Schmidt Delivered

In About Schmidt, Albert Schmidt, proud traditional gentleman and lawyer of the old school, was almost down for the count. The wife he adored was recently dead, his once thriving practice had withered, he had stumbled into early retirement. And relations with his beloved and perfectly bred daughter couldn’t have been worse: she mercilessly decided to marry one of Schmidt’s former partners, a man odious to Schmidt for reasons too shameful to admit. The only glimmer of salvation was his unlikely, and mysteriously dangerous, love affair with Carrie, a Puerto Rican waitress younger than his daughter.

Now, in Schmidt Delivered, Louis Begley revisits his antihero–triumphantly back from the brink–to give us a winning story of how virtue may be rewarded. Within the modest luxury of his Hamptons home, Schmidtie rediscovers domestic bliss, with Carrie. He keeps his own hours and steers his own course, even as he becomes increasingly ensnared by the odd Levantine billionaire Michael Mansour. (Is Mansour a real friend, or just a big cat playing with a WASP mouse?) Among Schmidt’s other satisfactions is the thought of the cold dish of “I told you so” he could serve his yuppie daughter as her marriage founders on a scandal that overwhelms the detested son-in-law. Where will it all lead? Can May and December remain on the same calendar as the sun sets? Will the irrepressible Schmidtie remain content in his deck chair indefinitely?

With all the elegance and mordant wit we have come to expect of him, Louis Begley has created a magnificent story of recovery from late-life disaster.