The Unfortunates: A Novel by Sophie McManus

 
  The Unfortunates: A Novel by Sophie McManus. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2015.  Adult fiction. In this debut novel, Sophie McManus tells the story of mother Cecilia Somner, her grown son, George, and his wife, Iris. Part of THE fictional Somner family of great wealth and traditions, the mother is about to go into a health facility for experimental treatment to halt her decline. George has a job that is supposedly running a foundation, but really just an opportunity to have lunch out and to write his own weird theatre project. Iris has realty aspirations, but is an outsider to the wealthy enclave in which they live. All three are hiding secrets and life soon changes in unfortunate ways none of them could have expected. 
 It seems to me that several debut novels lately have taken the tack of reality television and roll along with minimal plot development until things just "happen". If you get caught up in the story, that's great. If not, the going is slow. I thought the characters were interesting and wanted to see what happens to them, but the reading was involved and the text seems dense. Chapters are numbered and I thought titles might have helped. Even a family tree of the Somners would have been a nice touch. If you liked Bill Clegg's Did You Ever Have a Family, you might like this one. I just thought that the characters were all unfortunate!