A true character study

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The slowest of burns. This book will not be for everyone due to what some may consider unlikeable characters and slow pacing. And the immense volume of detail in this novel!

It took me over a month to read The Latecomer and I’m surprised I ended up giving it a 4 star rating to be honest. The complex, multi-layered characters kept me going. Jean Hanff Korelitz went to great depths of detail to give the reader the full picture of each character's life. There is so much history in this family to understand the cause and effect. By the end of the book I felt like I knew them all very well. There were definitely aspects of the characters that drove me crazy but in the end, they were very human and interesting. Phoebe was a breath of fresh air although I wish she had been introduced much sooner in the book. I had a lot of empathy for the Oppenheimer family and I lamented their lack of connection. Identity, race, grief/trauma, meaning of family are all central themes.

Well-written and super dense. Preferable to the author's previous work, The Plot.