Good Company is a sweeter novel [than The Nest], gentler all around, though the stakes are higher than the disappointments of a few middle-aged leeches ... For most readers...Good Company will resonate as a story about those rare choices that define life by cleanly dividing it into Before and After ... It’s a moment caught in time, but its meaning is informed by everything around it ... this novel plays with time in a similarly complex way, moving back into the history of a small group to bring everything to bear on the perfectly staged image of 'the couple everyone wanted to be' ... There are no villains in Good Company, which only makes the theme of betrayal more poignant—and more realistic ... Sweeney’s effectiveness as a novelist stems from her protean sympathy, her ability to move among these characters and capture each one’s feelings without judgment ... we get a poignant, sometimes comic sense of the way we each experience the same events, the same decisions, the same mistakes.
... as the book delves into their long history, old and new dramas emerge. Company is less immediately grabby than Sweeney's great 2016 breakout The Nest. But her warmth and wit refresh a tale as old as time.
Sweeney once again flexes her talent for crafting loving family dynamics that splinter due to errant behavior ... Sweeney skillfully navigates the narrow path between literary and commercial fiction with plenty of wit, warmth, heartache and joy. Like a comfy armchair, this is a novel you can sink into and enjoy. Good company, indeed.
... smoothly constructed ... Where The Nest was feathered with writers and publishing people, Good Company presents a roster of actors – stage, small screen, and voiceover. These are not superstars, and Sweeney deftly captures not just the different kinds of work actors do, but the grind of auditions, variable employment, and hard-earned mid-level success ... She handles the 'financial crevasse' between Margot and Flora in Good Company with similar aplomb – but also, with a surprising absence of friction ... as carefully constructed as a well-made play, and it runs without hitches ... But with the exception of a malign seductress, the characters are just too nice – which can be a comfort, but also a drama killer. The symbolism of a dying hemlock is ridiculously heavy handed, though not enough to make us laugh. Margot’s husband, a doctor, the fourth member of their quartet, has an interesting backstory, but he’s a cipher in this narrative ... It all adds up to a relaxing read that echoes Flora’s take on Margot’s tastefully remodeled house – beige and bland, 'polished but somehow devoid of personality.' Even with Flora’s anger and sorrow, there’s little heat. The result is OK but not great company.
... rich with such biblical qualities ... The constant internal struggle between what the heart wants versus what it should be grateful it already has serves as the primary emotional engine of Good Company. (There is also a heart leitmotif — a heart attack, a heart-shaped locket, an infant heart surgery patient — that is administered perhaps a bit too thickly) ... If this sounds like promotional copy for a Netflix poster, well … success! Reading Good Company, I found myself mentally auditioning actors for the inevitable series. Tellingly, I did not find myself imagining more than a handful of actual, real-time scenes, because the book doesn’t have all that many. Much of the first third of the novel is taken up with back story ... the behind-the-scenes machinations of the 'Cedar' set offer moments of delicious satire ... Sweeney is uncommonly skilled at gently lampooning Hollywood ... Good Company, with its pre-scouted locations and fully rendered characters looking for things to do, is a promising piece of I.P. Sweeney may or may not have screenwriting ambitions, but I’d love to see her do something with it.
Masterfully building character (although Julian and David get the short shrift) and dropping revelations through flashbacks, D’Aprix Sweeney’s writing is smooth and propelling. Readers of introspective, relational novels will devour this.
... the characters' working worlds are depicted in absorbing detail ... this novel is far quieter than Sweeney's hit debut...and the characters are less well developed. We should know Flora best, but Margot is more clearly drawn (which would be no surprise to Flora, always second fiddle). While a little thin, plotwise, Sweeney's second novel lives up to its title: warm, witty, and interesting.
... disappointing ... While the deliciously flawed characters are well developed, the lackluster climax and drawn-out therapy scenes involving Flora and Julian are less successful. In the end, readers will long for more drama in a story of people whose lives are steeped in it.
