Malibu resident Katie Arnoldi examines “the destructive and redemptive nature of a family” in her latest novel, “The Wentworths.”
By Laura Tate / Associate Publisher / Editor
The most dysfunctional, deviant, unhappy and unsavory family that anyone could conjure is found in the novel, “The Wentworths.” Malibu resident Katie Arnoldi, who wrote “Chemical Pink,” a look at the twisted world of bodybuilding, has created some absolutely warped characters in her latest novel, such as the abusive, narcissistic always dieting mother, Judith, the sex-addicted and overweight father, Gus, and the sexually deviant eldest son, Conrad. Also found within the Wentworth family: a kleptomaniac son of the elder Wentworth’s daughter, Becky, who herself is a diet freak and the coldly abusive wife of Paul, one of the most normal characters in the book. Rounding out this wealthy Westside Los Angeles family is the depressed teenage daughter of Becky and Paul, and Norman, the gay son of Judith and Gus, who lives in his own private fantasy world to escape his relentless mother’s abuse. Other sad and scary characters, respectively, are Honey, the 20-something lover (prostitute, rather) of Gus, and Angela, Conrad’s latest sexual conquest, who is as deviant and devious as the Wentworth’s.
The tale of the Wentworth family dynamic within several crises, which end in death, insurrection and some (surprisingly) healing, is “absolutely not based on my family at all, no way,” Arnoldi said in an interview last week.
“However,” she added, “I don’t expect people to believe me …”
Arnoldi went on to explain that even her “intelligent friends… people who know better, think it’s my life.
“People don’t honor the novel the way they used to,” Arnoldi said. [“They ask] who’s this one, who’s that one … it’s a novel, it stands separate from reality … They’re assuming I’m writing about my family. I’m writing about a certain type I am very familiar with. If I came from that kind family there’s no way I could become a writer. I’d be very screwed up, I’d spend my days shopping and on a psychiatrists’ couch.”
It is something she cannot escape, the comparison of her real life to the books she has written. Many thought the weird sexual escapades by the female bodybuilder, Aurora, and events in “Chemical Pink” were experienced by Arnoldi herself, who was a bodybuilder years ago. Not true, she said.
However, she grew up “surrounded by Wentworths,” attending a “fancy private school” on the Westside, and she sent her children to those same schools, and they were also surrounded by Wentworths. “I couldn’t get away from the Wentworths, so I wrote a book about them,” she said.
Arnoldi explained, “There may be a foundation of truth in it [the book], but eventually the characters evolved into their own persons. I don’t’ know a little boy who steals and hordes, the character evolved in [the writing]. That’s how he deals with the dysfunction within in his family.”
The tale in “The Wentworths” is told from several perspectives, bouncing back and forth between the characters in third person format, with the characters even addressing the reader.
“I broke every novel rule,” Arnoldi said. “I didn’t intend to write it like that. I started with third person past tense, but Norman [the gay son] kept insisting on addressing the reader directly, then his sister [did]. I couldn’t corral them into a single format. Then I gave up [and let go].
“Getting the balance within the book was a big challenge,” Arnoldi added. “I’m pretty proud of it, because it does work.”
Of the subject matter she chooses to write about, Arnoldi said, “I have kind of a fascination with subcultures. What’s interesting to me in ‘Chemical Pink’ is the [obsession with the] body … the isolation,” of the characters because of this obsession and “how disturbing it becomes.”
In “The Wentworths,” Arnoldi said she is “examining another weird dark subculture. The driving question, one I’ve been obsessed with for probably 20 years, especially since the birth of my first child, is how do people get so messed up, how do they end up like this, how do their priorities get so skewed?”
Arnoldi said she examines “the destructive and redemptive nature of a family” in her book, noting that parents have a great deal of power and impact on their children.
“It isn’t just about the Wentworths,” she said. “Everyone is reacting to the family they came from, [and] the family they came to, including the housekeeper.” (The housekeeper listens in on the daily family dramas through vents.)
Admitting to the sinister nature of the Wentworth family tale, Arnoldi said, “Everything’s dark and ….things are twisted, but I think it’s funny, don’t you?”
Katie Arnoldi will read passages from and sign her book on Sunday at Diesel, A Bookstore at 3 p.m. More information can be obtained by calling 310.456.9961.