McMansion Lit

The New York Times' Janet Maslin reviews two "comic novels that take aim at the same monstrosity: the McMansion." One, Roger Rosenblatt's "Lapham Rising" is really a satire of Hamptons society. But Debra Galant's "Rattled,set in a New Jersey exurb, puts the self-righteous householders on the barbecue: "Out of their S.U.V. and into Galapagos Estates come Kevin and Heather Peters and their problem child, a boy who requires the services of a "$175-an-hour 'worry doctor'," writes Maslin. The couple's life melts down when it is discovered that their home has been built in the middle of a protected rattlesnake habitat.

Maslin goes easy on her former colleague Galant, who wrote a Times column on suburban living for five years. Other reviewers, however, have noted that Galant's novel has all the depth of the architectural style in which it is set. Says the U.K. review site Monsters and Critics. "For the most part, [Galant] paints the semi-fictional Hebron Township in strokes broad enough to cover the side of a newly renovated multimillion-dollar barn/loft. "