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    The Adults
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    The Adults
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    The Adults
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Adults

    Written by Alison Espach

    Narrated by Tavia Gilbert

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In her ruefully funny and wickedly perceptive debut novel, Alison Espach deftly dissects matters of the heart and captures the lives of children and adults as they come to terms with life, death, and love. At the center of this affluent suburban universe is Emily Vidal, a smart and snarky teenager, who gets involved in a suspect relationship with one of the adults after witnessing a suicide in her neighborhood.

    Among the cast of unforgettable characters is Emily's father, whose fiftieth birthday party has the adults descending upon the Vidal's patio; her mother, who has orchestrated the elaborate party even though she and her husband are getting a divorce; and an assortment of eccentric neighbors, high school teachers, and teenagers who teem with anxiety and sexuality and an unbridled desire to be noticed, and ultimately loved.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateFeb 8, 2011
    ISBN9781611200454
    Unavailable
    The Adults
    Author

    Alison Espach

    Alison Espach is a graduate of the Washington University in St. Louis MFA program.  Her writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, Five Chapters, Glamour and other magazines. She grew up in Connecticut and now teaches creative writing in New York.

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    Reviews for The Adults

    3.5/5

    12 ratings10 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Very good writing. This is a debut novel by an author who can definitely write. I feet that she needs a little more experience in telling a story, and knowing when to end a book. Loved the first third of the book, while the young girl is in High School, but the rest of the novel left me uninterested and very disengaged. If the author could have expanded the story and ended it when high school ended it would have been more satisfying for me. I felt very little for the characters, and it seemed like they were all rather numb themselves. The novel was touted as "funny" and there were some sharp scenes, but overall I found little humour in the book.
    • 3/5
      Full of startlingly true observations, made more so by how casually they're stuffed into sentences. Excellently written, heartbreaking and memorable.
    • 4/5
      "The Adults" started off well. I loved the suburban voice if this coming of age novel, but even as Emily grew, her voice never changed much which bothered me. She seemed intent on staying a child. But then again, maybe that was the point. Not long after the book starts, she witnesses a neighbor commit suicide, an act that will change her life forever. As she grows up with some very cruel children who think there already adults, a mother who drinks to much, and a philandering father, life if a drag until Mr. Basketball comes into the picture. Then as time goes on, she begins to wonder if anyone really is an adult or if were all just kidding ourselves.The writing was good in this one, not great, but good. Worth a read but not a re-read.
    • 4/5
      Interesting as a coming of age novel that doesn’t resort to an overly clichéd ending. Modern prose, which took a bit of time for me to get used to, with little episodes of non-chronological additions within the largely linear story. I loved how it looked at what being "an adult" means at different stages in life. At points I was a little frustrated with the problems-of-privilege themes, and the teenage-teacher affair won't be for everyone, but overall it is a solid first novel.
    • 5/5
      I’ve had The Adults on my reading list for a while so of course I picked it up when I spotted it at the thrift store. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when I started reading, but I loved it. The book as a whole was so captivating. Emily’s character was great and she kept my attention the entire time.Alison Espach’s writing style sort of reminded me of Janet Fitch’s White Oleander which I also loved. All around a great book and a new favorite.
    • 5/5
      (Originally on my blog, The Reader's Commute)Readers: I'm so glad I found this book. I didn't just find a normal "growing up" story here (so if you're usually turned-off by coming-of-age stories, please keep reading). In The Adults, I found a wildly entertaining, thought-provoking read that taught me a thing or two about my own life in the process.At the center of this novel is Emily Vidal, who enters the story as a snarky fourteen-year old girl and concludes the story as an affected twenty-something. Emily's voice is refreshing and familiar, even if at times I had to suspend my disbelief and keep myself from saying, "there's no way a teenage girl would think like that!"Emily observes her neighborhood (full of tulips and houses painted colors like "celery powder" and "yellow feather") and her neighbors with a keen eye. Her smartest observations are certainly about the adults around her, like her understanding of the fragile Mr. Resnick and his "unreasonable amount of pants."Observing through Emily's eyes, I found myself getting attached to these adults despite their obvious flaws. As Emily navigates a variety of devastating happenings involving these adults (a suicide, an affair, a divorce), she begins to learn what growing up really means:"Children's lives are always beginning and adults' lives are always ending. Or is it the opposite? Your childhood is always ending and your adult self is always beginning. You are always learning how to say good-bye to whoever you were at the dinner table the night before."As Emily begins an affair with an older man, her childhood and inevitable adulthood collide. This "culture shock" of sorts can best be illustrated in the chapters that take place in Prague, where she lives for a short time with her father. Upon an initial reading, I felt dissatisfied with the shift from suburban Connecticut to an entirely new country (perhaps because I enjoyed the details of her hometown so much). On a closer read, I was glad to have experienced this jarring sensation of being displaced, as I believe it mirrors Emily's own feelings. The bridge from childhood to adulthood is never an easy one, and in Espach's novel it is heart-breaking and lyrical.I've recommended this novel to so many of my friends at this point. The Adults is a book for anyone who wants a smart, captivating read with a unique cast of characters. The narrative is fresh and intensely moving.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book! I agree with some other reviewers- the end of the book does peter out, I think I was expecting something more than there was. I also found the beginning a little hard to get into. That said, the middle was awesome! Some beautiful prose and some interesting twists and turns. It might help that I'm fairly young and not that far removed from the adolescent/young adult head space Espach explores.
    • 3/5
      Portrait of a dysfunctional family - looking for love in all the wrong places. It left me cold.
    • 3/5
      interesting story of infidelity, blended families, coming of age, adult/child relationships both healthy and inappropriate. Well done.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of Emily, an unusual teenager from Connecticut, and it charts her haphazard growth from a child to an adult. I liked how the characters kept cropping up and you got to see how they grew and changed. I liked how her observations often rang true. I didn't really like the ending...it just kind of petered out. And I never got to see what happened to an early character who seemed important.