Alan opts out : a novel / Courtney Maum.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In this timely and comedic take on ambition, consumerism, and the sticker price of privilege, an ad exec who bombs the biggest pitch of his career decides to forgo capitalism and live off the land of his suburban Connecticut home. Perfect for readers of Rufi Thorpe and Taffy Brodesser-Akner.



Alan Anderson is a powerful advertising executive who has built a successful life and thriving business by making people buy stuff they don't actually need. He's up for the biggest pitch of his career and the account everyone wants, US Dairy: cow's milk sales are plummeting, and the C-Suite wants to see trendy oat milk kicked to the curb. But when an anarchist farmer tanks Alan's presentation, Alan bombs the pitch but ends the day with an epiphany. No longer will he exploit the insecurities of others in the service of capitalism. Alan is opting out.



This development is anathema to his wife, Vivian. She's just a few positive affirmations, a swimming pool, and an exacting series of social tests away from finally becoming part of the elite women's club, the Queen Annes, in their adopted town of Greenwich, Connecticut. As if contending with a daughter who wants to write plays (!) and another who has an unnatural empathy with animals isn't enough to manage, she can only watch as Alan moves into their backyard playhouse to live off the land and--worse--spend time with the family. But instead of shocking the neighbors, Alan's commitment to a less-is-more lifestyle seems to be catching on. Could everyone want what Alan's not selling?



Funny, sexy, intelligent, and poignant, Alan Opts Out is the most ambitious novel to date by celebrated author Courtney Maum, acclaimed for her stories that tackle big, chewy subjects of our post-modern America with wit and heart.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

The first pages of Maum's (Costalegre) ambitious, timely novel feel a little overblown (one example is a reference to "penile shafts of grass"), but it soon becomes a worthy post-pandemic successor to great American epics of suburbia and consumer culture, such as Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, as well as a critique of more recent trends, with moments that readers of Olivie Blake's Gifted and Talented will appreciate. Maum shows what happens when top ad exec Alan Anderson delivers a pitch that fails. The campaign to repopularize milk goes awry when an anarchist farmer goes off script, a move that wrecks Alan's career and sends him into a spiral that includes opting out of capitalism. The novel alternates between Alan's story and his wife Vivian's desperate struggle to fit in with the community's exclusive group, the Queen Annes--whose banter seems script-ready for a Nicole Kidman adaptation. VERDICT Maum delivers a sharp critique of capitalism and the sacrifices people make to find a sense of belonging, without ever sounding preachy or losing the pacing of this novel. Readers will drink up this novel faster than a cool glass of their dairy-free beverage of choice.--Emily Bowles

Publishers Weekly Review

An advertising executive's exasperation with the business world strains his marriage in this pitch-perfect satire from Maum (Touch). Fifty-something Alan Anderson toils ceaselessly on his firm's pitch for a pro-milk campaign, hoping to garner his 10th industry excellence award and quell his nagging fear that "something dark" is approaching. He also plans to reinvigorate his stagnant marriage to Vivian, his wife of almost 20 years, by giving her the backyard swimming pool she longs for at their opulent home in Greenwich, Conn. Meanwhile, Vivian treads water raising their two daughters, 15 and 12, and obsesses over becoming one of their seaside neighborhood's Queen Annes, an elite group of wives chosen by chic Whitby, their "bully, princess, icon." After Alan's bid for the milk campaign curdles, he retreats to his daughters' backyard playhouse, where he finds himself in a "poetic mood." He decides to drop out of the rat race and live there, unplugged from the family's smarthome, leaving Vivian unmoored and slipping deeper into Whitby's orbit. Packed with Maum's gimlet-eyed observations on the "futile" and "absurd" nature of Alan's work and Vivian's indefatigable social aspirations, the novel offers a fierce and funny portrait of late-stage capitalism and its limited supply of happiness. It's a gem. Agent: Rebecca Gradinger, UTA. (June)

Booklist Review

Set in a picture-perfect stretch of suburban Connecticut, Maum's newest novel (after her memoir, The Year of the Horses, 2022) moves quickly and leans into sharp observations of the American dream. Viv and Alan live an orderly, successful life until Alan, an advertising executive, abruptly decides to opt out of modern comforts and live off the land in their backyard. He sets up camp in their daughters' playhouse and adopts a pet lobster. At the same time, Viv focuses on gaining entry into the town's most exclusive women's group, the Queen Annes. As Alan's experiment grows more serious and Viv's plans begin to unravel, imperfections beneath the town and its residents' polished exteriors start to show. Maum uses neighborhood social media group discourse to spotlight unhealthy habits and quiet social competitions, drawing attention to self-help podcasts playing on repeat, stacks of Amazon packages, and the careful routines that shape suburban life. Witty dialogue between characters alongside the internal monologues of Alan and Viv highlight the absurdities of consumer culture and social status. Maum's writing relies on humor and quick pacing to examine consumption, ambition, and social performance, presenting a study of suburban life that questions the cost of success and perfection.

Kirkus Book Review

Consumerism, class snobbery, and greed are major targets--along with bad manners and scam artists--in this social satire set among the moneyed denizens of Belleport, a gated community in post-pandemic Greenwich, Connecticut. The Belleport women's chat group serves as an effective Greek chorus, not only commenting on events but subtly offering hints to attentive readers about revelations to come. Many of those events and revelations revolve around Alan and Vivian Anderson, a Midwestern couple who relocated from Chicago to Belleport four years earlier, just as Covid-19 hit. Creative director of the successful ad agency he co-owns, 50-ish Alan is used to winning international awards and giant accounts like John Deere. Driven by equally grand but more domestic ambitions, Vivian has set out to rebrand herself as a New England socialite despite her humble working-class background. She has scheduled the building of an expensive swimming pool and, more importantly, has positioned herself to enter the fastidiously cutthroat competition for admission to Belleport's exclusive women's social club, the Queen Annes. Inevitably, Alan and Vivian find themselves at cross purposes. Alan loses the $14,000,000 U.S. Dairy account when a farmer named Daniel Ellery, meant to represent an ordinary dairy farmer at Alan's big pitch, instead proclaims that the world needs less milk, less advertising, less excess all-around. Initially despondent, Alan begins to agree with Daniel. He dons a flowing white shirt, stops wearing shoes, and moves into the abandoned playhouse in the backyard. Vivian believes her dreams are being thwarted by Alan, but also by her daughters. Fifteen-year-old Bailey's "kinesthetic learning style" is unacceptable at Greenwich's best private school, and 12-year-old Sunny can talk to animals, a bizarre twist within a generally realistic novel. The tone proves confusing. Alan, Vivian, and the insufferable Queen Anne matriarchs are initially drawn in harsh, cartoonish strokes, but Maum then pulls back on the snark, ultimately asking readers to empathize with the clueless, privileged residents of Belleport. Brittle lampooning mellows into domestic comedy complete with talking animals and a fairy-tale ending. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.