Let’s start with the title, which is the line of some very funny memes; that will give you the sense of this novel. Here’s a hot mess (please pardon the puns, as they are hard to avoid), but we’re dancing as fast as we can over here to distract, a strategy used by dysfunctional families and politicians, both of which get skewered (there I go again) in this darkly funny book.

Lillian Breaker (as in circuit breaker, to avoid a fire?) is from a poor, neglected background in small town Tennessee, daughter of a single mom who largely raised herself and took care of her mom and an assortment of boyfriends. Lillian managed to get a break for herself, winning a free ride to Iron Mountain Girls Prep School, a high school that would give her a shot at college and a life of her own. Lillian’s unusually tight relationship with her roommate Madison proves her undoing, when she takes the fall for Madison’s experimentation with cocaine, and gets kicked out. Madison is from a wealthy family with high expectations, and her father gladly pays off Lillian’s mom for covering his daughter’s misdeed. Lillian’s life falls off the tracks, as she works minimum wage jobs, and lives in her mom’s attic.

Oddly, Madison remains in contact with Lillian, suggesting that the affection between them may be more than friends, but more than either will admit. Madison’s inevitable rise leads to her marriage to Jasper Roberts, U.S. Senator, presidential cabinet hopeful, as well as presidential material himself. All Jasper needs is the ambitious Madison to clean up his life, advise him, and seize the opportunities he is born to, but too wimpy or stupid to achieve for himself. Now things start to get weird— Jasper dumped his first wife and twin 5-year old son and daughter one day when the kids caught on fire. Oh yes, Bessie and Roland self-ignite, with no personal harm, but plenty of potential chaos around them. As this does not fit Jasper’s personal ambitions, this problem could not be his fault and is dismissed. This problem will not go away, however, as the ex inconveniently dies, leaving the problem back in his court (another pun, as Lillian and Madison are terrific basketball players, and quite competitive.)

Madison, ever the uber-fixer, pulls Lillian back into her life, offering her scads of money to be Mary Poppins to the twins for a summer, in a guest house on their Tennessee estate, while Madison scrambles to find a solution. Jasper is up for the position of Secretary of State, so flaming children is highly inconvenient. Madison has a son with Jasper, 5-year old Timothy, a weird little dude in his own right. Funny, Timothy is the same age as the twins when they flamed out— could it really have been Jasper’s privileged genes that started the fire? Lillian, needy in a charming way, manages to figure out how to soothe the neglected twins into a cooler disposition, empathetically giving them the caring , attention, and affection they have sadly missed. Once the twins grow to trust Lillian, they return the affection.

This hilarious satire of old moneyed privilege, dysfunctional families, and political expedience doesn’t get too much wrong. While some may question how easily Madison reels Lillian back into her life, I can see the logic— Lillian had no caring attachment to anyone until Madison, with whom she bonds to the point of romance. She is like her first love. While experiencing neglect and selfishness from her mother, this is the only type of caring she knows or understands. Of course she would respond to Madison’s bad treatment and failure to apologize. Besides, what else did she have going on in her life? Her self esteem was so low, she was an easy get. A quick and fun read, I highly recommend this book.