The Heirs (Rieger)

The Heirs 
Susan Rieger, 2017
Crown/Archetype
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781101904718


Summary
Brilliantly wrought, incisive, and stirring, The Heirs tells the story of an upper-crust Manhattan family coming undone after the death of their patriarch.
 
Six months after Rupert Falkes dies, leaving a grieving widow and five adult sons, an unknown woman sues his estate, claiming she had two sons by him.

The Falkes brothers are pitched into turmoil, at once missing their father and feeling betrayed by him.  In disconcerting contrast, their mother, Eleanor, is cool and calm, showing preternatural composure.
 
Eleanor and Rupert had made an admirable life together — Eleanor with her sly wit and generosity, Rupert with his ambition and English charm — and they were proud of their handsome, talented sons: Harry, a brash law professor; Will, a savvy Hollywood agent; Sam, an astute doctor and scientific researcher; Jack, a jazz trumpet prodigy; Tom, a public-spirited federal prosecutor.

The brothers see their identity and success as inextricably tied to family loyalty — a loyalty they always believed their father shared. Struggling to reclaim their identity, the brothers find Eleanor’s sympathy toward the woman and her sons confounding. Widowhood has let her cast off the rigid propriety of her stifling upbringing, and the brothers begin to question whether they knew either of their parents at all.
 
A riveting portrait of a family, told with compassion, insight, and wit, The Heirs wrestles with the tangled nature of inheritance and legacy for one unforgettable, patrician New York family. Moving seamlessly through a constellation of rich, arresting voices, The Heirs is a tale out Edith Wharton for the 21st century. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1946-47
• Where—N/A
• Education—B.A., Mount Holyoke College; J.D., Columbia University
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York


Susan Rieger is a graduate of Columbia Law School. She has worked as a residential college dean at Yale and an associate provost at Columbia. She has taught law to undergraduates at both schools and written frequently about the law for newspapers and magazines. She lives in New York City with her husband. The Heirs (2017) is her second novel; The Divorce Papers (2014) is her first. (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
Elegant literary prose and supremely likeable characters make this a must-read.
People


Fans of Salinger's stories about Manhattan's elite will enjoy this novel about privileged siblings who grapple with the state of their inheritance and long-held secrets that emerge in the wake of their father's death.
InStyle


Love and sex and money and betrayal make for excellent storytelling. And The Heirs has all of that.… As an exploration of the hidden lives of Rupert and Eleanor Falkes, it is a posh soap opera written by Fitzgerald and the Brontes. As a window on a family shaken by death, it is The Royal Tenenbaums, polished up and moved across town. But its beauty, economy and expensive wit is all its own.
NPR.org


(Starred Reivew.) [Incisive].… Rieger wrestles perceptively with difficult questions and…[shines] light on the Falkes’ extended web of familial and emotional ties, sucking the reader into the tangle of emotions and conflicting interests. Rieger’s book is a tense, introspective account of looking for truth, and instead finding peace. (May)
Publishers Weekly


(Starred Reivew.) Brilliantly constructed and flawlessly written, Rieger's novel brings all these moving parts together. The result is an emotional and satisfying story of how a complicated family and their outliers handle life's most pivotal moments. —Beth Gibbs, Davidson, NC
Library Journal


[A] timeless…family drama.… It is a charming, slightly haunting look at a family dealing with the inheritance of legacy rather than money and wondering if what happens after a relationship matters as much as how it was experienced at the time. —Diana Platt
Booklist


(Starred Reivew.) Despite an omniscient narrator who lays out information as quickly and smoothly as a Vegas blackjack dealer, the argument of this book seems to be that we simply can't know absolutely everything and it's better that way.… [T]his elegant novel wears its intelligence lightly.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Heirs :

1. Talk about the family scion, Rupert Falkes as we first learn of him. What were your initial thoughts of him, and how do they change throughout the novel? How is he shaped by his past?

2. The question that Susan Rieger explores in her novel is one of identity. If someone close to you presents him/herself with certain personal traits and beliefs but, upon death, is found to have another life…can you claim to know that individual? How do we know anyone: through our own experiences …or in combination with other peoples' experiences?

3. The portrait of the Falkes family that Rieger offers us is a fairly detailed slice of the urban elite. Did you feel a touch of voyeuristic pleasure peering into such elevated society — the richly appointed apartments, dinners out with Veuve Clicquot? Or did you find it cloying? Do you think the author may be poking fun at her characters life-styles and all  that they take for granted? Or does the writing not come across as satirical?

4. How would you describe each of the characters? Start with Eleanor and then proceed through the five sons/brothers. Are there any Falkes you prefer over any others?

5. How does the appearance of Vera Wolinski shake Eleanor's and each of the five sons' lives? How differently do they react? Trace the trajectory of their individual paths as they come to grips with the death of their father and all that ensues.

6. Everyone engages in highly questionable behavior: infidelity, lying, neglectful parenting, stalking children, and even a rape. Can anyone in this book lay claim to possessing a moral compass?

7. Are you satisfied with the way the novel ended? What understanding of Rupert does Eleanor come to that her sons do not, or cannot?

8. Discuss the structure of the novel with its separate but intersecting chapters from the viewpoints of the various characters. How does the structure contribute to what we learn about each of the family members? What about Vera's story? How does it affect your experience of reading The Heirs.

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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