A grumpy novelist vows revenge when his wealthy neighbor builds a hideous mega-mansion next door.

Lapham Rising tells the story of Harry March, a retired writer whose life starts to unravel when a multimillionaire begins building a mansion across from his quiet island home in the Hamptons. Up until now, he has lived peacefully with his talking dog, Hector, a born-again Evangelical and unapologetic capitalist. To Harry, the gargantuan mansion represents the fetid and corrupt excess that has ruined modern civilization. Which means, quite simply, that this is war.

Cranky and eccentric retired novelist Harry March is the antithesis of the stereotypical Hampton resident in that he abhors those that inhabit those stereotypes and thus his actual neighbors, he preferring to live in isolation in a modest house on a small private island in the middle of a lake with his pet dog, Hector, with who he nonetheless routinely has antagonistic conversations. The only person he truly loves and loves him back is his ex-wife Chloe, who could not withstand the delusional world he has created. He has a particular dislike for who will be his new neighbor, Mr. Lapham - despite never having met him but knowing all about him and how he gained his massive wealth - who is building an excessively ostentatious 36,000 square foot castle in open view of Harry's island, the castle only including the biggest, latest and best of everything. In the process, cutthroat real estate agent Kathy Polite, who advertises her agency by routinely skinny-dipping in open view of anyone who wants to watch, wants to buy Harry's property for a song to be able to make a hefty profit in flipping it to Lapham. Harry makes it his mission to exact his revenge on Lapham in ruining the life he made for himself, Lapham the face to Harry of all that is wrong in the world.—Huggo