The Nest

THE NEST

by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

 

Nomination: Goodreads Finalist 2016

 

Date Read: April 12, 2022

 

All four Plumb siblings are in dire straits. Each have found themselves in precarious financial predicaments that only the Nest can remedy. The Nest is a trust fund that their father established for Jack, Leo, Bea and Melody (the baby) with those funds being distributed when Melody turned 40. Leo Sr. never intended for the Nest to become as large as it has but with time and prudent investing by their attorney, what once was a modest helping hand has become millions.

 

Knowing those funds were out there has caused all of the siblings, with the exclusion of Bea, to live a more financially reckless life. Jack owns an antiques store that continually runs at a loss. He has taken an equity loan against his and his husband’s summer house to keep his store afloat and to make capital improvements. All of this will be wiped clean when Jack gets his share of the Nest and his husband will never have to know.

 

Melody has purchased a home she and her husband can barely afford and dreams of sending her twin daughters to expensive, private colleges. She has a secret credit card that she keeps from her husband for making small purchases. Melody loves her house even if they’re under water on the mortgage. She can make a jumbo payment and fund college just once she turns 40 and everything will be okay.

 

But just as those rescue dreams were near enough to touch, Leo goes and does the unthinkable. He gets in a car accident after he had been heavily drinking. Leo is somewhat known for being a fuck-up but this accident is his worst error in judgement ever. Leaving a wedding and having picked up a waitress, the waitress was in the car with him when the accident occurred. She was injured so badly that her foot had to be amputated. To make matters worse, Leo’s wife, Victoria, saw him take off with the waitress and this blatant act of infidelity was the final straw. They are now getting a divorce.

 

During Leo’s stint in rehab, Francis, the stoic and cold matriarch of the family, calls for a family meeting at their attorney’s office. With little fear or fanfare, she informs the remaining three siblings that the bulk of the Nest is gone – to cover for Leo’s indiscretions. The waitress got the bulk of it. Victoria, the soon-to-be ex-wife got a decent chunk. And rehab costs a fortune, don’t you know?

 

All of the siblings are furious and incredulous. What are they going to do now? They had been counting on that money and have a dire need for its relief.  While they adjust to this new reality and act out in extreme ways – Jack dabbling in black market art and Melody sabotaging the sale of her home and ultimately, her family – they come to rely once again on each other and find the relief they were looking for in newly established relationships with each other.

 

And darling Leo, who had promised to pay siblings back for all the money spent on his behalf, decides life in New York is too hard and flees to the Caribbean. He has a secret stash of money that no one knows about and that will keep him afloat for the rest of his natural. In his wake, he leaves his ex-girlfriend again, not knowing that she’s pregnant with his child. But Leo’s absence and the arrival of this child only further cement the unity the Plumb sibs have found later in their life. Money comes and goes but family is forever. And Leo is a self-absorbed asshole.