# Wild Game

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{{Short description|2019 memoir by Adrienne Brodeur}}
{{for|the Icelandic film|Wild Game (film)}}
{{tone|date=September 2020}}

{{Infobox book
| name              = Wild Game
| title_orig        = 
| translator        = 
| image             = File:Wild Game.jpg
| caption           = First edition
| author            = [Adrienne Brodeur](/source/Adrienne_Brodeur)
| illustrator       = 
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = United States
| language          = English
| subject           = 
| genre             = [Memoir](/source/Memoir)
| publisher         = [Mariner Books](/source/Mariner_Books) (US)<br>[Chatto & Windus](/source/Chatto_%26_Windus) (UK)
| release_date      = October 15, 2019
| english_release_date = 
| media_type        = Print ([hardcover](/source/hardcover))
| pages             = 234
| isbn              = 978-0-358-36132-9
| dewey             = 
| congress          = 
| oclc              = 
| preceded_by       = 
| followed_by       = <!--for books in a series-->
}}
'''''Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me''''' is a 2019 [memoir](/source/memoir) by American writer [Adrienne Brodeur](/source/Adrienne_Brodeur). It recounts the author's collision with her mother, Malabar Brewster, to conceal an [affair](/source/affair) Brewster was having while Brodeur was a teenager.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/17/archives/mrs-malabar-s-brodeur-rewed.html |title=Mrs. Malabar S. Brodeur Rewed |work=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times) |date=1974-03-17 |accessdate=2020-05-01}} - This marriage announcement is mentioned in the [https://www.npr.org/2019/10/17/770911878/a-daughter-becomes-an-accomplice-to-her-mothers-affair-in-wild-game Masad NPR article].</ref>

==Plot==
In ''Wild Game'', Brodeur recounts how Brodeur helped her mother conceal her affair beginning in 1980 when Brodeur was 14.<ref name="Haupt">{{cite web |author=Haupt, Jennifer |date=2019-10-15 |title=Adrienne Brodeur Talks About Keeping Her Mother’s Secrets |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/one-true-thing/201910/adrienne-brodeur-talks-about-keeping-her-mother-s-secrets |accessdate=2020-05-01 |work=[Psychology Today](/source/Psychology_Today)}}</ref><ref name="Ermelino">{{cite web |author=Ermelino, Louisa |date=2019-05-24 |title=Adrienne Brodeur Relives a Lie-Laden Childhood In 'Wild Game' |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/openbook/article/80176-adrienne-brodeur-relives-a-lie-laden-childhood-in-wild-game.html |accessdate=2021-06-14 |work=[Publishers Weekly](/source/Publishers_Weekly)}}</ref> Brodeur's mother Malabar Brewster was a food writer for ''[The Boston Globe](/source/The_Boston_Globe),'' <ref name="Winik">{{cite web|author=Winik, Marion|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/wild-game-is-an-eloquent--and-lurid--tale-of-a-mother-daughter-bond-gone-awry/2019/10/10/b9dd366e-ce5a-11e9-b29b-a528dc82154a_story.html|title=‘Wild Game’ is an eloquent — and lurid — tale of a mother-daughter bond gone awry|work=[The Washington Post](/source/The_Washington_Post)|date=2019-10-11|accessdate=2021-06-14}}</ref> and the book's title comes from the name of an unproduced cookbook Brewster planned to write with her husband, Charles, her lover, Ben Southern, a hunter, and Ben's wife, Lily.<ref name="Winik" />

Though Brodeur used her parents' real names, she changed the names of other parties featured in the story.<ref name="Masad">{{cite web |author=Masad, Ilana |date=2019-10-17 |title=A Daughter Becomes An Accomplice To Her Mother's Affair In 'Wild Game' |url=https://www.npr.org/2019/10/17/770911878/a-daughter-becomes-an-accomplice-to-her-mothers-affair-in-wild-game |accessdate=2020-05-01 |work=[National Public Radio](/source/National_Public_Radio)}}</ref>

Brodeur stated that her mother supported her efforts to have the book written. However, by the time it was completed, Brewster's dementia had worsened to the point she could not read the book.<ref name=NPRInterview>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/10/15/770417143/author-adrienne-brodeur-on-her-new-memoir-wild-game|title=Author Adrienne Brodeur On Her New Memoir 'Wild Game'|work=[NPR](/source/NPR)|date=2019-10-15|accessdate=2020-05-01}}</ref><ref name=Black>{{cite web|author=Black, Emily Rapp|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/books/review/wild-game-adrienne-brodeur.amp.html|title=A Mother’s Secrets, a Daughter’s Lies|work=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)|date=2019-10-15|accessdate=2020-05-01}}</ref>

==Reception==
''Wild Game'' was named a national bestseller.<ref name=Barnes&Noble>{{cite web|url=https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wild-game-adrienne-brodeur/1130010789|title=Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me|website=www.barnesandnoble.com|accessdate=2021-06-06}}</ref> It won the [New England Society of New York](/source/New_England_Society_of_New_York) 2020 Book Award in the nonfiction category <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nesnyc.org/2020-book-awards-winners|title=2020 Book Awards Winners |work=[New England Society of New York](/source/New_England_Society_of_New_York)|accessdate=2021-06-06}}</ref> and was ranked by ''[People](/source/People_(magazine))'' as one of the 10 best books of 2019.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hubbard | first=Kim|url=https://people.com/books/10-best-books-of-2019|title=The 10 Best Books of 2019 |work=[People](/source/People_(magazine)) |date=12 December 2019 |accessdate=2021-06-06}}</ref> ''[Amazon](/source/Amazon_(company))'' also ranked ''Wild Game'' as a best book of 2019.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-best-books-2019|last=McIntee| first=Dominique|title=The 10 best books of 2019, according to Amazon |work=[Business Insider](/source/Business_Insider) |date=13 November 2019 |accessdate=2021-06-06}}</ref>

The book received positive reviews from critics. In her ''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'' review, Rapp Black wrote, "The book is so gorgeously written and deeply insightful, and with a line of narrative tension that never slacks, from the first page to the last, that it’s one you’ll likely read in a single, delicious sitting." She also praised the way Brodeur "does not reject her mother, [...] but neither does she become her or soft-pedal the ways in which Malabar continues to wound her."<ref name=Black/>

Jennifer Haupt of ''[Psychology Today](/source/Psychology_Today)'' wrote that the book is "inspiring" and "moving, masterful."<ref name="Haupt" /> In a review published in ''[The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)'', Elizabeth Lowry called the book, "Polished but very dark [...] A memoir of sex, animal innards and a daughter who is too polite to her narcissist mother."<ref>{{Cite news|date=24 January 2020 |last=Lowry|first=Elizabeth|title=Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur review – the reader wants to scream|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/24/wild-game-adrienne-brodeur-review|access-date=2021-12-28|work=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

''[Publishers Weekly](/source/Publishers_Weekly)'', which deemed it a featured book, wrote that it is "page-turning" and "This layered narrative of deceit, denial, and disillusionment is a surefire bestseller."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-328-51903-0|title=Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me |work=[Publishers Weekly](/source/Publishers_Weekly)|date=18 April 2019 |accessdate=2020-05-01}}</ref> Ilana Masad of ''[National Public Radio](/source/National_Public_Radio)'' stated that the novel, "for all its luscious prose and tantalizing elements, is ultimately about the slow and painful process of losing a mother."<ref name=Masad/> Masad wrote that the work "reads very much like a novel with a first-person narrator."<ref name=Masad/>

==Film adaptation==
In 2018 it was announced that [Kelly Fremon Craig](/source/Kelly_Fremon_Craig) would be adapting the book into a film for [Chernin Entertainment](/source/Chernin_Entertainment).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/edge-seventeen-filmmaker-chernin-entertainment-team-wild-game-1078355|date=January 25, 2018|accessdate=April 2, 2018|work=[The Hollywood Reporter](/source/The_Hollywood_Reporter)|title='Edge of Seventeen' Filmmaker, Chernin Entertainment Team for 'Wild Game'|first=Borys|last=Kit}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:2019 non-fiction books
Category:American memoirs
Category:English-language non-fiction books
Category:Mariner Books books
Category:Chatto & Windus books

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Wild Game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Game) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Game?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.