The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth Mckenzie

Title: The Portable Veblen
Author: Elizabeth Mckenzie
Page Count: 413
Rating: C
Keywords: Squirrels, Identity, Crisis, Pharmaceutical Sales, Murder, Veterans
Genre: Fiction
Younger Readers: This is written for adults. Sex, drugs, drinking, murder, and mental illness are all present.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

The Portable Veblen is a dazzlingly original novel that’s as big-hearted as it is laugh-out-loud funny. Set in and around Palo Alto, amid the culture clash of new money and old (antiestablishment) values, and with the specter of our current wars looming across its pages, The Portable Veblen is an unforgettable look at the way we live now. A young couple on the brink of marriage—the charming Veblen and her fiancé Paul, a brilliant neurologist—find their engagement in danger of collapse. Along the way they weather everything from each other’s dysfunctional families, to the attentions of a seductive pharmaceutical heiress, to an intimate tête-à-tête with a very charismatic squirrel.

Veblen (named after the iconoclastic economist Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term “conspicuous consumption”) is one of the most refreshing heroines in recent fiction. Not quite liberated from the burdens of her hypochondriac, narcissistic mother and her institutionalized father, Veblen is an amateur translator and “freelance self”; in other words, she’s adrift. Meanwhile, Paul—the product of good hippies who were bad parents—finds his ambition soaring. His medical research has led to the development of a device to help minimize battlefield brain trauma—an invention that gets him swept up in a high-stakes deal with the Department of Defense, a Bizarro World that McKenzie satirizes with granular specificity.

As Paul is swept up by the promise of fame and fortune, Veblen heroically keeps the peace between all the damaged parties involved in their upcoming wedding, until she finds herself falling for someone—or something—else. Throughout, Elizabeth McKenzie asks: Where do our families end and we begin? How do we stay true to our ideals? And what is that squirrel really thinking? Replete with deadpan photos and sly appendices, The Portable Veblen is at once an honest inquiry into what we look for in love and an electrifying reading experience.

My Review:

I am completely unsure how to review this book. Simultaneously, I love and hate this novel. To be fair to those wanting to read it, I will do my best to explain this confusion.

The novel started off just as quirky and adorable as the cover. There really are squirrels present throughout the book. I enjoyed reading from the perspective of the ever-distracted Veblen as she stumbles through life. Her inner monologue and quirks are entertaining to encounter as well as uniquely endearing. Her quirkiness is similar to that of Zooey Deschanel's Jess in the television series New Girl, but with darker undertones.

I cannot stand Paul through 90% of this book. Initially, his devotion to Veblen is endearing and there is hope for their future. However, his inner thoughts and flashbacks constantly create a severe dislike for the man. His morals and actions are equally disdainful and he is just barely able to redeem himself, somewhat, by the end of the tale.

Much of the middle portion of this book is filled with rather dark material. Veblen and Paul's families are introduced. Each make up an interesting study of mental health and dysfunctional family dynamics. These interactions are often uncomfortable, tense, and overly emotional. Each character experienced abuse, emotional for one character and neglect for the other, as they were growing up and this is revealed through flashbacks.

The final quarter of this book saved it for me. All of the oddities of the first 75% of the book come together to create a sudden and massive action sequence. There is even an unexpected happily ever after. For some this ending will be underdeveloped and far too sudden. However, it does wrap up the story well enough.

Read at your own risk. It certainly had a negative effect on my mood while I was reading it. However, thinking back on the story I have much fonder emotions for it now.