures taken to avoid them, but nothing is 100% predictable, and unanticipated situations arise that are devastating to the community.
once the story started unfolding, i was completely on-board with where it was taking me - each chapter covers a year in the course of the project, and it was both fascinating and astute in its observations and descriptions of human behavior, both good and bad. some of the characters blended together, but the story is primarily concerned with dr. grind and izzy, with some secondary characters getting screentime and others kind of mooshing together, particularly the children other than izzy's son, cap.
the problem i had was with izzy as a character. she is someone in whom so many other characters see greatness and potential and talent, but on-page, she's a little flat and it's hard to see the greatness everyone else assures us is there.
at first, i liked her point-of-view a lot; most of the folded-over pages in the beginning were because of character quirks and viewpoints attributed to her:
her saddish self:
Happiness, she believed, was small and quiet and you expressed it when no one else was around. She had not, in fact, experienced enough of the emotion to support this firm belief that she held as fact.
her practicality:
Five pregnancy tests, all stolen from the drugstore because they were more expensive than anything that depressing should ever be. Let the people who wanted a baby pay for them.
her awkwardness at waitressing:
She did not like being witnessed while in possession of someone else's food.
her presentation as a smart, but unambitious oddball:
Izzy had been a straight-A student in high school, so whip smart, seemingly without effort, that the teachers simply forgot about her. She showed so little enthusiasm for the subjects that her perfect scores on every test were seen as an anomaly and the teachers focused instead on the smart enough students who begged for attention. From her junior year until graduation, the guidance counselors assured her that she could receive a full ride to any of the state universities, but she informed them, politely, quietly, that she had no interest. She was smart and she wasn't apologetic about it, but the studying and the memorization tore something loose in her each time, the fear that she was devoting her life to something that did not entirely interest her and would, ultimately, disappoint her. She imagined herself at a job making only slightly more than the minimum age, as fucked as if she hadn't spent four more years in school.
i liked the way her character was shaping up, but it was a details-only characterization. she absolutely grows throughout the novel, in the unusual situation she finds herself, but she retains this aloofness. as much as she participates in the demands of the community, she maintains this observer status, perhaps because she is the only person not sharing the experience with a partner. she's somewhat sidelined, doesn't call attention to herself, follows the rules, and is even accused of being a goody-goody by another parent because of this reserve. there's a self-reliant strength to her, but that's a lonely kind of strength. despite all the people surrounding her, who she does indeed see as family, she's still inscrutable. the problem is that the reader notices this pulling-away as much as the characters surrounding her. it's hard to know her, even though all of her is right there on the page.
and i don't see what it is about her that sets her apart and impresses people so much. her art doesn't seem that innovative, she's smart and kind and capable, but not in any remarkable way. it's one of those situations where we are told a character is an incredible person, but we're not really shown anything that supports this fact.
i think this is a really strong book - i loved the ideas it presented and izzy's relationship with the gruffly paternal mr. tannehill is so sweet and moving. there's a lot here to celebrate. but for me, there were a couple of things preventing me from unconditional love.
it's a solid 3.5 stars, but i can't round this one up to 4 the way i do with so many others. however, my quibbles are only my own, so as always - don't take my word for it, read the book!
March 23, 2017
I think the problem with this book is that it just isn't weird enough. It needed to get weird. The first third or so is a fine piece of contemporary fiction. I liked the characters, I liked how they interacted with each other and with themselves. I liked the world that was built that was both global (from Dr. Grind's perspective) and restrictively local (from Izzy's perspective). It was great.
And then the actual situation happened. The experiment began. And it really really tried to stay grounded in reality. And I think maybe that endeavor ruined it. The characters became boring. Instead of 3-4 great people, I know had to keep track of a cast of basically interchangeable parents. The kids did kid things, the parents did parent things. I felt like I was stuck in a conversation with someone sharing pictures of their baby. Not only did nothing exciting happen, but it was in a such a strange scenario that I didn't know what to think of it. I just wish something really outrageous happened. It really petered out by the halfway point
And then the actual situation happened. The experiment began. And it really really tried to stay grounded in reality. And I think maybe that endeavor ruined it. The characters became boring. Instead of 3-4 great people, I know had to keep track of a cast of basically interchangeable parents. The kids did kid things, the parents did parent things. I felt like I was stuck in a conversation with someone sharing pictures of their baby. Not only did nothing exciting happen, but it was in a such a strange scenario that I didn't know what to think of it. I just wish something really outrageous happened. It really petered out by the halfway point
February 7, 2017
3.5 In this book, Kevin Wilson tackles another take on the family. Communal parenting, nine couples and one single young girl, Izzy, who has just graduated from high school and finds herself alone and pregnant. Enter Dr. Preston Grind, a man with an unusual upbringing himself, along with a woman raised in an orphanage, now with plenty of money to spend. So am experiment, raising children in an unusual setting, all taking part parenting their own and each others children. Sounds ideal, but families are complicated and messy, even families just put together,
Had a hard time rating this one, I enjoyed it, the writing was good, the story flowed well. Izzy is a wonderful character and Dr. Grind a most interesting one. The concept is unusual, and interesting. Families we make, or families we put together, and how do the children fare in this type of situation? Loved most of it, but the ending was semi predictable, and a bit too dramatic, at least I found it so.
Definitely worth reading if you are looking for something both likable and different.
Had a hard time rating this one, I enjoyed it, the writing was good, the story flowed well. Izzy is a wonderful character and Dr. Grind a most interesting one. The concept is unusual, and interesting. Families we make, or families we put together, and how do the children fare in this type of situation? Loved most of it, but the ending was semi predictable, and a bit too dramatic, at least I found it so.
Definitely worth reading if you are looking for something both likable and different.
December 17, 2018
Wonderful premise -- great questions brought up regarding love, bonding, families - interesting characters - but all at the beginning. By the end of the book, I was disappointed. Also, why so much reinforcing of 'older man + very young woman = good'? Audiobook reader Therese Plummer is magnificent.
July 26, 2020
I love how Kevin Wilson's mind works - I believe I have a literary crush on him. The pages of A Perfect Little World are filled with empathy and lightness - goodness with a tart edge. I was totally invested.
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February 15, 2017PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED
By Judge Maris Kreizman
At a time when dystopian novels are all the rage, what a delight to read a novel about striving for perfection, no matter how short the effort may fall. If I could choose one author to write about a flawed yet earnest attempt at utopia, Kevin Wilson would be at the top of my list. Even as he relishes the absurd details in his characters’ lives, he never mocks them, never treats them with anything less than compassion.
Perfect Little World is the story of an ambitious sociological experiment called “The Infinite Family Project.” Dr. Preston Grind, a young and idealistic child psychologist, heads up the study with funding from an elderly big box store magnate, taking the “It takes a village” model of co-parenting to a new level.
Dr. Grind picks ten newborns, along with their parents, and stashes them all in a beautiful complex deep in the Tennessee woods to find out what happens when the children grow up parented collectively by all participants. No child will learn who his or her birth parents are until the sixth year of the study. All parents and children will be well provided for, from education and healthcare, to job training for the parents.
Told from the point of view of the only single parent to take place in the experiment, a young mother named Isabelle Poole, Perfect Little World follows the members of this makeshift family as the study evolves over years. We see the development of both the children and the parents, and also the jealousies and broken hearts, petty fights and larger conflicts that emerge as the years pass. It’s a novel that’s so fun to read that you might forget how fundamentally philosophical it is: What is a family? Do more parent mean more love? How long can such a community maintain its harmony? And ultimately, which are the ties that truly bind?
There are darker questions that arise as well: How does a science experiment differ from a cult? How fallible is human nature? And most importantly, will people separated from regular society want to make out with each other all the time? The novel aims to answer these questions, but it never devolves into satire because the author is too generous for that. Ultimately, the novel’s most enduring question might be: isn’t it better try for an idealized version of the world, than not to have tried at all?
For more: https://www.bookofthemonth.com/perfec...
By Judge Maris Kreizman
At a time when dystopian novels are all the rage, what a delight to read a novel about striving for perfection, no matter how short the effort may fall. If I could choose one author to write about a flawed yet earnest attempt at utopia, Kevin Wilson would be at the top of my list. Even as he relishes the absurd details in his characters’ lives, he never mocks them, never treats them with anything less than compassion.
Perfect Little World is the story of an ambitious sociological experiment called “The Infinite Family Project.” Dr. Preston Grind, a young and idealistic child psychologist, heads up the study with funding from an elderly big box store magnate, taking the “It takes a village” model of co-parenting to a new level.
Dr. Grind picks ten newborns, along with their parents, and stashes them all in a beautiful complex deep in the Tennessee woods to find out what happens when the children grow up parented collectively by all participants. No child will learn who his or her birth parents are until the sixth year of the study. All parents and children will be well provided for, from education and healthcare, to job training for the parents.
Told from the point of view of the only single parent to take place in the experiment, a young mother named Isabelle Poole, Perfect Little World follows the members of this makeshift family as the study evolves over years. We see the development of both the children and the parents, and also the jealousies and broken hearts, petty fights and larger conflicts that emerge as the years pass. It’s a novel that’s so fun to read that you might forget how fundamentally philosophical it is: What is a family? Do more parent mean more love? How long can such a community maintain its harmony? And ultimately, which are the ties that truly bind?
There are darker questions that arise as well: How does a science experiment differ from a cult? How fallible is human nature? And most importantly, will people separated from regular society want to make out with each other all the time? The novel aims to answer these questions, but it never devolves into satire because the author is too generous for that. Ultimately, the novel’s most enduring question might be: isn’t it better try for an idealized version of the world, than not to have tried at all?
For more: https://www.bookofthemonth.com/perfec...
October 1, 2024
Kevin Wilson has done it again!! He does found family so well! but always adds a touch of “what in the WORLD did I just read” you know? His imaginative stories are my favorite to read. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!
December 6, 2017
A perfect little premise with a cursory, yet at times enjoyable, execution. I was excited about this book, a crazy experiment where 10 children are raised by 19 adults in a communal-like home. The book's first pages outlines the complicated tree of adults and children. This should have been the first clue that this book would have to embrace brevity over depth, given that it is just over 300 pages.
The book starts out the first 150 pages following "Izzy" and sometimes Doctor Preston Grind who is in charge of the family experiment. While the background is nice, it left only 150 pages to discuss 18 other characters and the actual premise of the book, which is the family experiment.
Once you get into the family experiment, there are twists and turns that are enjoyable. However, I was confused which character was what, and nor did I care because they are introduced with very little detail. Maybe the idea is that all the characters get muddled together to make it feel more like a community to the reader. That's a positive outlook anyway. From my perspective though, by the time I got to the climax(es) that takes place during the experiment, I felt like I neither knew most of the characters nor cared too much what was happening to them.
Overall, it's a decent, but perhaps overly simplistic, read. Expect to get to know two characters in some detail. But don't expand a grand adventure into the premise of the book.
The book starts out the first 150 pages following "Izzy" and sometimes Doctor Preston Grind who is in charge of the family experiment. While the background is nice, it left only 150 pages to discuss 18 other characters and the actual premise of the book, which is the family experiment.
Once you get into the family experiment, there are twists and turns that are enjoyable. However, I was confused which character was what, and nor did I care because they are introduced with very little detail. Maybe the idea is that all the characters get muddled together to make it feel more like a community to the reader. That's a positive outlook anyway. From my perspective though, by the time I got to the climax(es) that takes place during the experiment, I felt like I neither knew most of the characters nor cared too much what was happening to them.
Overall, it's a decent, but perhaps overly simplistic, read. Expect to get to know two characters in some detail. But don't expand a grand adventure into the premise of the book.
August 12, 2020
It takes a village to raise a child.
But since these metaphorical villages are disappearing, raising a child has, arguably, become quite difficult.
I found the premise of this book quite interesting - children from different families being raised together, loved and cared for by all the adults, while also being provided with a multitude of environmental, educational and emotional advantages. Will all those advantages make for very happy, well -adjusted, very intelligent kids? Will the parents be happier, less stressed, more fulfilled if they are fully supported by others? Read and you will find out.
NB: I love Therese Plummer's narration.
But since these metaphorical villages are disappearing, raising a child has, arguably, become quite difficult.
I found the premise of this book quite interesting - children from different families being raised together, loved and cared for by all the adults, while also being provided with a multitude of environmental, educational and emotional advantages. Will all those advantages make for very happy, well -adjusted, very intelligent kids? Will the parents be happier, less stressed, more fulfilled if they are fully supported by others? Read and you will find out.
NB: I love Therese Plummer's narration.
November 12, 2022
I have a soft spot for books that toe the line between utopia and dystopia. For example, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is one of my faves (and I stand by that, though it's a polarizing read).
To be clear, I’m not saying Perfect Little World is anywhere near the quality of work Huxley produced, but it does ask questions about control (or lack thereof), and community, and the nature of happiness.
One big problem I have with the text is that while the book is ostensibly about a child-centered community, there is very little actual dialogue coming from the children in the first 75% of the book. We hear from the narrator and the parents, but the kids are just some sort of... amorphous entity. And this is problematic because they are supposed to be the beating heart of the story.
In addition, I think the author plays it far too safe. I can't tell you more than that without spoilers, but the envelope could definitely have been pushed farther for a more complex exploration of community in close proximity.
So, I may be overgenerous in my three-star rating. But I’m sticking with it, for now, because though I'd planned to read a chapter a night, this turned into a binge-read that I blew through in three nights. Obviously, something kept those pages turning.
Book/Song Pairing: The Whole World in His Hands (Laurie London)
To be clear, I’m not saying Perfect Little World is anywhere near the quality of work Huxley produced, but it does ask questions about control (or lack thereof), and community, and the nature of happiness.
One big problem I have with the text is that while the book is ostensibly about a child-centered community, there is very little actual dialogue coming from the children in the first 75% of the book. We hear from the narrator and the parents, but the kids are just some sort of... amorphous entity. And this is problematic because they are supposed to be the beating heart of the story.
In addition, I think the author plays it far too safe. I can't tell you more than that without spoilers, but the envelope could definitely have been pushed farther for a more complex exploration of community in close proximity.
So, I may be overgenerous in my three-star rating. But I’m sticking with it, for now, because though I'd planned to read a chapter a night, this turned into a binge-read that I blew through in three nights. Obviously, something kept those pages turning.
Book/Song Pairing: The Whole World in His Hands (Laurie London)
April 16, 2021
I found myself deeply drawn to this book, even though it was not what I expected after reading two other books by Kevin Wilson. It didn’t have the bite or dynamism of Nothing to See Here or his collection of short stories Tunneling to the Center of the Earth; it was cerebral, slow, and almost a psychological soap-opera at times. But what intrigued me was what drives it—and his other books—a curiosity to find out “how to do it” or if “it” can even be done, “it” being living a happy life in this Alice in Wonderland world where you never feel normal and can’t really determine what normal is.
The Perfect World felt like an author’s experiment about an experiment to see if a healthy family could be created in an ideal communal way. And I almost felt like I was right with Kevin Wilson, eager to learn what he might learn as he wrote this novel.
Wilson writes happy endings. I don’t. But I like reading his a lot. They aren’t saccharine, but they are a little fantastic, to my sensibilities. And I like that.
The Perfect World felt like an author’s experiment about an experiment to see if a healthy family could be created in an ideal communal way. And I almost felt like I was right with Kevin Wilson, eager to learn what he might learn as he wrote this novel.
Wilson writes happy endings. I don’t. But I like reading his a lot. They aren’t saccharine, but they are a little fantastic, to my sensibilities. And I like that.
December 14, 2019
Great beginning and ending. Middle was slow and tedious in my opinion. Loved the themes in this book though.
My favorite quote:
“When the world fell apart around you, when the walls of your home cracked and crumbled, Izzy now had some idea how to keep living. You held on to the person you loved, the one who would be there in the aftermath, and you built a new home.” ❤️
My favorite quote:
“When the world fell apart around you, when the walls of your home cracked and crumbled, Izzy now had some idea how to keep living. You held on to the person you loved, the one who would be there in the aftermath, and you built a new home.” ❤️
July 28, 2017
This review comes in four parts.
Part One: Pacing
This is the shortest part. The pacing was bad. We're talking: take-half-the-book-to-set-up-the-premise bad. I'm assuming the author wanted to get us good and acquainted with the main character, Izzy, though, and that would be acceptable if it weren't for...
Part Two: Characterization
Who is Isabel Poole? No really; I still want to know. All the book gives me to work with is that she has no motivation to do anything. She's just "strong," as the narrator tells us over and over without proving. She's casually brilliant, having the highest IQ of all the parents in the project (supposedly), and for some reason attracted to men much older than her who she ends up taking care of. She took all the APs her high school had to offer but for some reason didn't want to college—even before she got pregnant. She just...didn't feel motivated?
At the same time, she picked up tons of different hobbies and managed to perfect them. Again, for no reason. So. Passive.
Because the pacing's so lopsided (hello, 200 pages for the actual, eight-year project itself), we never really get to know any of the other characters. They're all just paper dolls moving around this beautiful campus in the woods. Speaking of non-characters...
Part Three: The Ending
Part Four: Patting Self on the Back-ery
The author really lays it on thick about how great everyone thinks the project is. Even with the mild drama, there aren't ever any stakes or any conflict. It's just 350 pages about just how great it is that you can artificially build a family if you have infinite resources. Even when conflicts arose (), nothing ever came of them(). And we never really knew the characters to feel any stakes because, again, all the other characters felt like paper dolls too nervous to say anything bad because of how great an opportunity the project is. Supposedly.
PS: If you're in my book club and reading this, I'm sorry.
PPS: Can someone else handle how unscientific and unprofessional this study was?
Part One: Pacing
This is the shortest part. The pacing was bad. We're talking: take-half-the-book-to-set-up-the-premise bad. I'm assuming the author wanted to get us good and acquainted with the main character, Izzy, though, and that would be acceptable if it weren't for...
Part Two: Characterization
Who is Isabel Poole? No really; I still want to know. All the book gives me to work with is that she has no motivation to do anything. She's just "strong," as the narrator tells us over and over without proving. She's casually brilliant, having the highest IQ of all the parents in the project (supposedly), and for some reason attracted to men much older than her who she ends up taking care of. She took all the APs her high school had to offer but for some reason didn't want to college—even before she got pregnant. She just...didn't feel motivated?
At the same time, she picked up tons of different hobbies and managed to perfect them. Again, for no reason. So. Passive.
Because the pacing's so lopsided (hello, 200 pages for the actual, eight-year project itself), we never really get to know any of the other characters. They're all just paper dolls moving around this beautiful campus in the woods. Speaking of non-characters...
Part Three: The Ending
Part Four: Patting Self on the Back-ery
The author really lays it on thick about how great everyone thinks the project is. Even with the mild drama, there aren't ever any stakes or any conflict. It's just 350 pages about just how great it is that you can artificially build a family if you have infinite resources. Even when conflicts arose (), nothing ever came of them(). And we never really knew the characters to feel any stakes because, again, all the other characters felt like paper dolls too nervous to say anything bad because of how great an opportunity the project is. Supposedly.
PS: If you're in my book club and reading this, I'm sorry.
PPS: Can someone else handle how unscientific and unprofessional this study was?
November 10, 2017
Judging by the synopsis, this is a very “me” book. Utopian compounds, nontraditional families, strange experiments, eccentric billionaires. It sounds like this should be my favorite book ever.
Unfortunately, I didn’t like it. I think this is an example of a brilliant premise that’s executed poorly.
It didn’t start off bad. I actually flew through the first third of the book because the dysfunctional relationships intrigued me. The story hooked me right at the start:
Eighteen-year-old Izzy is pregnant with her art teacher’s baby, but he has no interest in the child, and she doesn’t have the resources to care for it. Izzy decides to enroll in the Infinite Family Project, a child-development study that requires her to spend ten years living in a compound with 9 other families. At first, adjusting to life in the compound is hard. Then Izzy befriends the other families, and the compound becomes a “perfect little world.” What Izzy doesn’t know is that funding for the Infinite Family Project is precarious. Her home and family could be ripped away from her at any moment.
The beginning of this book is actually pretty interesting. I enjoyed reading about Izzy’s doomed relationship with her mentally ill teacher. It definitely isn’t a healthy relationship, but it’s a realistic one. Izzy is a caretaker type. She’s drawn to older men who have serious psychological issues. She can’t fix the issues, so her relationships usually don’t last very long.
The book goes downhill after Izzy joins the Project. A lot of characters are introduced quickly. We get a huge info-dump about each of them, and that’s pretty much it. There’s no character development. I actually couldn’t remember who was who because they’re just names. They don’t have personalities. They don’t have motivation for anything they do. One lady hates Izzy for . . . reasons? I don’t know why. The author says that another lady is Izzy’s best friend, but we barely see them interacting. Then an evil lady tries to shut down the project for . . . rich people reasons? Because rich people hate poor people? I don’t know. The characters are all flat, and a lot of their choices don’t make sense to me.
There’s a huge potential for tension between the characters, but there’s barely any tension. The stakes aren’t very high. Probably because the characters don’t feel real. I didn’t care what would happen to them if the experiment ended.
My biggest issue with this book is that nothing happens. The parents take care of the kids, and the kids do kid things. This experimental family is exactly like a boring regular family. I guess there’s a message in that. Any type of family can be happy and successful. But, the problem is that I don’t want to read about a boring regular family. I kept waiting for something strange or dramatic to happen, but nothing happens.
I was excited for this book because it sounds so unusual, but I ended up disappointed. The plot and the characters just fell flat.
Unfortunately, I didn’t like it. I think this is an example of a brilliant premise that’s executed poorly.
It didn’t start off bad. I actually flew through the first third of the book because the dysfunctional relationships intrigued me. The story hooked me right at the start:
“Three hours after she had graduated from high school, Izzy sat on a park bench next to her art teacher, Mr. Jackson, and told him that she was pregnant.” – Perfect Little World
Eighteen-year-old Izzy is pregnant with her art teacher’s baby, but he has no interest in the child, and she doesn’t have the resources to care for it. Izzy decides to enroll in the Infinite Family Project, a child-development study that requires her to spend ten years living in a compound with 9 other families. At first, adjusting to life in the compound is hard. Then Izzy befriends the other families, and the compound becomes a “perfect little world.” What Izzy doesn’t know is that funding for the Infinite Family Project is precarious. Her home and family could be ripped away from her at any moment.
The beginning of this book is actually pretty interesting. I enjoyed reading about Izzy’s doomed relationship with her mentally ill teacher. It definitely isn’t a healthy relationship, but it’s a realistic one. Izzy is a caretaker type. She’s drawn to older men who have serious psychological issues. She can’t fix the issues, so her relationships usually don’t last very long.
The book goes downhill after Izzy joins the Project. A lot of characters are introduced quickly. We get a huge info-dump about each of them, and that’s pretty much it. There’s no character development. I actually couldn’t remember who was who because they’re just names. They don’t have personalities. They don’t have motivation for anything they do. One lady hates Izzy for . . . reasons? I don’t know why. The author says that another lady is Izzy’s best friend, but we barely see them interacting. Then an evil lady tries to shut down the project for . . . rich people reasons? Because rich people hate poor people? I don’t know. The characters are all flat, and a lot of their choices don’t make sense to me.
There’s a huge potential for tension between the characters, but there’s barely any tension. The stakes aren’t very high. Probably because the characters don’t feel real. I didn’t care what would happen to them if the experiment ended.
My biggest issue with this book is that nothing happens. The parents take care of the kids, and the kids do kid things. This experimental family is exactly like a boring regular family. I guess there’s a message in that. Any type of family can be happy and successful. But, the problem is that I don’t want to read about a boring regular family. I kept waiting for something strange or dramatic to happen, but nothing happens.
I was excited for this book because it sounds so unusual, but I ended up disappointed. The plot and the characters just fell flat.
March 26, 2017
I can't decide between 3 and 4, but it's Kevin Wilson so based on creativity alone I'll round up. I found the "it takes a village utopian background" of this book intriguing and the complexity of the characters well written, but this novel lacks the audacity of The Family Fang, which is one of my all time favorites.
Once again Wilson is playing with the definition of family and the short and long-term effects of parenting choices, but it never quite grabbed me in the same way as the Fangs. For me, it wasn't quite bizarre enough.
Still, Wilson is a terrific writer and I found a lot to love in this book.
Once again Wilson is playing with the definition of family and the short and long-term effects of parenting choices, but it never quite grabbed me in the same way as the Fangs. For me, it wasn't quite bizarre enough.
Still, Wilson is a terrific writer and I found a lot to love in this book.
June 2, 2020
I picked up this book after loving Wilson’s later work, Nothing to See Here. Perfect Little World is just as good. Wilson is intrigued by the relationships between and among children and adults. His stories stress the importance of unconditional love between parents and kids and highlight the ugliness that occurs when that love is not present. In Perfect Little World, we see glimpses of what will be his future work through his fascination with fire as well as children.
Izzy is pregnant from her bipolar art teacher. He wants nothing to do with the child, leaving Izzy high and dry because she’s determined to have and raise the boy.
She’s invited to join a study where multiple families with a single child, all of the same age, will reside in a commune-type living environment for ten years. Each parent will love each child. The children will not find out who their birth parents are until they are five years old. The parents get the funds to pursue whatever education, vocations, and careers they like. It seems an idyllic world.
But people are people and they do stupid things. One mother at the end of her rope spanks another child, a clear no-no. Parents develop crushes on each other. Their little setting is a microcosm of the real world. The doctor in charge of the program does his best to hold the project together while the participants seem determined to try to sink it. The project is important to him to counteract the experimental trials of his childhood, where he was subjected to constant “friction” by his psychiatrist parents. So the doctor is actually part of the experiment. Can he heal himself?
All the while, wonderful Izzy does her best to keep it all together since without this opportunity, she would be working two jobs and rarely seeing her child. The “Infinite Family” is a good thing for her as a single mother. She pursues her art and cooking. As the only single parent, we feel her loneliness even in a living arrangement with a dozen other families.
The book is an interesting concept. It shows that no matter how controlled people’s environments are, they are going to act like people and make stupid decisions. It also shows there is no right way to raise a child though unconditional love is a must. Worth a read, especially if you liked Nothing to See Here.
Izzy is pregnant from her bipolar art teacher. He wants nothing to do with the child, leaving Izzy high and dry because she’s determined to have and raise the boy.
She’s invited to join a study where multiple families with a single child, all of the same age, will reside in a commune-type living environment for ten years. Each parent will love each child. The children will not find out who their birth parents are until they are five years old. The parents get the funds to pursue whatever education, vocations, and careers they like. It seems an idyllic world.
But people are people and they do stupid things. One mother at the end of her rope spanks another child, a clear no-no. Parents develop crushes on each other. Their little setting is a microcosm of the real world. The doctor in charge of the program does his best to hold the project together while the participants seem determined to try to sink it. The project is important to him to counteract the experimental trials of his childhood, where he was subjected to constant “friction” by his psychiatrist parents. So the doctor is actually part of the experiment. Can he heal himself?
All the while, wonderful Izzy does her best to keep it all together since without this opportunity, she would be working two jobs and rarely seeing her child. The “Infinite Family” is a good thing for her as a single mother. She pursues her art and cooking. As the only single parent, we feel her loneliness even in a living arrangement with a dozen other families.
The book is an interesting concept. It shows that no matter how controlled people’s environments are, they are going to act like people and make stupid decisions. It also shows there is no right way to raise a child though unconditional love is a must. Worth a read, especially if you liked Nothing to See Here.
May 13, 2021
I really don’t even know where to begin with this book. I liked it...and then I didn’t, and then I did. It had a unique concept. A group of parents who take turns raising each other’s kids. However, it goes much deeper than that. In chapter 11, we’re first introduced to the concept that two of the couples are having an affair..and their significant other is just okay with that. Call me old school, but I’d shit bricks if my husband wanted me to be okay with him kissing another woman.
There was one thing in particular that made me kind of angry. Some of the parents were arguing and one of them goes:”...worried that Dr. Grind was going to somehow make all the children in the Infinite Family Project supremely autistic.” (169) I don’t know. It’s not that it made me angry really, I just didn’t like that saying because first of all, nobody just becomes autistic, they’re born that way and are usually diagnosed very young. Secondly, it was almost as if the author intended to make fun of those who do have autism and I’m just not about that life, and can’t stand it when people dislike other people with special needs. On the other hand, some concepts in this book were humorous and had me dying.
There was one character, David, who I did not like at all. Who the actual hell does he think he is kissing Isabel without her consent? Or even knowing if she even liked him that way or otherwise? Such an ignorant bastard.
Throughout the novel, we learn a lot about Dr. Grind’s life and why he’s the way he is, and I believe his childhood was the whole conspiracy behind why he wanted to help these couples know they’re not alone and provide them with endless support. He’s the way he is because he was abused. At one part, he talks about how his parents used to sit in front of him and force him to eat pot brownies at a very young age. Correct me if I’m wrong, but seems like abuse to me.
Three other things that bothered me in the novel were, one being that all the members of the project were called ‘fellows’ despite there being females involved too. That’s just an awkward word to say...and perhaps that’s why it bugged me. But another little detail I noticed was that after Dr. Grind learned about the affair, the other members held a meeting and took a vote on weather or not to remove the couple. The results ended up being 13 ‘no’s’ and 3 ‘yes’s’ but when Dr. Grind first talked about it, there were 4 ‘no’s’ so isn’t the count actually 12 to 4? The last thing that bugged me was that the characters went back & fourth calling Dr. Grind, ‘Dr. Grind’ and his first name ‘Preston’ which started to get really confusing after a while, even though they’re the same person.
I literally felt chapter 14 because they were tickling each other’s feet to see who was ticklish, and calculating the results for one of the kids’ science projects, and I’m ticklish on my feet so I couldn’t help but giggle.
The book was good overall. Some the concepts were a little off and some of the chapters dragged on and on and I found myself easily getting distracted by other things while trying to engage in some of the chapters, and that’s why it took so long for me to finish this book.
There was one thing in particular that made me kind of angry. Some of the parents were arguing and one of them goes:”...worried that Dr. Grind was going to somehow make all the children in the Infinite Family Project supremely autistic.” (169) I don’t know. It’s not that it made me angry really, I just didn’t like that saying because first of all, nobody just becomes autistic, they’re born that way and are usually diagnosed very young. Secondly, it was almost as if the author intended to make fun of those who do have autism and I’m just not about that life, and can’t stand it when people dislike other people with special needs. On the other hand, some concepts in this book were humorous and had me dying.
There was one character, David, who I did not like at all. Who the actual hell does he think he is kissing Isabel without her consent? Or even knowing if she even liked him that way or otherwise? Such an ignorant bastard.
Throughout the novel, we learn a lot about Dr. Grind’s life and why he’s the way he is, and I believe his childhood was the whole conspiracy behind why he wanted to help these couples know they’re not alone and provide them with endless support. He’s the way he is because he was abused. At one part, he talks about how his parents used to sit in front of him and force him to eat pot brownies at a very young age. Correct me if I’m wrong, but seems like abuse to me.
Three other things that bothered me in the novel were, one being that all the members of the project were called ‘fellows’ despite there being females involved too. That’s just an awkward word to say...and perhaps that’s why it bugged me. But another little detail I noticed was that after Dr. Grind learned about the affair, the other members held a meeting and took a vote on weather or not to remove the couple. The results ended up being 13 ‘no’s’ and 3 ‘yes’s’ but when Dr. Grind first talked about it, there were 4 ‘no’s’ so isn’t the count actually 12 to 4? The last thing that bugged me was that the characters went back & fourth calling Dr. Grind, ‘Dr. Grind’ and his first name ‘Preston’ which started to get really confusing after a while, even though they’re the same person.
I literally felt chapter 14 because they were tickling each other’s feet to see who was ticklish, and calculating the results for one of the kids’ science projects, and I’m ticklish on my feet so I couldn’t help but giggle.
The book was good overall. Some the concepts were a little off and some of the chapters dragged on and on and I found myself easily getting distracted by other things while trying to engage in some of the chapters, and that’s why it took so long for me to finish this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2017
To start off, I rank Kevin Wilson among the top 5 authors I love most and any book from him is a cause for celebration to me; on the other hand, when I take a book on its own merits, I have to say that Perfect Little World is not among my favorites.
It's not that the book is bad, insomuch, it's that the book is too short to accomplish what it sets out to do- which is give depth to the many characters that comprise it so the impact of the story is greater. I like Izzy and Dr. Grind, but I want more than just rushed chapters that chuck half-realized characters at the reader with the hope of leaving an impression, while also trying to focus on the core of the story which is the kids in The Infinite Family Project.
For me at least, I felt a distinct disconnect from any character that wasn't one of the main two, which made it hard to be moved when things went sideways. Any time a conflict was introduced it more or less had to be summarized within that chapter and then moved on from quickly, leaving a majority of the book vague and unexplored.
In the end I still enjoyed it well enough to rate it three stars, but that had more to do with Kevin Wilson's style of writing than it did with the book as a whole.
It's not that the book is bad, insomuch, it's that the book is too short to accomplish what it sets out to do- which is give depth to the many characters that comprise it so the impact of the story is greater. I like Izzy and Dr. Grind, but I want more than just rushed chapters that chuck half-realized characters at the reader with the hope of leaving an impression, while also trying to focus on the core of the story which is the kids in The Infinite Family Project.
For me at least, I felt a distinct disconnect from any character that wasn't one of the main two, which made it hard to be moved when things went sideways. Any time a conflict was introduced it more or less had to be summarized within that chapter and then moved on from quickly, leaving a majority of the book vague and unexplored.
In the end I still enjoyed it well enough to rate it three stars, but that had more to do with Kevin Wilson's style of writing than it did with the book as a whole.
April 5, 2017
Not bad, just not great, either. In fact, a little boring. I suspected what was going to happen at the end pretty early on in the book and it was no big shocker. Interesting concept, but no original spin on communal living. I kept waiting for something out of the ordinary to happen, but it didn't.
April 18, 2021
Kevin Vilson ili ima dva doktorata iz porodične psihologije, ili je imao onako baš zajebano detinjstvo, nema trećeg. Niska ocena jer je (nažalost) lepo zaokružen srećan kraj, gde je tu malo tragedije i klifhengera da prodrma prosečnog čitaoca (zatupelog manjkom stimulacija ove 2021) iz gaća
April 24, 2024
I was debating between 3 and 4 stars. Yes, some moments felt a little slow. But the infinite Family project concept is actually really damn cool. Rounded up to a 4 star because I love Kevin Wilson’s way of thinking and imagination.
October 15, 2018
4.5 stars.
I really, really enjoyed this book. The moment I was done with it, I slammed it shut with absolute satisfaction, leapt up from my chair with a clap, and loudly declared to my husband, "THAT WAS A GOOD BOOK!" So, that's probably a good sign.
Some reviews claim that Izzy is a flat character, but I disagree. What she lacks in warmth, she makes up for in careful consideration, thoughtful evaluation, and complexities for a person who clearly never fit in with her age group, and growing up faster than her peers (especially after the illicit relationship with a teacher [ICK] and then being a single mom at 18). I found myself cheering for Izzy the whole time. I cried when she went into labor and Mr. Tannehill came to meet Cap for the first time. I absolutely adored their relationship and dynamic. I would not have minded more of it one bit! Every time he came back after Izzy moves into the IFP, I was elated. I had ~a lot of feels~ when Cap played "You Are My Sunshine" because I'm a crybaby brat and of course it's precious and special.
While Kevin Wilson's writing isn't beautiful, like Amor Towles or Mohsin Hamid, I found his writing interesting, captivating, and shoutout to an author who's not averse from using a well-placed "fuck" in the narration.
The book fell a bit short with giving us a clear sense of all the members of the IFP project. While some are easier to figure out than others, I frequently had to go back to the beginning of the book and check out the little character map, or flip back to previous chapters to double check who was who.
I flagged a bunch of pages with quotes I enjoyed or moments that I felt were special, but without context, I worry they will feel lackluster. Just know that I ultimately really, really enjoyed this book and I want everyone to read it. It raises great questions of what a family is (and isn't), the depth and reach of love, what it means to be in a community, and the importance of the collective versus the individual.
No dogs barking, as far as I can remember (and I didn't mark any pages for it), but pet fish are bought, which felt great for me, since I'm 100% turning into a crazy fish lady lately.
I really, really enjoyed this book. The moment I was done with it, I slammed it shut with absolute satisfaction, leapt up from my chair with a clap, and loudly declared to my husband, "THAT WAS A GOOD BOOK!" So, that's probably a good sign.
Some reviews claim that Izzy is a flat character, but I disagree. What she lacks in warmth, she makes up for in careful consideration, thoughtful evaluation, and complexities for a person who clearly never fit in with her age group, and growing up faster than her peers (especially after the illicit relationship with a teacher [ICK] and then being a single mom at 18). I found myself cheering for Izzy the whole time. I cried when she went into labor and Mr. Tannehill came to meet Cap for the first time. I absolutely adored their relationship and dynamic. I would not have minded more of it one bit! Every time he came back after Izzy moves into the IFP, I was elated. I had ~a lot of feels~ when Cap played "You Are My Sunshine" because I'm a crybaby brat and of course it's precious and special.
While Kevin Wilson's writing isn't beautiful, like Amor Towles or Mohsin Hamid, I found his writing interesting, captivating, and shoutout to an author who's not averse from using a well-placed "fuck" in the narration.
The book fell a bit short with giving us a clear sense of all the members of the IFP project. While some are easier to figure out than others, I frequently had to go back to the beginning of the book and check out the little character map, or flip back to previous chapters to double check who was who.
I flagged a bunch of pages with quotes I enjoyed or moments that I felt were special, but without context, I worry they will feel lackluster. Just know that I ultimately really, really enjoyed this book and I want everyone to read it. It raises great questions of what a family is (and isn't), the depth and reach of love, what it means to be in a community, and the importance of the collective versus the individual.
No dogs barking, as far as I can remember (and I didn't mark any pages for it), but pet fish are bought, which felt great for me, since I'm 100% turning into a crazy fish lady lately.
March 29, 2017
I loved his first novel and I think Kevin Wilson has done it again! This was such a fun and interesting read. This novel explores the meaning of family in a really interesting way by placing a group of people and their children into a communal parenting experiment. I found it fascinating to see how different people reacted to this planned ‘utopia’ and how the entire experiment was set up. I love how imaginative Wilson was in pulling this story together. The characters were really interesting and I enjoyed how they played together and against each other within the context of the story and the experiment. I love how Wilson is able to think outside the box and explore things close to us (family, parenting, etc) in a unique and interesting way. I felt it moved at a great pace – not too fast and not too slow! All in all, the themes weren’t particularly new – but they were explored in a new way. If you’re interested in exploring the concept of family and how biology isn’t always enough, this might be right up your alley. I really liked it and can’t wait to see what Kevin Wilson will bring us next!
May 6, 2017
I had not read anything along this line before so my sister and I picked this as a Book Of The Month selection. Young parents living a communal existance and raising their children as one big family. All this being funded by an elderly billionare as an experiment so the families also live with professionals who observe and record their lives. The kids don't know who their biological parents are for the first few years of their lives. One of the book's outcomes I saw coming pretty early on but it didn't make me feel the need to give up. I wanted to find out what happened to all the families. Was this one I feel the need to recommend to all my reader friends? No, but not bad either.
January 3, 2020
A ten-year science experiment; a psychological take on communal living and child rearing. Sometimes thought-provoking, but overall, a tedious snooze fest. Too many characters, too much dialogue, not enough focus. It’s unfortunate because I LOVED Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang.
April 16, 2017
Sometimes I'll be really enjoying a book, and suddenly come to a part where you can see the seams coming undone. It begins to drift further and further from what I want it to be, until I wind up at a hot mess of an ending. Sadly, that happened with Perfect Little World: a book with a lot of potential that somehow manages to squander every one of its interesting premises.
I'll start with the good, because I really don't want to be massively negative about this. I gave it 3 stars, after all! And that is mostly because of how much I enjoyed the first 2/3rds or so. PLW is about the 'Infinite Family Project,' where ten families (9 sets of parents and one single mom, Izzy, our main character) raise their children communally. It sounds like a hippie commune, but it's led by a child psychologist and funded by a billionaire. So it's a really scientific commune! With a premise like that, you expect one of two things: a really annoying utopia, or a utopia-turned-dystopia narrative. Thankfully, PLW skirts the border between the two and gives us a story grounded in humanity.
It's not perfect, but it's not the wreck the reader (and the outside world in the novel) expect. Sure, there is tension and not all the parents get along. Sure, our main doctor has a host of issues from his parent's bizarre choices when raising him. Sure, the woman funding the project is really, really old. But for the most part, it presents a nuanced and mainly positive spin on the idea.
However... I had a lot of issues. Many of them I could have overlooked had the ending not been so terribly trite, rushed, and sappy. For instance, our main character Izzy is so annoying. She's perfect. Perfect grades in school (literally), she's good at everything she does, she's beautiful, she's kind. Kevin Wilson tries to balance her away from being a Mary Sue with a tragic backstory (ironically one of the trademarks of a Mary Sue) and her strange sense of aloofness. Izzy doesn't like being close to people. She comes off very holier-than-thou yet incredibly boring at the same time. But she's a decent narrator when she is not talking about herself, so the whole book is not through this "woe is me, poor damaged but perfect girl" lens.
I think the moment I realized I was not going to love this book was when Izzy started falling for the doctor leading the project (this is not a spoiler, it's mentioned in the prologue). I actually said "oh god really? We're going there?" when it happened. It's SO TRITE. Only single woman on the project, only single man, both are damaged by ~rough childhood~, of course they end up together. I though Izzy was actually going to get the "you know what? I don't need a man" narrative which I would have really respected. Instead it's so chick-lit-y and sappy and bleh.
The last half of the book feels very rushed. We get quite a few pre-IFP chapters with Izzy, and the intro chapters to the project itself are quite long. And after that, every year in the IFP is only one chapter, with some of them being quite short (like 20 pages short). It's so rushed! We don't get the in-depth look at either the children's development or the parental relations. A LOT of these chapters are spent on Izzy at art school (a plot that goes nowhere because she doesn't even want to be an artist, sigh).
And the ending! Oh god. It's so sappy and wrapped in a bow. I was really disappointed in it, mainly because it doesn't fit at all what we are told about the family & children. Literally makes no sense in its own universe, which is one of the worst things you can do with an ending.
I do think this book had a lot of potential. I think Wilson was too smitten with Izzy as a character, and needed to cut that cord badly. The book should have had a different narrator every year (we follow a different set of parents, for example) and should have been much longer (or the intro chapters should have been cut). Too much of this novel felt like useless fluff to the narrative, and we were left with so little meat on the bone.
I'll start with the good, because I really don't want to be massively negative about this. I gave it 3 stars, after all! And that is mostly because of how much I enjoyed the first 2/3rds or so. PLW is about the 'Infinite Family Project,' where ten families (9 sets of parents and one single mom, Izzy, our main character) raise their children communally. It sounds like a hippie commune, but it's led by a child psychologist and funded by a billionaire. So it's a really scientific commune! With a premise like that, you expect one of two things: a really annoying utopia, or a utopia-turned-dystopia narrative. Thankfully, PLW skirts the border between the two and gives us a story grounded in humanity.
It's not perfect, but it's not the wreck the reader (and the outside world in the novel) expect. Sure, there is tension and not all the parents get along. Sure, our main doctor has a host of issues from his parent's bizarre choices when raising him. Sure, the woman funding the project is really, really old. But for the most part, it presents a nuanced and mainly positive spin on the idea.
However... I had a lot of issues. Many of them I could have overlooked had the ending not been so terribly trite, rushed, and sappy. For instance, our main character Izzy is so annoying. She's perfect. Perfect grades in school (literally), she's good at everything she does, she's beautiful, she's kind. Kevin Wilson tries to balance her away from being a Mary Sue with a tragic backstory (ironically one of the trademarks of a Mary Sue) and her strange sense of aloofness. Izzy doesn't like being close to people. She comes off very holier-than-thou yet incredibly boring at the same time. But she's a decent narrator when she is not talking about herself, so the whole book is not through this "woe is me, poor damaged but perfect girl" lens.
I think the moment I realized I was not going to love this book was when Izzy started falling for the doctor leading the project (this is not a spoiler, it's mentioned in the prologue). I actually said "oh god really? We're going there?" when it happened. It's SO TRITE. Only single woman on the project, only single man, both are damaged by ~rough childhood~, of course they end up together. I though Izzy was actually going to get the "you know what? I don't need a man" narrative which I would have really respected. Instead it's so chick-lit-y and sappy and bleh.
The last half of the book feels very rushed. We get quite a few pre-IFP chapters with Izzy, and the intro chapters to the project itself are quite long. And after that, every year in the IFP is only one chapter, with some of them being quite short (like 20 pages short). It's so rushed! We don't get the in-depth look at either the children's development or the parental relations. A LOT of these chapters are spent on Izzy at art school (a plot that goes nowhere because she doesn't even want to be an artist, sigh).
And the ending! Oh god. It's so sappy and wrapped in a bow. I was really disappointed in it, mainly because it doesn't fit at all what we are told about the family & children. Literally makes no sense in its own universe, which is one of the worst things you can do with an ending.
I do think this book had a lot of potential. I think Wilson was too smitten with Izzy as a character, and needed to cut that cord badly. The book should have had a different narrator every year (we follow a different set of parents, for example) and should have been much longer (or the intro chapters should have been cut). Too much of this novel felt like useless fluff to the narrative, and we were left with so little meat on the bone.
May 18, 2021
I did not expect this book to win my heart as solidly as it did. As much fun as I had reading Nothing to See Here last year, Perfect Little World impacted me much more deeply. I adore Izzy and Dr. Grind and Mr. Tannehill and the entire setting of this story. They’re weird, the setting and premise are weird, but wonderfully so on all counts.
Imagine a gigantic home comprised of ten nuclear families, all raising their children together. No, this is not a commune or a cult. It’s a long-term science experiment called the Infinite Family Project. Nine expecting couples and one single soon-to-be mother have signed on to live together for the first ten years of their children’s lives, only revealing to the children who belongs with whom at the five year mark. Until this point, the parents will essentially parent all of the children equally, with the kids sharing a communal bedroom and the parents taking shifts with them when not in their own small homes inside the compound. It’s a really weird senario. Will it help these children feel like they have a bounty of adults who love them? Will it help these parents, who are for the most part without real family, feel as though they have an unshakeable support system? Or will the entire project go down in flames?
While I was intrigued by the premise, the characters are what kept me invested. Izzy is such an unusual woman, and inside her mind was a unique, refreshing place to be. The same can be said for Dr. Grind, the other perspective character in this book. Wilson excels at penning loveably odd characters, and that is showcased to great affect in Perfect Little World. He also excels at unusual relationships. I love Izzy’s relationship with Mr. Tannehill. He’s much more of a father to her than her biological father. It’s probably my favorite relationship in the entire novel, though there are plenty more that are lovely.
I thought this was a lovely story, and a lovely idea. We say that it takes a village to raise a child, but how much happier and healthier would our kids be if we tried to actually live out that idea? Even if our approach isn’t quite this radical, what would it hurt for us to reach out to families with little support? Kindness and compassion and genuinely caring can mean so much to lonely lives.
Imagine a gigantic home comprised of ten nuclear families, all raising their children together. No, this is not a commune or a cult. It’s a long-term science experiment called the Infinite Family Project. Nine expecting couples and one single soon-to-be mother have signed on to live together for the first ten years of their children’s lives, only revealing to the children who belongs with whom at the five year mark. Until this point, the parents will essentially parent all of the children equally, with the kids sharing a communal bedroom and the parents taking shifts with them when not in their own small homes inside the compound. It’s a really weird senario. Will it help these children feel like they have a bounty of adults who love them? Will it help these parents, who are for the most part without real family, feel as though they have an unshakeable support system? Or will the entire project go down in flames?
While I was intrigued by the premise, the characters are what kept me invested. Izzy is such an unusual woman, and inside her mind was a unique, refreshing place to be. The same can be said for Dr. Grind, the other perspective character in this book. Wilson excels at penning loveably odd characters, and that is showcased to great affect in Perfect Little World. He also excels at unusual relationships. I love Izzy’s relationship with Mr. Tannehill. He’s much more of a father to her than her biological father. It’s probably my favorite relationship in the entire novel, though there are plenty more that are lovely.
I thought this was a lovely story, and a lovely idea. We say that it takes a village to raise a child, but how much happier and healthier would our kids be if we tried to actually live out that idea? Even if our approach isn’t quite this radical, what would it hurt for us to reach out to families with little support? Kindness and compassion and genuinely caring can mean so much to lonely lives.
August 12, 2016
I love Kevin's writing, and was so excited both to hear about this new one, and then to finagle myself an ARC! What a fun read. Reminded me a tad of one of my other fave reads of the last year or two, J Ryan Stradal's Kitchens of the Great Midwest--not really in content, but in feeling a little weirder than at-first-glance seems, and also at interesting looks at character and family (and angles and lenses through with we look at them), and maybe most of all just in enjoyability of the read.
Will probably interview him for Hobart as its publication in January approaches...
Will probably interview him for Hobart as its publication in January approaches...
February 24, 2017
I did not like this book, and giving it two stars was generous. It was very contrived, and the ending was ridiculous, the way in the last few pages, he decides "yes, I love you too. Let's spend the rest of our lives together." Oh brother. By the time I got to the end, I was skimming. Don't waste your time on this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 13, 2022
PERFECT LITTLE WORLD
Kevin Wilson
The PERFECT LITTLE WORLD is my third novel by Kevin Wilson. The best so far has been, NOTHING TO SEE HERE, which I adored. This one, the PERFECT LITTLE WORLD seemed to be a kinder and more gentle novel than I have read for a while. There are certainly some humorous times revealed in the story but by and large it simply and mostly shows how a single girl, despite being smart has not succeeded, mostly because she has no safety net or support group until her lover's death provides those opportunities for her.
Entering an experimental living arrangement with other young parents, she finds what has largely been missing from her life, family. This is the heart of the story. Izzy joins Dr. Grind's attempt at utopia and the story spreads out from there. I completely enjoyed the relationship that Izzy had with almost everyone, mostly I loved Mr. Tarhill and how he opened his heart to her and Cap. It was a smooth read.
4 STars
Happy Reading!
Kevin Wilson
The PERFECT LITTLE WORLD is my third novel by Kevin Wilson. The best so far has been, NOTHING TO SEE HERE, which I adored. This one, the PERFECT LITTLE WORLD seemed to be a kinder and more gentle novel than I have read for a while. There are certainly some humorous times revealed in the story but by and large it simply and mostly shows how a single girl, despite being smart has not succeeded, mostly because she has no safety net or support group until her lover's death provides those opportunities for her.
Entering an experimental living arrangement with other young parents, she finds what has largely been missing from her life, family. This is the heart of the story. Izzy joins Dr. Grind's attempt at utopia and the story spreads out from there. I completely enjoyed the relationship that Izzy had with almost everyone, mostly I loved Mr. Tarhill and how he opened his heart to her and Cap. It was a smooth read.
4 STars
Happy Reading!
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