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    A Thousand Pardons: A Novel
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    A Thousand Pardons: A Novel
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    A Thousand Pardons: A Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    A Thousand Pardons: A Novel

    Written by Jonathan Dee

    Narrated by Mark Deakins

    3/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS

    For readers of Jonathan Franzen and Richard Russo, Jonathan Dee's novels are masterful works of literary fiction. In this sharply observed tale of self-invention and public scandal, Dee raises a trenchant question: what do we really want when we ask for forgiveness?

    Once a privileged and loving couple, the Armsteads have now reached a breaking point. Ben, a partner in a prestigious law firm, has become unpredictable at work and withdrawn at home-a change that weighs heavily on his wife, Helen, and their preteen daughter, Sara. Then, in one afternoon, Ben's recklessness takes an alarming turn, and everything the Armsteads have built together unravels, swiftly and spectacularly.

    Thrust back into the working world, Helen finds a job in public relations and relocates with Sara from their home in upstate New York to an apartment in Manhattan. There, Helen discovers she has a rare gift, indispensable in the world of image control: She can convince arrogant men to admit their mistakes, spinning crises into second chances. Yet redemption is more easily granted in her professional life than in her personal one.

    As she is confronted with the biggest case of her career, the fallout from her marriage, and Sara's increasingly distant behavior, Helen must face the limits of accountability and her own capacity for forgiveness.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 12, 2013
    ISBN9780385393744
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for A Thousand Pardons

    3/5

    140 ratings35 reviews

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    • 5/5
      At the start of the book, Helen and Ben have been married for eighteen suburban years; have a twelve-year-old daughter whom they adopted from China as an infant; and have been in doomed marriage counseling for a while. Everyone in the family is tightly wound in his or her own way; it’s clear that something’s got to give. And, boy, it sure does, launching Helen, Ben, and Sara into completely changed lives – Helen into the world of public relations, Ben into rehab (actual and metaphorical), and Sara into the New York City public middle school scene.If you’re a reader who can gleefully appreciate a truly spectacular marriage break-up, complete with public scandal, but feels sympathy for all parties involved and wishes there could be news stories how each of them picks up the pieces and go on, you’ll love the nuances of this sharply observed, very funny but ultimately humane, modern New York novel.Read complete review at Bay State Reader's Advisory blog.
    • 4/5
      As this is a slim novel you’d expect it to get to the point quickly, and it does - in medias res I believe it’s called. You enter the story to find Helen and Ben at a crisis, but have no explanation of how they got there. You exit in a similar way. The crisis has passed, but you don’t know where H & B will go next.While not perfect, I liked the fresh feeling the story had. That we didn’t have to wade through their marital difficulties was one, that Helen wasn’t your typical floundering victim was another. Although the miracle job and her huge and hidden talent for it did seem to be a bit of a stretch. I’d rather have had her working at something similar, even part time, to make that seem plausible. Also, she doesn’t just dump all responsibility on Ben, although he has to take most of it. She wonders how her own actions (or inactions) contributed to his dismal state. It doesn’t go further than that and Ben doesn’t blame her; only himself. Kind of nice that. So many men write their male characters in a way that puts their faults, actions and desires at the feet of their women. I liked Helen, but didn’t understand her much. Her sudden and all-encompassing devotion to Hamilton and his current idiotic situation was out of the blue. Why would she risk her miraculous career for him? It’s weird. Also weird is Sara’s extreme reaction to basically everything around her. She seemed a bit young for that kind of teenage angst and anger, but she has it in spades. A right asshole she is. Deliberately cruel to her mother when she’s old enough to understand Helen’s predicament. Ugh.Some passages I quite liked -“The building’s main security system seemed to be its own essential undesirability, which left it all but invisible.” p 52“...the young executive - who was wearing one of those striped dress shirts with a white collar; Lord, Helen hated those shirts, they were like sandwich boards for assholes…” p 78A much younger man has just asked Helen out -“She had no idea what to make of it. Maybe he had some kind of depraved mommy issue.” p 117Overall well written and presented, but just a little bit too abbreviated in the end. I’d have liked more insight into how Helen comes back to Ben, their lives and their home. It seemed rushed and without a proper explanation I just can’t see it.
    • 3/5
      This novella, which I received from the publisher in exchange for a fair review, is frustrating in its simultaneous nature as a beautifully crafted but uneven tale.

      There is no denying that Jonathan Dee can craft a beautiful sentence. His prose is among the best of contemporary authorship. There were multiple times when I paused my reading just to appreciate the beauty of how he weaves his language. The problem is that this does not translate into an ability to weave together a larger tale. The back half of the story fades out fast, and even in the strongest parts, you feel jerked around too much as a reader.

      The story itself has so much potential. The family is dysfunctional in ways that hopefully not too many readers identify with. But that very dysfunction seems to be what causes Dee to lose control as writer at times; it's too much for even him to handle.

      I felt invested in the characters and story, a credit to the author, but I never felt like I got the resolution I needed. If Dee struggles at this length, I wonder how he would handle fuller fiction. But there's so much obvious talent that I have high hopes for his future efforts. He can be among the best; he just needs to work on his flaws just like his characters do.
    • 3/5
      The beginning of this book is like something out a fairy tale for middle-aged women. A husband, Ben, engages in strange and destructive behavior. The wife, Helen, finds unexpected talents which lead to lucrative employment. The daughter acts out, but in a reasonably responsible way. Unfortunately, in the second half of the book, I found Helen’s behavior bizarrely unreasonable and out of character. I wasn’t willing to buy into the parallels between the couple's behavior that Dee seemed to be suggesting. Hamilton, a character who plays a major part in the second half of the book, didn't ever seem like a real person. For me, he remained a rather boring plot device.
    • 5/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed this book, having started it without a clue as to its subject. I'd read Privileges by the same author and loved that too.

      Not a thriller, nor action novel, not a romance nor a mystery. Just a really good story written with eloquence and charm.

      Characters were mostly likeable, usually believable.

      I do have one question (here's the spoiler): how did Ben's car get back to the house after Bonifacio drove them home from their piss-up in the office? Anyone?
    • 4/5
      This story takes us into the lives of a family that seems to have everything going for them. Ben is an established lawyer, able to provide anything needed for their New York suburban home. Since Helen does not need to work, she is able to focus all of her energy on raising their young daughter. From the outside, everything appears picture perfect, but looks can be deceiving.Even though we are given the story through various perspectives, it seemed to me to be Helen's story. When Ben loses his perspective of what is important in life, their comfortable life comes to an abrupt end. Not having the security Helen has been accustomed to, she must pull herself together and do what is needed to provide for herself and her daughter. It can be a scary world out there, especially for a woman who has not worked in years.I think I loved this story because it was so true to form for me. How often do you hear of women having to pick up the pieces from their husbands mistakes? I know this works both ways, but men seem to be more resilient to me, as it is easier for them to start over and find another job. It's tougher for women, especially if they've been a stay-at-home mom for the past 5-10 years.I didn't necessarily like their daughter, Sara, as a character. That's ok, because I think my dislike of her helped my appreciation of the novel as a whole. Since Sara was adopted she was still trying to find who she truly was, but then with her parents marital difficulties thrown in the mix, she became even more belligerent and confused.Ben, Helen, and Sara, all come to terms with the crisis that changed their family relationships. They are not by any means happy with the events that took place, but have come to accept that all of them played a role in what resulted in failure. With themes of love, family, trust, forgiveness and second chances you may enjoy this book as much as I did. I think this novel would make a great book club discussion and I don't hesitate in recommending it for personal leisure.
    • 5/5
      I was so interested in the direction this book took---I just had no idea where it was heading and the title was really no clue. So many things happening in different directions---I had not heard of Jonathan Dee before but now I will read his previous books! It's wonderful to find a novel about people having the "same" problems of marriage/family but to have it handled in a completely new way---really a very happy surprise to read.
    • 4/5
      It's so much a cliche in contemporary fiction, that you can almost assume it's the plot of every new novel: the suburban couple, mind-numbingly unhappy, despite their perfect home and family. In some cases writers are able to create successful characters, regardless of the trappings of their stereotype, while others are crushed by the weight of it.

      In A Thousand Pardons, Jonathan Dee seems quite aware of the fact that he is writing a familiar frame from the beginning. Rather than giving readers a painstakingly detailed account of the missteps that lead Helen and Ben to a therapist's couch for their "Date Night", Dee describes with amazing subtlety the monotony that can come with several decades of a marriage. He is then quick to cut to the big event that leads to their separation, putting the major plot in motion. Helen thrives in her newly single position, and the pace of the novel does, too. Unfortunately, the characters' behaviors in the second half of the novel seem to steer off track, hanging ever close to the cliches Dee worked to avoid. Still, as a whole, A Thousand Pardons is a refreshing story outside what you'd expect from a seemingly usual suspect.
    • 2/5
      The life of the Armstead family is a mess. Ben’s partnership – in fact is freedom – is in question thanks to his reckless lifestyle. Suddenly forced to fend for herself and her daughter Sara, Helen finds work in a struggling public relations firm in Manhattan. Helen quickly discovers she has a gift for spinning crises into opportunities. But with the biggest client of her career looming over her, will the weight of the past and the distance of her daughter undercut Helen’s second life?The premise of A Thousand Pardons had me interested in the beginning of the story. The writing of the first few paragraphs flowed well and had me wondering what would become of this nuclear family that had suddenly gone nuclear. Ben was out of control and about to pay for his transgressions. But I was more interested to see how Helen and Sara would deal with Ben’s fall. Unfortunately, that’s where the wheels fell off. The primary character of Helen just didn’t really work. This housewife suddenly manages to not only find a job in an industry she has no experience in within the biggest city in America, but she basically takes over and is able to see the correct path when nobody else around her has a clue what to do. It is a nice concept – naive outsider comes to the big city and proves they have what it takes. The trouble is Helen simply doesn’t come off as convincing in being able to pull off that one-in-a-million transformation. From there the plot just becomes more contrived and clichéd. The pacing of the writing was also painfully plodding. Dee really failed to gain my interest in this family and failed to convince me that any of it was at all plausible. The story turned into a series of daily diary entry by somebody who really wasn’t aware of their surroundings. It felt like Dee became bored with his own story. I think A Thousand Pardons held some promise, but in the end it really failed to deliver anything interesting or unique. I can’t really recommend this to anybody.
    • 5/5
      There are two ways to look at this book. On the one hand, it’s set in a world where all men are either charmless, borderline alcoholics or criminals (and in some cases all three), and most of the women are pretty nasty too. There does however exist one woman – the central character Helen – who is pretty nice, and despite being out of the workforce for many years, she manages to slot into a PR firm and single handedly discover that contrary to all the accepted practices of public relations, the answer to every crisis is to apologise, apologise, apologise. Wear a hair shirt, beat your chest, the whole shooting match. Not only this, the world at large beats a path to her door, desperate to pay over the odds for her to tell them to apologise. I can’t help wondering why nobody ever hit on this amazing panacea before.On the other hand, it is a beautifully written book which allows itself time to pause and reflect, and is generous with the personality time allotted to its characters. What initially seems to be a fairly standard tale of a wife finding inner reserves of strength after being spectacularly dumped on by her husband takes unexpected turns. There are humorous moments, thought provoking moments, and moments of high tension. It was interesting, too, to learn about the business of PR and crisis management.In the end, the view that wins out for me is the second. In spite of all my cynicism I loved this book. I could scarcely put it down and was sorry when it ended. I had never heard of this author before but will definitely be seeking his work out in future.
    • 3/5
      The beginning of this book is like something out a fairy tale for middle-aged women. A husband, Ben, engages in strange and destructive behavior. The wife, Helen, finds unexpected talents which lead to lucrative employment. The daughter acts out, but in a reasonably responsible way. Unfortunately, in the second half of the book, I found Helen’s behavior bizarrely unreasonable and out of character. I wasn’t willing to buy into the parallels between the couple's behavior that Dee seemed to be suggesting. Hamilton, a character who plays a major part in the second half of the book, didn't ever seem like a real person. For me, he remained a rather boring plot device.
    • 3/5
      Oh,I so wanted to like this book. I read 3/4 of it in one night, even though Helen was so strange to me. She seemed rather unaffected by...everything. Ben was unlikeable and even though some of the plotlines seemed trite, I at least was interested. Until the end -- it seemed like the author got sick of everybody, too, and just wanted to wrap everything up. So disappointed.
    • 5/5
      Early in "A Thousand Pardons," Jonathan Dee's crafty and wise parable of loss and redemption, a seasoned professional describes how the practice of public relations works: "We tell stories. We tell stories to the public because stories are what people pay attention to, what they remember."

      Stories, indeed, are what persuade and entertain and become like stickpins in our brain. And Dee, in his newest tale of soaring hubris and crashing ennui, is a really, really good story teller at the top of his game. I read the novel in February and believe "A Thousand Pardons" is one of the best books I'll read in 2013. The story resonates like a modern-day fairytale with lessons to be learned by grownups.
      I was given this book by GoodReads.
    • 2/5
      I just couldn't get into this book. The characters were unlikable and unrelatable and I found the plot to be boring.
    • 3/5
      The theme of A Thousand Pardons is redemption. In that spirit I'm going to forgive Jonathan Dee for making me like a book I had no business liking.

      The characters are big jerks. The ending is somewhat vague. A few things happen that stretched my imagination a bit too far. (Example: Helen jaunts on down to Manhattan and lands a good job after being unemployed for 14 years.)

      And yet. I ate this book up with a spoon and wanted more of it. The writing is clean and refreshing. Even though the characters were twits they were real twits and I wanted to know what happened to them.

      The "flaws" in this book are usually deal breakers for me. Not this time. How did you do that Mr. Dee?!

      Ah yes, I do believe it's called talent.
    • 5/5
      Loved this book. Loved the writing most, but the plot was engaging and the characters were compelling. The Washington Post wasn't as thrilled, but in terms of basic story-telling it was 5 stars for me.
    • 4/5
      The backstory: After loving Jonathan Dee's last novel, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Privileges (my review) so much it made my Best of 2011 list, I was ecstatic to hear he has a new novel out.The basics: A Thousand Pardons is the story of Helen and Ben Armstead. The Armsteads live in Rensselaer Valley, an upstate suburb of New York City, with their adopted daughter Sara. When Ben's actions bring scandal to the family, their marriage ends, and Helen must find a job.My thoughts: A Thousand Pardons is a slim novel composed of seven lengthy chapters. The novel's first chapter pulled me into this family and the narrative and left me stunned. It's a fascinating and bold set-up for the novel, but it also lulled me into thinking this was a different sort of novel than it turned out to be. The second chapter slowed the narrative's pace, and while I settled into the rest of the novel, I wondered if Dee would return to the pace of the novel's first chapter.What propels the novel into action is a scandal. Dee crafts a wonderfully ordinary scandal for Ben. In our scandal-obsessed culture, it would be easy to think, 'that's it?' When you stop to think about the reaction his actions would have on those around him, however, and the scandal is at once ordinary and shocking: "I mean, it goes both ways," Sara said. "I understand you too. I get why you'd just wake up one day and say, Is this really my life? How did I even get here? And if you can't answer that question, you might start to act a little crazy."A Thousand Pardons feels both small and large. It's ultimately the story of a family, but there are also numerous subplots. It's partially a coming of age story for Sara:"You have to start seeing your parents as real people at some point."It's a story of Helen's career resurgence in public relations, which underscores the themes of mistakes and forgiveness. It's the story of connections from long ago and forming new ones. Not all of these storylines are as satisfying as others, but A Thousand Pardons is a novel I enjoyed while I read it, but my appreciation for its scope came after I turned the last page.Favorite passage:"That was it: she hated this place because she believed that some earlier, embarrassing version of herself still lived here."The verdict: A Thousand Pardons is a satisfying read, but in its title and ending, Dee makes it clear it's a novel meant to be more than the sum of its parts. It's engaging plot and intriguing characters are enjoyable, if sometimes meandering, but its ending will keep me thinking for some time.
    • 4/5
      I love the way Jonathan Dee writes. The mid life crisis of the husband is the catalyst to this story. It leads us in all directions as we travel with each character through their journey. The details Dee includes of their lives only adds to the reality. The characters are not always likeable but we still seem to really care about them. Recommend.
    • 3/5
      Following the implosion of life as she knew it, Helen Armstead, starts fresh as a single parent, who is rejoining the workforce and struggling with mixed feelings about her marriage and her ex-husband. Along the way she reunites with an old boyfriend who is now a movie star. While the story focuses mainly on Helen, the other characters: her daughter, ex-husband and Hamilton Barth, the movie star, fill out the story perfectly. Professionally, Helen is all about asking for forgiveness, and there is a lot of that here (hence the title, I guess), but it works, at least until the very end where the rush to a tidy and happy conclusion leaves fundamental issues unresolved. I was previously unfamiliar with Jonathan Dee, but I will look for other work by him. Thanks to Library Thing Early Reviewers for the chance to read this book.
    • 4/5
      The rocky road to redemptionAs Jonathan Dee’s latest novel opens, readers get to witness suburban New Yorkers Ben and Helen Armstead give up the ghost on couples counseling. Their marriage is at an impasse when successful lawyer Ben goes off the rails. Staggeringly bad judgment causes both his marriage and his career to implode. His very freedom is jeopardized. And now forty-something housewife Helen must care for their adolescent daughter and find a new path for their lives.In a somewhat unrealistic turn of events, Helen finds her professional calling. The thing is, realism isn’t everything. I was willing to give Dee a pass on some of the finer plot points, because I was entertained and invested in the tale being told. Husband Ben, stays on the periphery of the narrative, but there’s a third character, a childhood friend of Helen’s who has achieved great fame. This reader was just waiting for him to make an appearance, and of course, eventually he did—though not, perhaps, exactly as I expected him to.This was my first experience reading Mr. Dee, but I certainly heard the buzz on his last novel, The Privileges, and am aware of his literary reputation. Therefore, I think I was a bit surprised by the simplicity of this novel. The prose is highly readable, but neither remarkable nor overly ornate. Characters were well-drawn and sympathetic (surprisingly so in many cases), but it’s a fairly brief redemption tale being told. It’s just not that deep. I point this out not as a fault; it simply is what it is. And A Thousand Pardons succeeds quite well on that level. This was a quick, entertaining read that I enjoyed more for the story being told than anything else. It moved more quickly and I read the book in no time flat. I would offer one caveat: Readers who need to have all narrative threads tied up neatly in a bow may feel some frustration with the novel’s ending. I, myself, have no objection to a few loose ends. They leave me with food for thought. Still, this novel’s ending did give me pause. It sort of snuck up on me. I read it, thought, “I don’t know about that,” and read it again. And upon second reading I decided that it was all good. This was an enjoyable and overdue introduction to an author on the ascent.
    • 3/5
      I just wasn't as impressed with this as I thought I would be given previous reviews. It's good, don't get me wrong, but I just don't think it's all that special. Perhaps if I hadn't read Shannon Moroney's memoir in a similar vein, Through the Glass, I might have felt differently about it, but the whole think left me feeling that I'd read an average book - not terrible, just not anything compelling or special.
    • 2/5
      I sort of enjoyed this book by Jonathan Dee. One criticism would be that it seems a little disorganized. I felt like the voice changed sometimes within a paragraph but often within a section of a chapter. The three major characters, Helen, Ben and their daughter Sarah are not likable people but they are similar to people we might know. Ben and Helen have an unhappy marriage - they have grown apart. Their adopted daughter Sarah plays them one against the other. The theme of the book is atonement - saying you are sorry when you are responsible for a bad outcome and doing something about it. It's an okay book.
    • 3/5
      Helen Armstead has a messed-up life. Her husband cheats on her and loses his job. She divorces him. Her teenaged daughter is a pain. And now she has to go back to work to support them. These were not people I like to read about. I just didn't much care for them or what was going on in their lives. The writing wasn't bad. I just didn't like the people he wrote about.
    • 1/5
      Husband betrays wife; wife leaves husband, taking daughter with her to start a new life, finds she has real talent and launches a new career. An old flame — or semi-flame, at least — happens onto the scene and ... oh, you get it, another piece of chick-lit, right? Would that it were so. At least a piece of Chick Lit would incorporate some warmth."A Thousand Pardons" reads like a great idea that ran up against a publication deadline. What started as a good premise winds up as a totally forgettable book The writing is flat, the characters colorless, the story very predictable.Add Dee's required response to this book and you should wind up with 1,001 Pardons. I know this is harsh, but I was just totally underwhelmed, utterly disappointed.I won an ARC of this book through LibraryThing.com.
    • 3/5
      I have tried to figure out why I didn't love this book--well written characters and plot, set in a contemporary suburb. I kept waiting for Helen's story to deepen and develop. Why was she so good with apologies? What does that say about our culture of the 24 hour news cycle and fascination with celebrities? What was it about Helen that made her so successful? When Helen was on the scene, I wanted more. When it was Ben's story, I was a lot less interested. However, I enjoyed the book, and would absolutely read another by Jonathan Dee. There was real promise there, and some great scenes.
    • 3/5
      A Thousand Pardons is a flat, prosaic read, without depth. Despite the emotional potential of the storyline – husband/father goes astray, loses his family and is disbarred; wife and child recreate their lives in order to transcend their pain – it is missing that profound sense of loss and rejection one would normally experience under these circumstances. The family’s despair is stated, but not fully expressed. Things simply happen, without impact.To his credit, Dee writes well and knows how to develop a plot and follow through with it. His writing flows easily and logically. Unfortunately, the novel itself is characterless. It is lacking in substance and complexity. The author was not able to offer a unique perspective for this all-too-familiar, troubling tale. I gave this book three stars for its structural quality.
    • 4/5
      A Thousand Pardons is a quick and thought-provoking read. After her 16 year marriage to Ben publicly implodes, Helen is forced to start a new life with her daughter in the city. Having no practical work experience since she was a stay-at-home mom, Helen lucks into a job at a PR firm where she finds that she has a talent for convincing her clients to apologize. This is a very interesting approach to PR work and she becomes very successful. The author tries to establish the importance of forgiveness in her personal life as well but that section feels forced. Also, the only client that she has that rejects her strategy is already well-versed in forgiveness, the Catholic Church. I would have liked to see this plot-line get more of a resolution.
    • 3/5
      As a reader, I never really understood the writer's maxim to "show, not tell". I always thought, "I'm being told a story, so what's the big deal?" Until now. Now, I get it.This book is about Ben, Helen, and their adopted daughter Sara. In the first part of the book, Dee does a fair job of showing us that Ben and Helen's marriage has fallen apart and the events that bring about its actual end. We are shown how the marriage is dissolved and how Helen has to learn again how to support herself, and now her 12 year old daughter. So far, so good.Dee starts to get into trouble when Helen and Sara move to Manhattan. Helen becomes more involved with the PR firm she now works for and Sara starts attending a new school. Sara tells us that her mother has basically started letting her raise herself. But, aside from the fact that Sara must order dinner for herself and her mother most nights, and that she becomes very devious about skipping both school and the after-school activities she's supposed to be participating in, we aren't ever shown what Helen has done to make Sara fling the accusations at her that she finally does. Combine that with Sara being a generally unlikeable character to begin with, and the sections involving her are fairly unreadable.All of which makes me wonder why Dee included Sara's plot-line to begin with. The much more interesting aspect of this book is Helen's new job and her views on (and success with) apologies. The title suggests that this was supposed to be the main story of the book, but it gets very little space. Instead, Helen's supposed talent becomes something else that we are told, without really being shown how or why it works or is important to the overall story. This is a shame, because a focus on apologies and how they impact public relations would have made a much better story.
    • 4/5
      Sorry seems to be the hardest word, quoting Elton John’s 1976 hit. Ben Armstead is a partner in a prestigious law firm. When it comes out he has deceived his wife, Helen, a marriage breakup is the unavoidable consequence. The discovery also leads to imprisonment and a rehab, which Ben accepts reluctantly. Helen tries to rebuild her life, seeks a job and lands in a public relations firm. She relocates with her daughter Sara to an apartment in Manhattan. In her new role Helen practices the gift of forgiveness. Firms and persons attacked or accused are pushed to openly ask for forgiveness in order to remain in business and come out stronger afterwards. When her ultimate challenge is presented to her, the Catholic Church struggling with priests and clergy that abused children, fate turns against Helen. Can Helen forgive her ex-husband and speak the truth at all times to her daughter?I enjoyed reading A Thousand Pardons and admire its main theme, challenging every single reader to take honesty and forgiveness bloody serious, both personal and professional.
    • 2/5
      This book seemed to have a lot of ideas that just never got anywhere. The mom is back on her feet and doing well by halfway through the book, so I was interested to see what the other half would hold. Unfortunately, that's about where the plot line blew up into a thousand streams of unfinished consciousness. The dad slowly becomes likeable in my mind because the (minimal) actions you see from him show him trying to atone, although in odd ways, but you never see it come to fruition. A side character slowly becomes a main character and then the book ends without you ever knowing what happened to him. The mom presumably might not have a job anymore by the end of the book, and I can't tell if she really cares or not. The daughter, as others mentioned, is a stereotypical teenager, so you don't really ever care much for her one way or the other. The most I can pull from it is that the author was going for a "reversal of roles" but just didn't follow through well enough for that to work out or be entirely evident to the readers. I actually went back and re-read the last handful of pages just to make sure I didn't miss anything that clarified the ending better. Nope. Just strange.