The line between keeper and kept is nearly invisible in Jami Attenberg’s compelling dissection of marital life. The story revolves around Martin Miller, a successful 30-something artist left comatose by a brain aneurysm. His wife, Jarvis, has been selling his work to support herself and pay for Martin’s care, but is otherwise frozen. This isn’t wholly new. Impervious to feminism, Jarvis has played caretaker and muse for her entire life. Six years into Martin’s deterioration, however, she’s sad and lonely, at least until she meets three handsome house-husbands — the trio-turned-foursome meet at the laundromat each Tuesday — who jolt her out of her funk. Despite rescue fantasies, this damsel in distress is saved by neither knights in shining armor nor wise male oracles. Instead, circumstances force her to parse ideas about death, politics, family, friendship and taking charge. Never preachy or sappy, The Kept Man testifies to the power of human connections. At the same time, it captures Williamsburg’s gentrifying grit and gives readers a believable, if at times frustratingly unproductive, heroine to root for.
