... intelligent, funny and remarkably assured ... The clash of reunion expectations and the reality of family ties give Ridker an opportunity to write some of the book’s most comedic and moving scenes and, in doing so, to establish himself as a big, promising talent ... Ridker’s satire of ill-conceived do-gooderism is scathing and hilarious, making Maggie both ridiculous and sympathetic ... [Ridker] writes sentences with the lively, poetic zing of one as attuned to the sounds of words as to their meanings ... his descriptions have enough wit and psychological accuracy to make even minor characters spring to multidimensional life ... Ridker’s ambitious blend of global perspective and intimate human comedy seems likely to evoke comparisons to the work of Jonathan Franzen and Nathan Hill ... at times I longed for more unimpeded forward momentum ... On balance, Ridker’s almost psychoanalytic peeling back of layers of time and experience gets to the heart of the family’s dysfunction while creating characters with true depth ... The warm ending opens up the possibility of a bright future for them, which is precisely what this outstanding debut suggests for its talented author.
... Ridker writes with such good humor and graceful irony that he manages to portray Arthur and his kids as people you want to care about, even if you wouldn’t invite them to your house to borrow money ... You might want to wring Arthur’s neck sometimes — lots of times — but Ridker does that for you as he puts Arthur through all sorts of setbacks, followed by comic epiphanies, and regressions. Ridker’s genius is making a generally unlikable character fun to read and gossip about. Quite an accomplishment in a first novel.
... a lively, tragicomic debut novel ... Ridker elevates his book with a sharp eye for the absurdities of contemporary American culture and his characters' irksome pieties, though his ironic sensibility is offset with a good measure of compassion ... Ridker's skillful balancing act between sympathy and satire is on full, fabulous display ... The Altruists boasts numerous charms, ranging from worthy ethical issues treated with an effective wryness to its rare, fond celebration of steamy St. Louis. Its ending is well-earned, and so are its life lessons, adding up to an unusually promising debut.
Like Mr. Franzen, Mr. Ridker has a weakness for pop psychology and his characters can come across as one-dimensional manifestations of personality disorders ... The good news is that, unlike its characters, The Altruists has a sense of humor. Mr. Ridker has a gift for comic asides ... For all of the psychoanalysis, Mr. Ridker doesn’t worry too much about affirming resolutions. The fun is in the dysfunction.
The book seems afraid to take the emotional risk of leaving a sardonic mode, which prevents it from attaining the thoughtfulness and pathos of [other books]. The result is attractive, well-made fiction with occasional hollowness ... The [book contains] both sadness and expectation—[it leaves] the reader grazed by tempered hopes.
... fascinating and deeply compelling ... Yes, this novel ticks all the boxes for a typical debut novel from a promising young male talent...But the key here is Ridker’s keen awareness of this conflict, his attuned approach that immediately assures the reader that they are in capable hands—that something new is going to happen within this novel ... both wildly funny and deeply empathic. Ridker has an incredible penchant for setting each scene in full and populating it with characters that brim with clear-cut emotional depth and realism. And while the author possesses a unique talent for metaphors and similes, he can also deliver gut-busting images around any corner ... required reading for these divisive times. If the end has truly come for the likes of the hoary old patriarchy—if that growing rumble overtaking America really is the unmistakable death rattle—then let it happen on Ridker’s watch, because my assumption is we can expect many more great works of fiction from this extremely talented young novelist.
Beautifully written, with witty, pitch-perfect dialogue and fascinating characters, Ridker’s impressive, deeply satisfying debut is an extraordinarily insightful look at a family broken apart by loss and struggling to find a way back to each other and themselves.
Ridker is merciless in skewering each member of the family, and nearly every aspect of modern culture, from campus identity politics and the queer dating scene to poorly planned foreign aid missions. The novel’s wickedly dark sense of humor combines with a complex plot to create a compelling debut.
Though bitterness and interpersonal incompetence seem the dominant forces driving these protagonists, their fundamental love for one another prevails. Ridker's debut is at once humorous and poignant; without the author's skill and regard for his creations, this story could easily have slumped into the depressed mode of some of William Goldman's character-driven narratives of decades ago. Thankfully, it doesn't ... For readers drawn to flawed characters and their redemption.
Generosity may be all that gets readers past the novel’s first three chapters, but once this hurdle is cleared, the indulgence will be repaid tenfold in tender and intimate glimpses into the struggling heart of an unhappy family. Ridker’s debut reads like an illness trajectory of a grief-stricken family ... The Altruists becomes stunningly intricate and touching, peeling back the layers of each of the three main characters to reveal the pathology of their personalities ... This allegory at times jumps tactlessly out from behind the intricately woven curtain of the novel’s emotional world, but even this occasional lack of subtlety—a trait deserving of leniency in any first novel—is charming in its sincerity. Ultimately, The Altruists is a tender and evocative, if occasionally obvious, call for universal generosity in a time of change, grief and nationwide emotional tension.
Ridker’s debut is funny. The novel’s is a sort of literary humor that takes aim at the inane preoccupations of the American petty bourgeois: affairs, mortgages, social status, the relative rank of the private university to which your children have been admitted (or not), as well as the particulars of their lives once they are enrolled ... why does The Altruists feel like an otherwise well-crafted novel in search of a hook worth the reader’s time? ... can feel at times so thin, even as it truthfully reconstructs a society we would rather not recognize. It is a humorous elegy to myriad aspects of a dying life in which tenured professors are perennial adjuncts; where private-school-educated youths flee their suburban enclaves and move to the city ... The Altruists is accurate in this sense, but hardly prescient. Where does it all leave a novel that could have been written in 2001?
To enjoy The Altruists, you will need to get past the disgusting fact that the wise, witty book was written by someone who was about 27 when he completed it ... Ridker is preternaturally smart about the traps that even bright people set for themselves, he loves his all of his messed-up characters and he finds hopeful-but-not-unrealistic ways for them to live their better, if not best, lives.
Ridker meticulously peels away the scabs that have grown over the wounds of the surviving Alters, laying bare, with compassion and piercing wit, the long-simmering antagonisms that haunt both father and children. At the same time, he gently hints at a way forward for this decidedly imperfect, but oddly appealing, family. A painfully honest, but tender, examination of how love goes awry in the places it should flourish.
Ridker’s smashing debut follows the travails of the middle-class Jewish Alter family in their quest to discover how to be moral ... Ridker tells his tale with humor, insight, and depth, making this a novel that will resonate with readers.
