Oh! by Mary Robison

Cleveland turned away from the table, and then he turned back to them. "What are you?" he said. "Because you aren't my kids, and you aren't adults, and you aren't anything that anyone could respect or love. What are you doing in my house when every day you break my heart? Looking at you, day after day, I feel pity and even horror. Yes, I do. And, above all else, disappointment. You've let me down in dozes of ways--hundreds of ways, and you've been doing it every day of your lives. Did either of you ever think of that? You'd better--both of you--find a true course and stick to it, and stop destroying your own father."

Cleveland is a dipsomaniac millionaire, a tycoon of soda-pop stores and "midget golf" courses. He lives in a mansion with his adult children: artsy dilettante Howdy, who forsakes art for the theater as easily as he forsook rock and roll for art; and Maureen, a glum single mother who has inherited her father's drinking problem. They are kept together by the clever housekeeper Lola, whose brusque manner barely conceals an affection for her sordid charges. And as much as Lola tries, the house invites Chaos, not least of which in the form of Chris, Maureen's ex and the father of her little girl Violet, who has recently won the lottery and come to press his luck further by stalking Maureen and convincing her to return to him.

Have you ever seen Shameless? Well, I haven't. But Mary Robison's Oh! is what I imagine that show is like: a breathless madcap comedy about a broken family, and the great sadness lurking within. We come to understand that Howdy and Maureen have been deeply wounded by the absence of their mother, who they've been told returned to her native Ireland when they were children. To fix their lives, both come to the conclusion that they must go to Ireland to find her, and become whole. But it's hard to imagine these two ever going to Ireland, to imagine Maureen staying sober long enough, or for Howdy to commit to the plan, and besides, we quickly begin to suspect that the hapless pair have not been told the full story. Cleveland, their father, has brought home a new fiancée, Virginia, whom Maureen and Howdy find uniquely threatening. In a detail that is symptomatic of the book's humor, Virginia is familiar as a children's television host on local TV. On screen she talks to a man dressed like a clock, and tells children about the weather and the time. She seems hopeful that knowledge can bring order, but it is doubtful that she can do anything for these people.

I dug this. The dialogue snaps and sizzles; it's incredibly funny. Isolated bits of it can't capture the ceaseless energy of the book, but let's try anyway:

"Yes, it's settled," Maureen said. "You'll come with us. Actually, it's a good idea because I didn't really trust howdy to handle everything."

Chris said, "The trip could be a honeymoon."

"Why not?" Maureen said. "Marrying you is no different than not marrying you."

"Don't try to act nuts, Maureen. You do it well enough without trying. I swear I can't keep up with you. Here I am burning up six different ways, and I can't even tell if you're serious."

"Neither can I," she said, and sighed. "But, Chris? I do admire you for burning down the toolshed. Sometimes, I guess, the admiration I feel for you is love, like. Or maybe not. Anyway, I can't picture myself with anyone else."

"You lack imagination," Chris said. "Don't you know how come I torched the toolshed?"

"It doesn't matter," Maureen said, and sighed again. "It's a symbol."

"Jesus," Chris said. "Jesus goddamn Christ."

Oh! never lets up. Robison summons a tornado to trap and torture the motley crew that's assembled at the Cleveland mansion, and ushers it off stage almost as quickly, having done its damage, and leaving the family to do more. It's a story about trivial, insufferable people who are somehow too funny and too sad to be contemptible. Like its title, it's a sudden bolt of revelation, of shock, of surprise.