Title: The Portable Veblen

Author: Elizabeth McKenzie

Publisher: Penguin Press January 19, 2016

Genre: Literary Fiction

A Veblen?

I had no idea when I picked up this book what the heck a Veblen was, much less a portable one. I also wondered whether the content could possibly live up to the Veblenesque mystery and the adorable squirrel on the cover?

Don’t worry, readers! I can say now that this intoxicatingly charming introduction of Veblen to the world is all, and more, that it should be. It is not just a story about a unique and wonderful girl and her humanly delightful fiancé, their strange—very strange– families, tradition, war, truth, money, principles, defiance, supplication, and the cost of success, but it also offers a fantastic view of the world the quirky characters inhabit as life changes for them in expected and yet thoroughly surprising ways. There are even squirrels.

Read it for some of the best dialogue ever to make you sigh, cringe, and laugh out loud in public.

Penguin Press provided an advance copy for free in exchange for an honest review.