read: the privileges
Jonathan Dee's examination of the titular privileges, and the wealthy family that enjoys them, is refreshingly humane in its survey and nuanced in its portraiture. The novel's final third unfortunately veers into manufactured suspense—scenes literally cycling like the climax clockwork of a Michael Crichton thriller—till everything comes to an abrupt and thudding conclusion that feels unnecessarily deterministic yet unsatisfyingly incomplete. The good parts, however, deserve notice. This is seventy percent of a great novel.