Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur Summary

Wild Game is a memoir exploring Adrienne Brodeur’s complex relationship with her mother, Malabar, who embroiled her in a decades-long affair with her stepfather’s best friend. The book traces how this secret shaped Brodeur’s adolescence, marriages, and mental health, ultimately examining themes of loyalty, betrayal, and resilience. Written with raw honesty, it exposes the blurred lines between love and manipulation in familial bonds.

This memoir resonates with readers interested in dysfunctional family dynamics, mother-daughter relationships, or psychological memoirs. Fans of Educated or The Glass Castle will appreciate its unflinching exploration of emotional manipulation and personal redemption. It’s also valuable for those studying memoir writing or moral ambiguity in storytelling.

Yes, Wild Game is a nonfiction account of Brodeur’s life, recounting her mother’s affair and its fallout. The author draws from personal journals and memories, offering a candid reflection on her role as both accomplice and victim in the family drama. Its factual basis amplifies its emotional impact.

Key themes include:

• Moral ambiguity: The affair is portrayed as neither purely destructive nor romanticized.
• Parental influence: How Malabar’s choices distorted Brodeur’s understanding of love and loyalty.
• Resilience: Brodeur’s journey to reclaim her identity beyond her mother’s shadow.

The memoir dissects the toxic codependency between Brodeur and Malabar, showcasing how a parent’s emotional needs can override a child’s boundaries. Malabar’s manipulation—casting Adrienne as her confidante—reveals the lasting scars of inverted caregiving roles. Critics praise it as a landmark study of maternal influence gone awry.

Cape Cod serves as both a picturesque backdrop and a metaphor for hidden tensions. The seaside setting contrasts with the family’s emotional chaos, symbolizing the divide between outward privilege and inner turmoil. Key moments, like the midnight confession, occur here, anchoring the story’s pivotal events.

Memorable lines include:

• “Ben Souther just kissed me”—the confession that upends Brodeur’s adolescence.
• “I’d become an expert in my mother’s happiness”—highlighting the cost of her complicity.

These quotes underscore the book’s focus on secrecy and emotional labor.

Brodeur’s prose is lyrical yet clinical, blending vivid scene-setting with psychological analysis. Her ability to humanize flawed characters—particularly Malabar—adds depth to the narrative. The memoir reads like literary fiction, balancing suspense and introspection.

Some readers find the relentless focus on Malabar’s narcissism emotionally exhausting. Others question Brodeur’s delayed accountability for her role in the affair. However, most praise its unflinching honesty and structural craft, with BookPage calling it a “remarkable story of resilience.”

Unlike trauma-centric memoirs, Wild Game emphasizes nuanced moral reckoning over victimhood. Its focus on complicity aligns it with The Liars’ Club, while its Cape Cod setting invites comparisons to Elena Ferrante’s coastal dramas. The book stands out for its exploration of active participation in familial dysfunction.

• The danger of conflating love with loyalty to harmful secrets.
• The importance of establishing emotional boundaries, even with family.
• Resilience as an ongoing process rather than a single triumph.

As the founder of Zoetrope: All-Story, a literary magazine, Brodeur brings a novelist’s eye to pacing and symbolism. Her editorial expertise sharpens the memoir’s structure, transforming personal pain into a universally resonant narrative about self-discovery.