The novel begins with an arresting first paragraph: The title character, Veblen Amundsen-Hovda, is a charming, underachieving thirtyish woman who translates Norwegian documents as a side job and idolizes her namesake, Thorstein Veblen, the economist who coined the term “conspicuous consumption.” She also talks to squirrels, a habit she picked up during an isolated and difficult childhood with a manipulative and hypochondriac mother, Melanie, and an institutionalized father whom she saw infrequently on court-mandated visits. Once you read Elizabeth McKenzie’s delightful and thought-provoking tale of family dysfunction, you understand the inclination.
Shortly after finishing The Portable Veblen, I was running an errand in Park Slope when I walked by a friendly-looking squirrel and felt the urge to talk to it, tell it a problem or two.
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