Our Next-Door Neighbors

Five boys moving in next door bring fresh complications to the comfortable household of Lucien Wade and his wife Silvia. Married for ten years and living in a small city, the couple approach children differently: Lucien welcomes them easily, while Silvia struggles to overcome the effects of her own isolated upbringing. Belle Kanaris Maniates builds her comic novel around their encounters with the Polydore family, whose children rapidly become a demanding part of everyday life.

Lucien tells the story with an eye for domestic arguments, awkward assumptions and plans that go astray. The boys take their schemes into the woods, where fishing and a raft accompany a ghost they have devised themselves. Questions about their supplies and travel expenses bring a bank check into the conversation, while Beth and Rob add further tension to the gathering. The appeal lies in the exchanges between resourceful children and adults trying to keep their arrangements under control.