The Believers

Zoe Heller's The Believers is a deliciously mean-spirited novel that scathingly satirizes the dysfunction of a high-minded socialist family.

Zoe Heller is disturbingly adept at capturing the nuances of social interaction. She does so in such away that that every moment is weighted by social strain, insecurity, and egoism. It's a wonderful quality, actually, and her intelligence and nuance makes up for the fact that the characters are not likable.

In spite of the surface viciousness of much of the novel, there is a lot of heart there, and insight into the human yearning underneath intellectual/ethical contradictions. I was surprised by how moved I was at the end of the novel.