Fear and Loathing in SF

Bottle Grove
A novel by Daniel Handler
Bloomsbury, 2019

This is a different sort of “mystery” novel set in San Francisco. On the surface it is the tale of two couples, Pagett and Vic (The Vic), and Ben and Rachel. The Vic and Ben are partners in a start-up and Pagette and Rachel are old friends from high school. Set in the late teens of the 21st century, in reality it is a sociological study of new and old money classes in the Bay area overlaid upon an Indigenous American folk tale. The miracle of this mash-up is that it is less of a mess than one might expect. Everyone is scamming everyone else, but there is some humanity left beneath these shallow archetypes. I won’t go into the plot but will mention that there is a lot of alcohol consumed and some tawdry sex that no one seems to enjoy very much. And a most unsavory vicar.

Bottle Grove was written by Daniel Handler (more well known as Lemony Snicket) but this book is obviously not aimed at children. Like any good folk tale, it poses more questions than it answers; a modern morality play that is not as pessimistic as it appears on the surface.

Qualified recommendation.

See all the FITK San Francisco posts here.