‘We Are Not Ourselves’ is a solid, multilayered first novel

“We Are Not Ourselves: A Novel” by Matthew Thomas (Simon & Schuster, 640 pages, $28)

Matthew Thomas’ first novel, “We Are Not Ourselves,” is an epic of small events. By that I don’t mean its story is insignificant but quotidian: the particular struggles of the day-to-day. A family saga, spanning three generations, the book is centered around Eileen Tumulty, a daughter of the Irish working-class in Queens, N.Y. Eileen’s existence is summed up in the first two syllables of that last name – tumult – or more accurately, in the drive to push past her limitations, which have been imposed in many ways by time and place.

Grace is hard to come by, at least for Eileen. Her husband, Edmund Leary, is a research scientist who turns down promotions to continue teaching at a community college. Their son Connell, named for the author of “Mrs. Bridge,” remains curiously recalcitrant, socially awkward and increasingly distanced the older he becomes.

Thomas, who grew up in Queens, clearly understands his territory; at times, “We Are Not Ourselves” reads like a family history in its evocation of New York’s outer boroughs and second-tier suburbia of the 1980s, with their mix of immigrants and culture clash. He is unafraid to portray this in all its complexity, most acutely when it comes to Eileen, who recoils at the changing face of her community.

What we’re seeing is a complex character, with competing agendas and motivations, some at levels she can’t access. This becomes increasingly pronounced after Ed starts acting strangely and is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. His decline occupies the final two-thirds of the novel, as Eileen and Connell struggle for containment, adrift in a new house in Westchester, as alone as they have ever been.

“We Are Not Ourselves” is a solid first novel, unsentimental, multilayered, evocative of a lost world. At the same time, there is too much that ties up too neatly.

David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times

This story was originally published September 21, 2014 at 7:21 AM with the headline "‘We Are Not Ourselves’ is a solid, multilayered first novel."