Cutting Teeth

by Julia Fierro

"One of the most anticipated debut novels of 2014, Cutting Teeth takes place one late-summer weekend as a group of thirty-something couples gather at a shabby beach house on Long Island, their young children in tow. Nicole, the hostess, struggles to keep her OCD behaviors unnoticed. Stay-at-home dad Rip grapples with the reality that his careerist wife will likely deny him a second child, forcing him to disrupt the life he loves. Allie, one half of a two-mom family, can't stop imagining ditching her wife and kids in favor of her art. Tiffany, comfortable with her amazing body but not so comfortable in the upper-middle class world the other characters were born into, flirts dangerously, and spars with her best friend Leigh, a blue blood secretly facing financial ruin and dependent on the magical Tibetan nanny everyone else covets. Throughout the weekend, conflicts intensify and painful truths surface. Friendships and alliances crack, forcing the house party to confront a new order. Cutting Teeth is about the complex dilemmas of early midlife--the vicissitudes of friendship, of romantic and familial love, and of sex. It's about class tension, status hunger, and the unease of being in possession of life's greatest bounty while still wondering, is this as good as it gets? And, perhaps most of all, Julia Fierro's warm and unpretentious debut explores the all-consuming love we feel for those we need most, and the sacrifice and compromise that underpins that love."--

"The parents include: --Nicole: the beach house is her parents'. She's made sure to be there for the weekend, terrified by internet rumors that something big and bad is going to happen in New York City that week. --Susanna and Allie: the enviable two-mommy couple with twins, they've tied the knot the day they drove out to Long Island; it's easy to reduce them to a modern urban cliche but nobody sees the reality of their struggles. --Rip: the sole dad in the playgroup, desperate to have a second child, but his take-no-prisoners wife Grace isn't on board; after all, they had to use a sperm donor for Hank, so why does Rip even care? --Tiffany: beyond comfortable with her (amazing) body, she wasn't born into the upper middle class world all the others were; she propelled herself from a chaotic childhood to land a nice life; will what she brings to this weekend blow it all up? --Leigh: has hired the magic nanny everyone wants, and has rubbed that in the other parents' faces by bringing Tenzin along. Tenzin, however, whose own children live thousands of miles away in India, sees the parents from a different perspective. As the weekend unfolds and conflicts intensify, painful truths surface. Friendships crack. Two days together in Eden will change the group forever. A warm, smart and unpretentious literary novel, CUTTING TEETH is involving and thought-provoking, for readers of Tom Perrotta and Meg Wolitzer"--

• ISBN10: 125004202X
• ISBN13: 9781250042026
• Publish Date: 13 May 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 30 June 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St. Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 314
• Language: English

Reviews

[lovelybookshelf]

Originally posted on my blog, A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall:

Cutting Teeth takes place over a single weekend, where a mommy group has gathered for a brief summer retreat at a beach house on Long Island, spouses and children in tow.

What a motley crew! There's a germaphobic doomsday prepper, a stay-at-home dad who struggles with male factor infertility, a lesbian couple, a wealthy family, a family with a developmentally delayed son, strict parents, hands-off parents, and plenty of secrets to go around. These characters are interesting and outrageous. There are ones you'll love and ones you'll hate; but as in real life, it's more complicated than that. There is also a beloved Tibetan nanny who is a breath of fresh air, often balancing out the crazy going on around her.

Cutting Teeth was a fun and enjoyable read, but I have to admit, it also made me feel a little old. I kind of missed out on the mommy group thing when C was younger (thanks, preemie lockdown). Are these groups really full of such mismatched, insecure people? (Also, do adults really text each other using textspeak?)

Even though I often felt incredulous at the way these characters acted, I still found them honest, raw, and believable. We all have irrational fears and insecurities in some form or another, and Fierro taps right into that. It's like she took all the tiny doubts and fears people have in healthy doses, isolated them, and then amplified them to create these characters. It's at once embarrassing, appalling, and utterly fascinating.

If you've spent anytime at all on parenting internet sites (blogs, forums, columns) you'll recognize these characters. What's scary is, you might catch a glimpse of yourself, too.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for my honest review.