Three Stages of Amazement - Carol Edgarian

Crashing financial markets and the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme serve as the backdrop to Carol Edgarian’s Three Stages of Amazement (Scribner, $16)—and also as a mirror for one family’s own series of small implosions. “Cerebral Palsy was a term sometimes used” to describe the condition of Lena Rusch and Charlie Pepper’s ailing elevenmonth old, and her care has become all-consuming. Meanwhile, Charlie’s tech company is faltering and the potential financial fix comes with moral complications. This glimpse of a wealthy San Francisco family in crisis is convincing and finely wrought. While the novel is not a comedy, a scene involving black lingerie and a cell phone in a tree is possibly one of the funniest set-ups in this season’s crop of fiction.