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The Westfall family home, the home of Ana and George is in the city of Hudson, NY, George has been diagnosed with cancer, had surgery, but its back, Its time to gather
the family in, Ana calls their now adult children home, although calling Armie should not be as much effort, since due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, he now resides in their basement.
His old room, all their old bedrooms, now being used for other purposes,
Armie, technically Armand, was named after the protagonist of one of Anas, his mother, favourite novels, Life can be a bit of an uphill battle when youre the youngest, but Armies had more than his share of “stuff” to deal with.
Still, he can create some beautiful furniture, and theres something to be said about that,
Charlie lives in California now, where shes a glorified personal “assistant” to a Hollywood film actress with a child, Both have young boys close to the same age, The actress is a bit of a tyrant, expecting Charlie to be her beckandcallgirl at a textmessageminutesnotice, Her husband is a tall childlike overbearing bully, Their sons name is Abbott, Abbott has issues. Hes preschool,age group, but socially immature, and is also prone to temper tantrums,
Josef is the oldest hes a divorced selfadmitted sex addict, with two young girls, preteens, His mind has a onetrack porn show going pretty much at all times, His wife, now exwife, has a new boyfriend, Hes a poet. If it werent for the fact that his ex has shown interest in another man, he probably would no longer view her as desirable, but he cant seem to come to terms with the fact that she might be happier without him.
That his girls might be happier, He obsesses about this except his thoughts are constantly interrupted with thoughts of having sex with someone else, the woman walking by, a text message from his assistant, it doesnt take much to derail his thoughts.
Ana is their mother and wife to George, who isnt looking very well these days, Just as things begin to get frantic, as George's health unravels, the east coast is hit by a hurricane, which adds some drama to the whole union behind this less than happy occasion for this family reunion.
The story does flow nicely the characters are quirky enough to create some interesting and amusing events, It is amusing at times, although I would not call this hysterically funny, There are some touching moments, as well, as the story progresses, and one or two amusingfunny incidents, This is billed as being for readers of Jonathan Tropper, but I would say its more for those who loved “The Nest.
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Pub Date:Jan
ARC provided by Scribner, NetGalley and author Kris DAgostino Members of a dysfunctional family gather at their childhood home when the patriarch dies.
This book is witty, dark, wonderfully written, and set in the middle of a hurricane, I'm surprised this book is not more wellknown and loved because I thought it was absolutely fantastic, I really appreciate the careful plotting and character development that went into the writing of this book, It payed off the plot moves along at a pace that made me want to turn the pages and there were plenty of surprises along the way, despite being more of a characterdriven story.
I ended up caring for each of the characters with the exception of the mother, perhaps, but that's maybe because she didn't appear as often, despite the fact that they were all very much flawed.
Overall, the feel of the book reminded me of "A Visit From the Goon Squad," which I loved, I thought the book struck a great balance between seriousness and humor, I find that a lot of books about family dynamics tend to be too serious, making them rather flat in my opinion, but this included many absurd situations that were funny without being ridiculous.
I look forward to reading the author's first book and can't wait for what he writes next,.This has got to be at least the third "dysfunctional family gathers after the death of the patriarch" book that I've read sitelinkJonathan Tropper's sitelinkThis is Where I Leave You and sitelinkStewart O'Nan's sitelinkWish You Were Here are what spring immediately to mind but it's by far my favorite of the three.
D'Agostino doesn't get as lost in minutiae as O'Nan, nor rely as heavily on SHENANIGANS as Tropper, The Antiques was still predictable at times, but I liked its quiet optimism, It's not an extraordinary novel, but it is a satisfying one, Middling midlist dressed as literary lamb and I'm a vegetarian, Think This is Where I Leave you only nowhere near as good and I didn't like that book that much, Dysfunctional family coming together to deal with their dying father while a hurricane looms, One son, Josef, is such a creepy misogynist that I had to completely disengage, So yeah, this one was not for me, D'Agostino's character development is the best part of the book, If you've seen the movie "August: Osage County," it's similarmore character development than plot, The characters each are very well defined and struggling in unique ways, and I switched my protagonist several times, It's a quick read, but perhaps not as light and comedic as advertised, The characters deal with complex topics, such as death, abandonment, and failed dreams, so it's sort of misleading to call it a comedy.
A great read all the same! The things about this book that don't work for me:
, Alliterative character names. Abbot, Armie, Audrey, Ana, Andy, . . When none of the characters is likeable or memorable and their names all blend, then you spend the first half of the book backtracking and trying to keep them straight.
If you care that much, Which I didn't.
. False advertising. The cover is quixotically designed and sports the tribute ', . . a hurricane of hilarity ' There was nothing even remotely humorous about this book, It would have been better served to have a solid black cover, And maybe the title should have been "Do Not Enter, " I wouldn't have felt so cheated then,
. And here's the thing that really got my steam boiling: the coy, pretentious, writer's ploy of not making it clear who each segment is about.
You're supposed to 'get it' by picking up clues from the setting and action, Sometimes you could, but DAMN IT!!! I WANT TO KNOW WHO I'M READING ABOUT, I do NOT want to play a cutesy, little guessing game, because, frankly, this book, this story, and the writing weren't worth it.
If you're going to play peekaboo with your reader, you damn well better be good at it, and it damn well better be worth the reader's effort.
This wasn't. Endlessly irritating to have each bit use pronouns only for far too long, rather than manning up and naming the character,
Now, having expressed my disappointment and contempt for 'cutesy' pretensions, I do hope this writer doesn't give up, I hope he matures and learns and tries again, There might be something grand hiding under all the crap, But this book didn't let it shine through, Light and funny, very similar to “This Is Where I Leave You”, Lack of chapters was hard to get used to, On the night of a massive hurricane, three estranged siblings learn that their father is dying, Amid the storm, they come together to plan their father's memorial service, only to learn of his one dying wish,
The Westfalls are a dysfunctional family, The characters are welldeveloped, mostly unlikable although I did like a few with each of their own quirks, Reunited they clash in both sad and funny ways,
Wellwritten, entertaining and interesting!
Thank you to Net Galley and Scribner for an arc of this novel, This book tried really hard to be good, And it almost worked out, The characters had really good potential, but only some of them worked out, Sometimes it felt like a bit of a habdashery though, like random ideas were being thrown at the board and only some of them stuck their landing.
There were likedifferent climaxes for the painting, Pick one and stick with it, Also, the medical jargon was just bad, So so bad. If a character has cancer, tell us actual information: type, stage, what the surgery is for, And the ending was so bad! It felt like the author had a timed write and forgot to leave enough time for the conclusion so they just scribbled some sentences together so everyone had a happyish ending except a couple random plot tangents that were created near the end.
Those were just forgotten and never wrapped up, A week in the life of the dysfunctional Westfall family, Elder parents, George and Ana, grown children Josef, Charlie daughter and Armie, all scattered and living their own lives, As I started to read, I thought I would not enjoy this book and was sure I'd stop at the end of the chapter.
But it was tantalizing enough that I read another chapter and then became invested in the characters, although I really didn't care for any of the children.
Anyway, Dad dies. Children flock home, family all together for first time in years, revealing all the angst, love, trauma and memories that brought them to that point.
Other ancillary characters add to the mix, It was just an entertaining story, serious and funny, The last chapter ended with the mother trying to make sense of what family is, how it is shaped, how you change or don't change, and how you cope and survive.
I picked this book because it was billed as a novel for those who enjoy Jonathan Tropper, whom I find vastly amusing.
But this book is not in the same ilk at all, Tropper has a dark humor and often has me chuckling out loud, He knows how to balance humor and pathos, This book was so dark at the beginning I almost gave up on it, You are over halfway through the book before there's the slightest bit of levity, But the darkness just overwhelms the few bits of humor,
The characters have huge issues which left me feeling sorry for them, A father is dying from cancer, His wife, Ana, is his main caregiver and tries to find solace at Mass and the local wine bar, His three children all have major problems in their lives one has a failing business, another has a failing marriage and a child on the autism spectrum, the third is unemployed and living in his parents basement.
Ana is the only one I felt I even halfway understood, Maybe because we're a similar age, She wonders how her children turned out so different than what she imagined, Josef, the least son, positively gave me the creeps, He believes hes a sex addict, although his psychiatrist doesn't believe such a thing exists, More than anything, he was just a pompous jerk,
I'm trying to decide if I would have liked this book better at a different time of the year, This is definitely not a good book to put you in the holiday spirit, It ends on a positive note but it just takes so long to get there, This book ranks somewhere between a,and a. The writing is decent, so based on that I'm rounding up to a,
My thanks to netgalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this book,
I didn't really like this book, and I need to start paying more attention to books that are characterized as "fast paced dysfunctional comedy".
Having lived in it, I don't really see dysfunctionalism as very comedic, with the possible exceptions of Arrested Development and Jonathan Tropper's This is Where I Leave You dark humor and hilarious!.
Most of the time, reading about people's insanely stressed out lives just stresses me out and makes me wonder why they don't seem to have the sense God should have given them.
For example:
If you're working for an actress who has just fired her staff of approximately, and you're picking up the slack as her "personal assistant", then I sure hope you're getting paidsalaries.
Maybe that will make it worth neglecting your child, your home, and your marriage,
If your autistic son loves ponies and refuses to dress in anything but pony clothes and backpacks, and your husband thinks My Little Ponies is too girly, surely you can do an internet search and find other horse or pony related clothes and toys that your son might like just as well.
There's nothing wrong with living in your parents' basement and working on custom wood furniture, but if your father is dying and your mom is struggling to run the family business, the least you can do is help her out some.
Many people choose to live with their parents or with their adult children because they need a little help in life, with a family business, a sick relative, etc.
Josef Okay, he was just a waste of space and I hope his exwife, his daughters, and even Nora just steer clear of him.
Sorry, you don't get to whine about your dwindling bank account while you're paying for a high priced Craigslist whore,
This one wasn't for me but if you liked The Nest and other books such as The Vacationers or Where'd You Go Bernadette you might like this one.
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