What Fun: A Novel

Summary

Succession meets The Talented Mr. Ripley in this sharp and stylish satire of modern power about an aristocratic family and the fantastically wealthy American couple they befriend in troubled times.
The Gators are a sufficiently ancient English family who love their dogs more than their children and never cry at funerals. They’re also pretty terrible with money, despite having encountered quite a lot of it. After an ill-advised scheme from their youngest son sees their grand private members club fall into financial troubles, they’re thrilled to meet the young, exotic Wolffs: an outrageously rich and suspiciously beautiful couple, recently arrived in London from New York. But over a series of debaucherous holidays, as the families’ lives and fates intertwine, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell who is really using who — and just what each player might do to maintain their sacred way of life.

An elegant and sparkling comedy of manners, What Fun globe-trots around the playgrounds of the ultra-wealthy, from St. Moritz to Tuscany to Cap Ferret (only in August, of course), and discovers a family haunted across the generations by expectations, insecurities, absurdities and misplaced affections. Thick with observational humor and witty social commentary, it tells the story of a family, the story of a class, the story of a country—and the story of a club. Which, in this particular case, all turn out to be the exact same thing.