‘Funny and shifting. After this, nothing will ever flavor the same again.’–T. C. Boyle

It’s 1973, and David Leveraux has landed his dream job being a Flavorist-in-Training, employed in the secretive sector where chemists create the flavors for everything from the cherry in your can of soda pop to the butter on your popcorn. While testing a new artificial sweetener–‘Sweetness #9’–he notices unusual side-effects in the lab rats and monkeys: stress, weight problems, mutism, and a generalized about Sweetness #9: A Novel dissatisfaction with lifestyle. David tries to blow the whistle, but he swallows it rather. Years afterwards, Sweetness #9 is usually America’s most well-known sweetener–and David’s family is normally changing. His wife is certainly gaining fat, his son offers halted using verbs, and his girl is suffering from a generalized dissatisfaction with lifestyle. Is usually Sweetness #9 at fault, along with David’s failure to stop it? Or are these simply symptoms of the American condition? David’s search for an answer unfolds in this expansive book that is simultaneously a comic satire, a family group story, and a deep exploration of our deepest social anxieties. Wickedly funny and wildly imaginative, Sweetness #9 queries whether what we eat really makes us who we are.