The Hazards Of Good Breeding

Caroline Dunlap has written off the insular world of Boston deb parties, golf club luaus, and Wasp weddings she grew up in. But when she reluctantly returns home after her college graduation, she finds the world of her childhood is not quite as predictable, or protected, as she had imagined.Her puritanical father, Jack, is carrying on stoically after the breakup of his marriage, but he can't stop thinking about Rosita, the housekeeper he fired six months ago. Meanwhile, Caroline's mother, Faith, is stumbling through her first foray into the world of adult dating. And eight-year-old Eliot's giant papier-mache diorama of his hometown suggests that he may be hatching a plan of larger proportions. Lurking on the periphery, a wily young filmmaker is preparing to document the social graces and dysfunctions of Boston's disintegrating Brahmin society. The only constants seem to be the unwanted adoration of Caroline's neighbor Rock Coughlin, and of course, her father's brutish blue-heelers.As the real reason for Rosita's departure is revealed, the novel culminates in a series of events that assault the Dunlaps' fragile and arguably obsolete world.