Novelist David Desmond mines satire in Palm Beach
Daily News Fashion Editor
In his just-released first novel, islander David Desmond took on settings and subjects he knows well. A clinical psychologist who moved to Palm Beach three years ago to become a full-time writer, Desmond, who also keeps a place in Paris, set the action of his satirical tale The Misadventures of Oliver Booth in the towns he's come to call home.
The novel's title character is "an arrogant, garishly dressed, slightly shady antiques dealer on Worth Avenue," said Desmond, 47, who is originally from New York City and happens to be nephew of island celebrity Donald Trump.
His familiarity with the Palm Beach scene dates to Desmond's childhood years, when he would accompany his grandparents on vacations to The Breakers. The book has been percolating in his head for years, but he wasn't able to focus on it while working as a medical researcher who wrote extensively on brain function, especially with regard to stroke and Alzheimer's disease. "Writing a novel is quite different than writing for a medical journal," he said. "You are freer in terms of structure and can express your sense of humor."
When he, his wife, Lisa, and their son relocated from their Manhattan apartment to the island, he was able to shift his attention to his sidelined passion, fiction writing. "We moved here for several reasons: A desire for better weather, to be away from the stress of living day to day in the city, to attain a greater sense of security after September 11, and for a new adventure," Desmond said.
Desmond never studied writing. "I think the only way for me to learn to write fiction was by reading as much of it as possible," he said. "I'm a voracious reader."
He started writing almost immediately after settling in Palm Beach, but the process of engaging an agent and finding a publisher took about three years. "I had the first draft done in a year," Desmond said. "But it's like building a house in Palm Beach — it can be done in a year, but all the other stuff required for construction adds a couple of years to the process."
The characters encountered in Oliver Booth are inspired by many people the author has known and observed in Palm Beach and Paris. "They're all composites in a way," he said. "No character is linked to any specific person living or dead, as it should be."
There are socialites, trophy wives, tennis instructors and other types who are the usual suspects in places like Palm Beach, he said. "In some ways, the book is a critique on the shallowness of some people's lives in Palm Beach, but it's not meant to be heavy," Desmond said. "It's meant to be funny. I laughed out loud many times while writing it. "It's more arch than broad in its sense of humor, though there are a few pratfalls."
The author expects readers to come away after reading his novel with the feeling that "justice was served" and that "right triumphs in the end" while "those who deserve to be skewered are skewered." Through the book, Desmond is poking fun at Palm Beach and Palm Beachers in an affectionate manner, he said. "No malice intended."
(Click here to listen to David Desmond read an excerpt from The Misadventures of Oliver Booth!)