The Portable Veblen: A Novel
by Elizabeth McKenzie
Buy on AmazonMeet Veblen. She's an experienced cheerleader (mainly of her narcissistic, hypochondriac, controlling mother), an amateur translator, and a passionate defender of the anti-consumerist views of her namesake, the economist Thorstein Veblen. She's also a firm believer in the distinct possibility that the plucky grey squirrel following her around can understand everything she says
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"Elizabeth McKenzie’s quirky romantic comedy is a frisky charmer about a brainy, off-center couple who face up to their differences – and their difficult, eccentric families – only after they become engaged. In a nutshell, she – named for the Norwegian American economist and social critic Thorstein Veblen — values life’s simpler offerings, including the friendship of a squirrel who’s taken up residence in her attic. He’s an ambitious neurologist tempted by the spoils of his potentially lucrative life-saving invention. The novel is ultimately a morality tale about the values by which we choose to live, but it’s deliciously madcap and whimsical."
NPR Books We Love — 2016 · apps.npr.org