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Perfect Little World: A Novel Hardcover – January 24, 2017

by Kevin Wilson (Author)

4.1 1,237 ratings

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Wilson’s ambition alone is exciting. . . . [His] writing has a Houdini-like perfection, wherein no matter how grim the variables, each lovely sentence manages to escape with all its parts intact.” —Boston Globe

The eagerly-anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Family Fang—a warm-hearted and moving story about a young woman making a family on her own terms.

When Isabelle Poole meets Dr. Preston Grind, she’s fresh out of high school, pregnant with her art teacher's baby, and totally on her own. Izzy knows she can be a good mother but without any money or relatives to help, she’s left searching.

Dr. Grind, an awkwardly charming child psychologist, has spent his life studying family, even after tragedy struck his own. Now, with the help of an eccentric billionaire, he has the chance to create a “perfect little world”—to study what would happen when ten children are raised collectively, without knowing who their biological parents are. He calls it The Infinite Family Project and he wants Izzy and her son to join.

This attempt at a utopian ideal starts off promising, but soon the gentle equilibrium among the families disintegrates: unspoken resentments between the couples begin to fester; the project's funding becomes tenuous; and Izzy’s growing feelings for Dr. Grind make her question her participation in this strange experiment in the first place.

Written with the same compassion and charm that won over legions of readers with The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson shows us with grace and humor that the best families are the ones we make for ourselves.

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	Nothing to See Here	The Family Fang	Baby, You're Gonna Be Mine	Tunneling to the Center of the Earth

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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Eighteen-year-old Izzy Poole's mother died when she was young, and her father drowned his grief in alcohol. Just before her high school graduation, she learns she is pregnant by her emotionally unstable art teacher. Confronted with the prospect of raising her baby alone, Izzy joins a research study that promises support for her and her son. Dr. Preston Grind, a famous child psychologist, has created the Infinite Family Project. For 10 years, 10 babies and their parents will live in a complex. The adults will raise the children together as a collective family while pursuing their professional goals, with all living expenses covered by an eccentric benefactor; however, none of the children will know who their biological parents are. While many of the participants find the setup strange, the project is successful for a long time. But when the utopian arrangement begins to fall apart, Izzy is faced with the fear of once again being without a family. Teens will identify with Izzy's complicated relationship with her father and her hopes and fears for the future. What makes this story stand out is the questions it raises about current family structures as well as the benefits and drawbacks of the "it takes a village" approach to raising children. VERDICT Recommend this engaging, thought-provoking novel to teens interested in psychology or family studies.—Lynn Rashid, Marriotts Ridge High School, Marriottsville, MD

Review

“A good story, and even better storytelling.” — John Irving, The New York Times Book Review

“Wild. . . . [A] provocative read.” — People

“Charming. . . . Wilson pulls off his sweet-and-tart tone. . . . The novel delights in the project’s Willy Wonkaesque sense of antic chaos.” — Washington Post

“Delicious. . . . Wilson is such an inventive and witty writer. . . . [His] ‘perfect little world’ of a novel pretty much lives up to its title.” — NPR

“Persistently compassionate. . . . Wilson’s best moments are funny and earnest. . . . [His] crisp language and smart plotting make Perfect Little World immensely likable and absolutely enjoyable.” — GQ

“Quirky. . . . Wilson’s Perfect Little World finds its bliss in the vast disconnect between people’s best intentions and where they land.” — Entertainment Weekly

“The sheer energy of imagination in Wilson’s work makes other writers of realistic fiction look lazy. . . . The novel’s grand finale . . . reminds us that not everything unpredictable is painful or bad, and that conventional arrangements have no monopoly on the profound connections that make family.” — Newsday

“Family is far more than a biological bond; that’s not a groundbreaking idea. But Wilson has found a lovely new way of telling readers something they know by heart.” — Houston Chronicle

“The compensation is a greater richness in the characters, and a refreshingly un-ironic attitude toward love — Knoxville News-Sentinel

“Wilson does an incredible job of telling a compelling story while addressing important social issues. . . . Thought-provoking. — Deep South Magazine

“In light and lively prose that practically tap dances on the page, Wilson shrewdly probes the intricate tensions and machinations that lie at the core of this eccentric family unit. . . . A provocative and uplifting read.” — Bookpage

“Stellar. . . . Compelling. . . . Realer and wiser and sadder and eventually reassuring about human nature than dozens of other novels.” — Booklist, Starred Review

“Bittersweet. . . . Wilson delves into the drama and tensions inherent in this strange aquarium. . . . A moving and sincere reflection on what it truly means to be a family — Kirkus, Starred Review

“Sweet and thoroughly satisfying. . . . Wilson grounds his premise in credible human motivations and behavior, resulting in a memorable cast of characters.” — Publishers Weekly

“[A] moving novel about love, parenting, and the families we create for ourselves.” — Library Journal

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ecco; First Edition (January 24, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0062450328
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062450326
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.19 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.13 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #375,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,379 in Humorous Fiction
- #6,582 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #20,970 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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4.1 1,237 ratings

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Kevin Wilson

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Kevin Wilson is the author of the New York Times best-selling novel The Family Fang (Ecco, 2012), Perfect Little World (Ecco, 2017), and Nothing to See Here (Ecco, 2019) as well as the collections, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (Ecco/Harper Perennial, 2009), which received an Alex Award from the American Library Association and the Shirley Jackson Award, and Baby, You're Gonna Be Mine (Ecco, 2018). His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Tin House, One Story, A Public Space, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Rivendell, and the KHN Center for the Arts. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife, the poet Leigh Anne Couch, and his sons, Griff and Patch. He is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of the South.

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8bit Dreams

A Perfect Little Novel

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2021

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Another masterfully written book by Kevin Wilson. His humanity shines through once again in his brilliantly written characters that feel realer-than-life and a story that's full of heart and what it means to be a family in a dysfunctional environment. It's a book that you wish it didn't have an end.

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All Set Up, Little Pay Off

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2017

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As Stephen King says, start your story with an interesting situation. Here, the author succeeds by creating an experimental Infinite Family, 10 babies and their parents living as one, mostly in solitude for a period of ten years. Too bad the characters aren't as interesting as the situation. Still I'm glad I read this book, and it certainly held my attention throughout.

This next part contains spoilers. Where the book fell short, at least for me, is it seemed to buckle under the weight of its own overly-wide scope. The book has so many characters and took place over such an extended period of time that each new layer of suspense quickly evaporated. The main character, Izzy, lives with 18 other parents, most of whom are completely indistinguishable from one another. What did Susan (or Jill or X or Y or Z) look like or want out of life? Who knows? With over 30 stick characters (19 parents + 10 brats + 4 researchers + others) are impossible to keep track of. Or care about.

In the first few years of living with her experimental family, Izzy drunkenly hooks up with one of the husbands (just making out), but then there's no post-make-out awkwardness or sexual tension. Izzy corners the Infinite Family's founder and head researcher, planting a kiss on Dr Grind, which is somewhat reciprocated, but again, nothing seems to come of it. What does Izzy think of Dr Grind as the years slowly boil on - does she have hot dreams about him? Don't know! Izzy takes art classes and attracts the attention of some damaged hunk, but again, nothing. One of the research fellows hooks up with one of the fathers and becomes pregnant, which sets up conflict of whether this younger 11th child should be allowed to join the family. Interesting, but again, just a loose end. Passion without consequences. Sex without tension - yawn! Izzy's son Cap starts to look like and take on characteristics of Hal, the crazy art teacher who impregnated Izzy before she graduated from high school, and who later killed himself before Izzy gives birth to Cap. Interesting, but again nothing comes of it. Later in the book, many women admit to Izzy that they hated her early on, yet again, nothing comes of it. Dr. Grind likes to cut himself but there's never any tension that he's going to snap and hurt himself. Or somebody else.

On the plus side, the book is always moving forward, but it feels more like meaningless and unconnected action rather than the accumulation of ever-building plot. The pieces don't pile together and burst in to some final "ah ha" reveal. Given the great situation the author creates, the reader is hoping/praying that what happens within the astro-turf complex will be more surprising and imaginative, not just somebody drank too much, somebody got stoned, somebody had an affair, one person hated another person, all kids ate their marshmallow in a nanosecond. What happens in the complex should be eerily fascinating or mind-bendingly scary - but it wasn't. Given all the talk about death, I kept hoping the book would slowly boil in to some creepy weirdness, where one or more characters slowly go off the rails as a result of the unique cult-like situation. When there's a hint that the fish were killed, I was like FINALLY something juicy is about to pop. I was even hoping Cap would turn out to be the disturbed goldfish serial killer. But everyone's so normal they are boring.

Izzy is smart and beautiful (of course!) yet wants nothing for herself. Unrealistic! She has no tragic flaws to make her human and layered. The author is so busy planting a wide garden of character flowers that Izzy never blooms. Dr Grind is a little more intriguing, especially childhood recollections of the constant friction parenting under which he was raised by his duo-psychiatrist parents (Frasier and Lilith, anyone?). Another high point is the author's rendering of art teacher Hal who gives his teenage student-girlfriend Izzy something like $50 as a graduation gift, then makes her pay for their movie date, where he behaves like a first rate borderline personality ass before he's yanked off the novel's stage, only to hopefully have his quirky personality reappear in the couple's son. Great characterization of Izzy's leading men.

And what does it all mean? What's the big take away about families, or love, or death, or parenthood, or experimentation? Um, not sure. Here the author maybe could have tied how Izzy and Preston end up as some counter point to the constant friction method Preston grew up under, but no, just another loose end. To the extent the conclusion of a novel is suppose to be the single outcome that wraps it all up in a true yet unexpected way, the book falls way short. It's like the author started out on this fabulous path with no idea where the story would end, so it ended sort of nowhere. It just petered out in a way that was so predictable I would have bet money against the obvious.

Writing a novel is incredibly tough. I think the author has real talent and must have put a ton of work in to this book. His writing is easy to absorb and images crisp, often described in refreshing terms. Yet I feel like he held back on showing us a closer look at how twisted people can be when living in a small and crowded cage, which would have been more fun to read (and probably more fun to write!). It's much more gripping to witness one insect fidget and squirm under the glare of the microscope than to watch slow tunnels forming inside the ant farm. I look forward to seeing what Wilson writes next. I just hope he lets loose and really hits it out of the ballpark.

There were some great high points in "Perfect Little World," enough so to hold my interest. I enjoyed this book and have put Wilson on my radar screen of authors to watch.

25 people found this helpful

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RunsInCircles

aaahhh... nothing special here

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2021

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I read "Nothing to See Here," by the same author. That book was engaging, funny, a novel plot, with engaging characters. This book was not. The characters were okay but I really didn't care what happened to them. Not a lot happened in the ten years covered by the novel. And the humor? The author has the ability to deliver, but didn't here.
If you want humor and an engaging plot, read his other book, but not this one.

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2019

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Have read three of his novels--started with Nothing to See Here--a real gem--and weird. The Family Fang--again, excellently written--and weird. Just finished Perfect Little World--well written, interesting concept. The weirdness is entertaining but the excellence of his writing and the characterizations of those he writes about are brilliant. .

7 people found this helpful

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J. Johnson

A Fun and Interesting Look at Humans in Community

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2017

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I recently took a trip to NYC and brought Perfect Little World on the train with me, after hearing about it on Book Riot and then seeing it as a choice for Book of the Month. I figured fate was telling me it was time to pull this one out of the To Be Read pile and into the Currently Reading pile. Yes, I have a pile of books that I am currently reading. This was a great little book to take on a trip and was just a fun read.

The book centers on Izzy who is sleeping with her art teacher in HS in Part 1 of the book. She is the top of her class, but wants to fail, so she doesn't have to give the valedictorian speech. She has a disconnected father and works in a BBQ shop where her manager is her father figure. As one can guess, Izzy becomes pregnant with her teacher's baby and he takes off on her. Lost and really alone, she runs into Dr. Grind.

Grind is a psychologist who is about to start a study on communal living. Parents will care for each other's children and the children will not know who their biological parents are until later on in the experiment. The cost for Izzy is 10 years of her and her child's life, but all expenses are paid and she will get a free college education.

Part 2 is each year of the experiment. I won't spoil it, but one can guess things will not run smoothly. There will be difficulty with some parents letting others raise their child, family issues, sexual tension, and a whole slew of other issues that happen when people are thrown together for long periods of time. The interesting thing is this is normal for their children since this is their lives, so they do not know there are problems. Can the program survive all of this with individual personalities running amok?

This was both a funny and insightful book at the same time. While the focus should be on the children and what will become of the them, the real experiment happens with the adults. Izzy is a single parent too in the midst of families who signed up for this, so she is always the outsider in terms of being the youngest and single, so her perspective will always be different. So, it is nice to travel with Izzy as our narrator.

The fun is seeing how bad this experiment gets. It doesn't get outrageous in the sense of diverging from reality, but it is very real as in what happens when one couple wants to divorce one another mid experiment? Or what about living in community where your wife isn't your own wife or husband isn't your only husband? While couples are expected to stay with one another, what happens when alcohol is introduced?

I found the book a fun read that got a bit laggy at times, but it could have been my situation of being stuck on a train rather than the book itself. It was a simple read too that drew me into the situation. While the couples got jumbled a bit, part of that was the point as Izzy acknowledges that she can't remember everyone's name all the time. The children are the background of the book and aren't really developed except for Cap, Izzy's child. They are just there to keep the experiment going.

I gave this one 4 stars.

6 people found this helpful

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G

Loved the story and characters.

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2023

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Really enjoyed this book, would have loved it to have been another 200-300 pages longer with more closure at the end but it was great. Very much recommend.

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2023

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I read this on a 4 hour flight. Love the storyline and social experiment. My only complaint would be too many characters and not enough character development.

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2021

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I bought this book because I thought the concept was interesting, but ended up had a very hard time getting into the story. It's gets so over dramatic in places and takes you out of the story, making it terribly unrealistic and unbelievable.

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Readist

I like Kevin Wilson

Reviewed in Canada on March 7, 2018

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I like Kevin Wilson, but this was actually slightly boring. You wouldn't think the subject matter could get boring, but it was a bit predictable and the ending was a bit Hollywood. Even so, the guy can write.

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Perfect Little World: A Novel Hardcover – January 24, 2017

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