Books: “Standard Deviation” by Katherine Heiny

New Yorkers are a curious breed. Sondheim knew this when he and George Furth created the characters in “Company.” But nobody catalogues the foibles, ironies, and curiosities of New Yorkers like Katherine Heiny does in her 2017 novel “Standard Deviation.”

How far are Graham, a fifty-something medical researcher, and his thirty-something second wife Audra, off the norm? Well, before answering that, let’s admit we all know people like Audra. She’s the kind of nicey-nice person that knows as much about the personal lives of her fellow coop shareholders than the typical New York doorman. She’s the kind of Manhattanite who overshares details of a friend’s sex life, out loud, during a marriage ceremony.

Graham is the straight man in this belly-laugh-a minute tale. He’s so bewildered by Audra’s inability to filter herself that he’s momentarily drawn back to his icy first wife Elspeth. Elspeth is so anal-compulsive, she used to wait till her ex moved a piece of furniture the way he liked it, then later moved the furniture back the way she liked it.

Their son Matthew is on the spectrum and needs outside interests to engage in. So he falls in with a bunch of origami nerds who can’t understand why everyone on earth can’t fold a square of paper into sixty-fourths. Matthew has a friend nicknamed Derek Rottweiler because he looks like—wait for it—a Rottweiler, and who shows all the signs of becoming the next John Gotti.

The eccentric characters in “Standard Deviation” (who by the way are miles away from anything standard, thank goodness) are nothing you haven’t seen in John Irving’s early works, or in the short stories of Flannery O’Connor, or in the cartoons that populate a typical issue of The New Yorker. But Heiny’s deadpan,

snarky powers of observation make her characters a cut above all the others. Here’s an example:  “Graham liked making tea. He liked cooking, he liked baking, he liked food, he liked kitchens. In another life, he would have made an excellent owner of a safe house in the Underground Railroad.”

Reading a book by Katharine Heiny (“Early Morning Riser” is another one I loved) is like gossip-IM’ing with a co-worker during a particularly boring Zoom call. You never stop laughing, but you must remember to remain on mute. Oh, and be sure you don’t have a chest cold while reading “Standard Deviation” because you may crack a rib from laughing so hard. I’m considering heading to the doctor to make sure I’m still okay.