
The Misfortune of Marion Palm
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Saskia Maarleveld
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By:
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Emily Culliton
About this listen
A wildly entertaining debut about a Brooklyn Heights wife and mother who has embezzled a small fortune from her children's private school and makes a run for it, leaving behind her trust fund poet husband, his maybe-secret lover, her two daughters, and a school board who will do anything to find her.
Marion Palm prefers not to think of herself as a thief but rather "a woman who embezzles". Over the years she has managed to steal $180,000 from her daughters' private school, money that has paid for European vacations, a Sub-Zero refrigerator, and perpetually unused state-of-the-art exercise equipment. But now, when the school faces an audit, Marion pulls piles of rubber-banded cash from their basement hiding places and flees, leaving her family to grapple with the baffled detectives, the irate school board, and the mother-shaped hole in their house. Told from the points of view of Nathan, Marion's husband, heir to a long-diminished family fortune; Ginny, Marion's teenage daughter who falls helplessly in love at the slightest provocation; Jane, Marion's youngest, who is obsessed with a missing person of her own; and Marion herself, on the lam - and hiding in plain sight.
©2017 Emily Culliton (P)2017 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
Excellent book if you can enjoy unsympathetic characters
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Not a redeeming character in the book!
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entertaining
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Good story that dragged.
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The characters unfolded in layers over time. You have the current and unfolding story of Marion, the woman who embezzles and over the course of the book you learn her backstory and why she became who she is. A similar format is used to uncover who her truly jerky husband is over time. You also are hearing the effect of Marion's abandonment on her daughters who react very differently and in interesting ways. Following these four main character's journeys for better or worse was my favorite part of the story. I loved to hate the husband. I felt a lot of compassion for the girls and I listened in wonder at Marion's choices. Most of the characters in this book were very unlikeable in a great way.
The narrarator was well chosen and her performance of Marion was excellent.
The Misfortune of Marion Palm was a very easy listen (and I imagine a very easy read). Despite the lightness of the writing style, it made for a interesting night of dissection and debate.
Better than the typical beach read
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A bit depressing
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