The Cave Dwellers, Christina McDowell
The Cave Dwellers, Christina McDowell
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
Club: $12.99

The Cave Dwellers

Author: Christina McDowell

Narrator: Madeleine Maby

Unabridged: 10 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/25/2021


Synopsis

This “delicious take on the one percent in our nation’s capital” (Town & Country) and clever combination of The Bonfire of the Vanities and The Nest explores what high society members do behind the closed doors of their stately homes in Washington, DC.

They are the families considered worthy of a listing in the exclusive Green Book—a discriminative diary created by the niece of Edith Roosevelt’s social secretary. Their aristocratic bloodlines are woven into the very fabric of Washington—generation after generation. Their old money and manner lurk through the cobblestone streets of Georgetown, Kalorama, and Capitol Hill. They only socialize within their inner circle, turning a blind eye to those who come and go on the political merry-go-round. These parents and their children live in gilded existences of power and privilege.

But what they have failed to understand is that the world is changing. And when the family of one of their own is held hostage and brutally murdered, everything about their legacy is called into question in this unputdownable novel that “combines social satire with moral outrage to offer a masterfully crafted, absorbing read that can simply entertain on one level and provoke reasoned discourse on another” (Booklist, starred review).

About Christina McDowell

Christina McDowell is the author of the critically acclaimed book, After Perfect: A Daughter’s Memoir, as well as the author of The Cave Dwellers. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post; The New York Times; Los Angeles Times; HuffPost; The Guardian; People; LA Weekly; Marie Claire; USA TODAY; and The Village Voice, among others. Born and raised in Washington, DC, Christina is an advocate for restorative justice and criminal justice reform. She lives in Washington, DC.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ron

Christina McDowell was used to getting extraordinary gifts from her father, Washington lawyer Thomas Prousalis Jr. To celebrate her graduation from high school, she got a BMW. One Christmas morning, he gave her a Hermés Birkin bag. And then there was that time McDowell discovered Dad had given her $......more

Goodreads review by Natalie

I started out loving this book until the author hurried the story under endless names and characters. The author clearly has a purpose of uncovering the extreme white privilege that surround those who live in Washington DC. The inspiration was the story of a home invasion in posh, posh DC which beca......more

Goodreads review by Jessica

This is a good start. But this is one of those books that ends when the story is just getting interesting. It is biting, so willing to be harsh that it can actually throw you a bit. Books are rarely this straightforwardly mean, but people are. And that's part of the point. (It also opens with a very......more

Goodreads review by Susan

Having lived in the Washington area my entire life I had high expectations for this book. Alas, it is more salacious than substantial and frankly disappointing.......more


Quotes

"Madeleine Maby narrates this layered satirical novel with a strong sense of story and a fine ability to get inside her characters' psyches. Her emulations of Washington, DC's, powerful and power hungry are nuanced. Her performance reveals the vapid sound of the social climber and the angst of the teenager."