Jean Hanff Korelitz's sprawling family novel opens with a car accident that kills two young men and spares a third, Salo Oppenheimer, and follows the fallout across four decades: Salo's marriage to Johanna, the triplets they conceive through early IVF, and the fourth child Johanna has years later out of sheer loneliness once the triplets scatter. It was named a New York Times Notable Book and a New Yorker Best Book of 2022, and it earned a starred Kirkus review -- while also becoming one of the more debated books of its year among readers, many of whom found the Oppenheimer siblings genuinely difficult to spend nearly 500 pages with. This review covers what critics actually said, the real reader numbers, and where that criticism about likability holds up.
What The Latecomer Actually Is
The novel opens with the car accident that kills two of Salo Oppenheimer's college friends and leaves him alive, and the guilt that follows him into a marriage of convenience with Johanna, whom he meets in the accident's aftermath. Unable to conceive naturally, the couple turns to one of the earliest waves of IVF and ends up with triplets -- Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally -- born into enormous wealth and even more enormous emotional distance from both parents and, eventually, from each other. As the triplets grow up in Manhattan and East Hampton, they actively avoid one another, each retreating into a separate identity almost as a defense mechanism, and count down the days until they can leave for separate colleges. Once they do, Johanna -- facing an empty house and a marriage that has quietly hollowed out -- makes the decision to use the couple's one remaining frozen embryo to have a fourth child alone: Phoebe, the latecomer of the title, who arrives more than a decade after her siblings and ends up, almost by accident, becoming the one person capable of holding the fractured family together.
Korelitz builds the book less around plot momentum than around slowly accumulating psychological detail -- what each Oppenheimer is running from, and how a family engineered through medical intervention still ends up shaped by the same old wounds: guilt, favoritism, and the specific loneliness of being one of three when none of the three particularly want each other.
About Jean Hanff Korelitz and Why She Wrote This
Korelitz was born in New York City in 1961 and is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Clare College, Cambridge. She's the New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including You Should Have Known, adapted by HBO as The Undoing starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, and Admission, adapted into a 2013 film starring Tina Fey; her 2021 novel The Plot became a major bestseller in its own right. She lives in New York with her husband, the Irish poet Paul Muldoon, and runs a company called BOOKTHEWRITER that hosts pop-up book groups pairing readers with the authors of new releases. In interviews about The Latecomer, Korelitz has spoken about relating personally to different pieces of each Oppenheimer sibling -- Sally's instinct to hide, Lewyn's sense of inadequacy, even Harrison's disdain for people who don't share his opinions -- describing the triplets less as three separate case studies than as a way of examining different defensive postures a person might take toward family, class, and belonging. The IVF plotline let her dramatize a family that was, in a very literal sense, engineered and planned for, and then ask what happens when that engineering still can't manufacture actual closeness.
How It Compares to The Plot
The Plot, Korelitz's previous novel, is a tightly wound literary thriller about a writer who steals another author's manuscript idea -- fast-moving, plot-driven, built for readers who want momentum. The Latecomer is a different kind of book: a nearly 500-page, multi-generational family novel that trades thriller pacing for accumulated psychological texture. Readers expecting The Plot's propulsion sometimes find The Latecomer's pace slower going, even though several critics, including The New Yorker, specifically praised how the novel unfolds at what they called a thriller's pace despite its length and family-saga structure.
What Critics Actually Said
Rather than inventing a verdict, here's what was actually published about it:
“The novel unfolds at a thriller's pace.”— The New Yorker (Best Books of 2022)
An “immensely enjoyable sojourn with a truly memorable family,” whose lives are “turned inside out.”— Ron Charles, The Washington Post
Kirkus Reviews gave the novel a starred review, and it was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2022 -- real, documented critical recognition beyond the pull-quotes above.
And the aggregate reader picture, for what it's worth:
Where Real Reviews Pushed Back
The most consistent, specific complaint across independent reader reviews is that the Oppenheimers, especially the triplets, are a genuinely hard bunch to like. Harrison in particular draws repeat criticism -- multiple readers describe him as arrogant and difficult to spend time with for nearly the entire book. A related complaint concerns length and structure: at close to 500 pages with a fairly convoluted, non-linear structure, some readers describe the experience as exhausting by the end, even a chore to finish, though others push back that Korelitz is deliberately taking her time to flesh out each character's interior life rather than padding the book unnecessarily. Some readers have defended the unlikability as the point -- the Oppenheimers aren't written to be loved, they're written to be fierce and to fight dirty, and the novel dares you to stick with them anyway. This is a real, split reaction among engaged readers, not a dismissal of the book overall.
On the IVF Plotline and What It Was Built to Examine
The Latecomer is unusually specific about the mechanics of early IVF, and that specificity is deliberate: Salo and Johanna's triplets are the product of one of the earliest waves of the technology, and the extra, unused embryo that becomes Phoebe years later sits in cryogenic storage for over a decade before Johanna decides to use it. Korelitz uses that premise to ask a pointed question about what it means to plan a family this literally and still end up with children who can't stand being in the same room. The novel resists any tidy answer -- the triplets' estrangement from each other isn't explained away by the fertility treatment itself, but by ordinary things: guilt inherited from their father's accident, favoritism, and the specific isolation of being a triplet whose two siblings feel more like rivals than family.
On Phoebe, the Latecomer, and the Family's Late Reckoning
Phoebe, born more than a decade after her triplet siblings and raised largely as an only child once they've scattered for college, becomes the novel's unlikely emotional center in its back half. Arriving into a family that's already fractured, she has none of the triplets' shared history or resentment, which paradoxically makes her the only Oppenheimer capable of seeing the family clearly and, eventually, of pulling some of its estranged members back into the same room. Critics have pointed to this late shift in focus as the novel's most redemptive structural choice -- after hundreds of pages spent inside a family's dysfunction, Korelitz gives readers a character with enough distance from that dysfunction to actually do something about it.
Key Takeaways
- The Oppenheimer triplets are conceived through one of the earliest waves of IVF, with a fourth child born more than a decade later from the couple's last frozen embryo
- The novel was named a New York Times Notable Book and New Yorker Best Book of 2022, backed by a starred Kirkus review
- The most consistent reader criticism is that the triplets, especially Harrison, are genuinely hard to like for most of the book
- At nearly 500 pages with a non-linear structure, some readers find the length exhausting, while others credit it with real, earned character depth
- Phoebe, the title's latecomer, becomes the novel's emotional center and the character with enough distance to help the family reckon with itself
Who This Book Is Actually For
Readers who want a dense, patient family saga willing to sit inside genuinely difficult characters -- particularly anyone drawn to stories about siblings who don't like each other, wealth that can't buy closeness, and the slow work of a family finally reckoning with itself.
Who Should Read Something Else Instead
If you need characters you can root for early on, or prefer a faster, more plot-driven read, the documented criticism above is worth weighing -- Korelitz's own The Plot offers a tighter, more propulsive alternative from the same author.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Named a New York Times Notable Book and a New Yorker Best Book of 2022
- Starred Kirkus review and a strong Washington Post notice from Ron Charles
- Genuinely thoughtful, specific handling of IVF and its emotional aftershocks across a family
- Strong 4.0 Goodreads rating for a dense, nearly 500-page literary novel
- Phoebe's late arrival gives the book a real emotional payoff after a long, difficult setup
Cons:
- Multiple reviewers describe the triplets, especially Harrison, as genuinely hard to like
- The length and non-linear structure feel exhausting to some readers by the back half
- The convoluted structure is a real, recurring complaint even from readers who otherwise enjoyed the book
Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Latecomer actually about?
It follows the wealthy Oppenheimer family of Manhattan and East Hampton: parents Salo and Johanna, who conceive triplets -- Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally -- through early-era IVF after Salo survives a car accident that kills two friends. The triplets grow up desperate to escape each other, and when they finally leave for college, Johanna, facing an empty house, decides to use the couple's one remaining frozen embryo to have a fourth child, the title's latecomer, Phoebe.
What's the actual Goodreads rating?
Right around 4.0 out of 5 from more than 30,000 ratings as of this writing, with slightly different averages reported across the hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook editions -- a strong rating overall for a nearly 500-page literary novel.
Did The Latecomer win any awards or major recognition?
It was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2022 and one of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2022, and received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews. It wasn't a major-prize finalist, but that combination of critical notices is real, documented recognition.
Is it true the characters are hard to like?
Yes, this is one of the most consistent reader complaints, particularly around Harrison, the eldest triplet, who multiple reviewers describe as arrogant and difficult to spend time with. Korelitz herself has acknowledged the siblings are meant to be fierce and difficult -- the novel doesn't ask you to love them so much as understand them.
Sources & Further Reading
- Goodreads — The Latecomer (aggregate rating, reader reviews)
- The Washington Post — review by Ron Charles
- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
- The New Yorker — Best Books of 2022
- Celadon Books — interview with Jean Hanff Korelitz on The Latecomer
- PositiveLifes.com — free inspirational and life-changing PDF books
Final Verdict
The Latecomer backs up its New York Times Notable Book status with real critical weight -- a starred Kirkus review, a warm Washington Post notice, and a spot on The New Yorker's best-of-year list. The reader criticism about the triplets' likability and the book's length is legitimate and worth knowing before you start. But Korelitz isn't asking you to love the Oppenheimers; she's asking you to understand how a family this carefully planned still ends up this fractured, and by the time Phoebe arrives to pull the threads back together, that patience mostly pays off.
Buy Day rating: 8.2/10