The Pessimists by Bethany Ball

Published by Grove Press on October 12, 2021

The Pessimists takes a satirical look at an expensive private grade school in Connecticut and the white suburban parents who send their kids there. Petra School values cooperation over competition (sports are bad), regulates the children’s diets (dairy is bad), doesn’t allow students to look at cellphones or television (screens are bad), and doesn’t seem to teach kids anything, particularly reading (Harry Potter is bad) and math (memorization is bad). The school seems more interested in teaching parents about the school’s philosophy of simplicity than in educating children. The school indoctrinates parents as if they were part of a cult.

This is a novel of relationships, with a primary focus on the interactions of three couples and their varying ties to Petra School. Tripp and Virginia are keeping secrets from each other, although they find it impossible to keep secrets from their 11-year-old daughter Charlotte. Tripp isn’t paying Charlotte’s tuition at Petra because he’s buying guns and combat knives, paying for Krav Maga classes, and taking survivalist seminars. Virginia has breast cancer but refuses to be treated for it or even to mention it to Tripp. “Tripp has never gotten over the fact that stay-at-home mothers stayed at home, even after their kids were old enough to attend school.” That’s one of many reasons they have drifted apart.

Virginia misses the days when she and Tripp liked each other. Only late in the novel does Virginia tumble to the realization that Tripp is more interested in dealing with the apocalypse to come than the apocalypse that is already here. By that point, Virginia is contemplating affairs and ready for a dramatic change. Drama does, in fact, come, although its arrival feels like an arbitrary choice to provide a climax rather than a considered resolution of the issues that drive the story.

Virginia and Rachel used to work together. Rachel does freelance work in the digital world. She’s married to Gunter, a successful and well-paid architect, who reluctantly moved to the US from Stockholm at Rachel’s request. Rachel convinced Gunter to adapt to suburban living. Gunter’s version of adapting is to buy a huge Mercedes and to enjoy the cheap gasoline that Americans regard as a God-given right — although not the environmentally conscious parents who send their kids to Petra.

Gunter initially believes that Petra School is a typically American waste of money, while Rachel initially loves it. When Gunter is later influenced by a parents’ meditation group (he starts to believe he is capable of mysterious things), their positions are reversed. Gunter is strangely attracted to the woman who operates Petra School, despite (or because of) her family’s relationship with the Nazi party.

Margot wants her kids to attend Petra but the kids and her husband Richard resist her decision. Richard is Tripp’s oldest friend. Margot and Richard come across as props who add little to the story, apart from a clever scene in which Margot’s child has to remind her that she already cleaned the cabinets that she is obsessively scouring.

Gunter accuses Americans of being pessimistic, a response to seeing Tripp’s basement full of guns. Tripp likes to show them off when he’s drunk, making it odd that so much time passes with no character alerting Virginia to their existence. The three featured couples are far from a cross-section of America, but most of the adult American characters do seem pessimistic about their futures, and with good reason.

The Pessimists suffers from the familiarity of its subject matter. As a well written and occasionally amusing examination of life in a financially comfortable suburb, the novel might appeal to financially comfortable suburban parents who struggle with choices about educating their children. The story didn’t resonate with me but I’m not in that demographic group. It does seem to be the favorite demograpic of many novelists.

Private schools that don’t educate kids are an easy target, as are survivalists who sacrifice the good of their family for their obsession with weaponry. Bethany Ball sometimes hits the target with her satirical portrayal of Petra School and the parents who treat it like a cult, but at other times she seems to want the reader to take the school seriously. Her attempt to straddle the line between satire and a serious look at private schools isn’t quite satisfying, in part because Ball never asks the reader to engage in more than superficial thought about the merits of private versus public education.

Most of the characters are also unsatisfying. They come across as stereotypes rather than real people. Virginia is the exception. Her struggle and growth during the novel seem authentic. Virginia’s characterization, Ball’s engaging prose style, and a few savage moments of humor account for my recommendation.

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