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    Stranger, Father, Beloved
    Stranger, Father, Beloved
    Stranger, Father, Beloved
    Audiobook7 hours

    Stranger, Father, Beloved

    Written by Taylor Larsen

    Narrated by Joy Osmanski, Rebekkah Ross and Corey Brill

    3/5

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    About this audiobook

    A Huffington Post “2017 Hottest Reads of The Summer” Pick

    “Taylor Larsen creates a powerful and moving story about the fracturing of a family and its descent into chaos. A brilliant debut of self-delusion, and a perfectly flawed male character spiraling downward.” —Huffington Post

    An “emotionally intelligent family drama” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), in the tradition of Tom Perrotta’s Little Children, about a wealthy man who reaches a crossroads after a lifetime of repression, sending his family into a slow spiral towards a breakdown.

    When Michael James sees his wife Nancy chatting with a stranger at a party, his intuition tells him that he’s watching her with the man she should have married. He quickly begins a campaign to replace himself within his own family with this other man—who, to him, is worthier, better, and kinder—all so his faithful wife Nancy, his beautiful teenage daughter Ryan, and his young son Max can live the lives they deserve.

    While Michael pursues this man’s friendship, Ryan goes through a period of sexual awakening and rebellion and distances herself from her family, and the quiet, weak Nancy becomes increasingly befuddled and frustrated by the behaviors of her husband and daughter. As tension and uncertainty build in their home, the James family slowly unravels.

    With the quiet intensity of the film American Beauty and the emotional sensitivity of Lorrie Moore, Taylor Larsen creates a powerful and moving story about the fracturing of a family and its descent into chaos.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJul 12, 2016
    ISBN9781508218746
    Author

    Taylor Larsen

    Taylor Larsen is a graduate of Columbia University's MFA program in fiction writing. Taylor taught fiction writing at Columbia University as part of the Columbia Artist/Teachers faculty and at The Sackett Street Writers Workshop, as well as literature courses for Pace University. Stranger, Father, Beloved is her first novel. Originally from Alexandria, Virginia, she currently resides in Brooklyn, New York with her husband.

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    Reviews for Stranger, Father, Beloved

    3/5

    16 ratings3 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I do not understand why this book has nothing but good(ish) reviews. Reading this book was painful for me; not in a good that-really-affected me sort of way, but in a torturous can-this-just-be-over-already kind of way. Its not badly written, but the whole plot was uninteresting and tedious and made me feel depressed.

      Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advance copy via Goodreads.
    • 2/5
      This one just didn't do it for me. The characters were thin, colored mostly by their own vanities and regrets. Michael was particularly irritating in his obsession with his road not taken, becoming an academic. I felt like he didn't take any responsibility for his decisions and just spent his time evaluating the physical appearance of women and feeling sorry for himself. The depiction of his mental illness was sort of interesting but it just didn't hold the story together for me.
    • 2/5
      Taylor Larsen's debut novel STRANGER, FATHER, BELOVED is an odd story of one man's descent into mental illness, and the chaos that results in his marriage and family. Michael James and his family seemingly have it all, but everything is not as it seems to outsiders in their quiet, wealthy community. There are deep wells of unhappiness and anxiety at the heart of this family's life. Larsen tells her story from the shifting viewpoints of all four of the family members (Michael, his wife, their teenage daughter, and their adolescent son). This is a nice touch, which allows us to see the family from different perspectives. There is some fine writing on display, although the dialogue (such as it is) can be stilted at times.But ultimately this was a letdown for me. I didn't find the narrative compelling. Maybe it was the cover image . . . or the publisher's description . . . but I thought I'd be reading something dark and unsettling -- a book that would push me toward some very uncomfortable places. But that mood never really seemed present. The story wasn't very disconcerting, and I didn't feel the tension I think Larsen wanted us to feel. Mostly I found that I wasn't overly interested in these characters, and I didn't much care how things would end.I'm puzzled by the references in the publisher's promotional material to Tom Perrotta and Lorrie Moore, two writers I appreciate. I didn't feel any of the emotional heft, complexity, nuance, warmth, and wit I associate with Perrotta and Moore. Really, nothing about Larsen's novel reminded me of their work.I liked some things Larsen did here, and I look forward to seeing what she writes next, but I didn't find this novel to be a success. It's a flat, awkward book.(Thanks to Gallery Books / Simon & Schuster for an advance e-galley. Receiving a free copy did not affect the content of my review.)