The World Without You (Audible Audio Edition) Joshua Henkin Zach Villa Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : The World Without You (Audible Audio Edition) Joshua Henkin Zach Villa Audible Studios Books
National Jewish Book Awards 2012, Finalist
JJ Greenberg Memorial Award for Fiction
From the author of the New York Times Notable Book Matrimony ["Beautiful...Brilliant." (Michael Cunningham)], a moving, mesmerizing new novel about love, loss, and the aftermath of a family tragedy.
It's July 4, 2005, and the Frankel family is descending upon their beloved summer home in the Berkshires. But this is no ordinary holiday. The family has gathered to memorialize Leo, the youngest of the four siblings, an intrepid journalist and adventurer who was killed on that day in 2004, while on assignment in Iraq.
The parents, Marilyn and David, are adrift in grief. Their 40-year marriage is falling apart. Clarissa, the eldest sibling and a former cello prodigy, has settled into an ambivalent domesticity and is struggling at age 39 to become pregnant. Lily, a fiery-tempered lawyer and the family contrarian, is angry at everyone. And Noelle, whose teenage years were shadowed by promiscuity and school expulsions, has moved to Jerusalem and become a born-again Orthodox Jew. The last person to see Leo alive, Noelle has flown back for the memorial with her husband and four children, but she feels entirely out of place. And Thisbe - Leo's widow and mother of their three-year-old son - has come from California bearing her own secret.
Set against the backdrop of Independence Day and the Iraq War, The World Without You is a novel about sibling rivalries and marital feuds, about volatile women and silent men, and, ultimately, about the true meaning of family.
The World Without You (Audible Audio Edition) Joshua Henkin Zach Villa Audible Studios Books
I had this book in my library for ages and for some reason unknown I kept skipping over it to read other books.Then I ran out of reading material and finally read this one.Oh my gosh, what a find. I couldn’t put this book down. It’s a story about a family going through crises, and how each member of the family is affected by the crisis. Because of how the book is written I felt I knew each member. It’s a beautifully written book of a loving family that is decimated by loss but joined by childhood memories.I miss them already.Product details
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The World Without You (Audible Audio Edition) Joshua Henkin Zach Villa Audible Studios Books Reviews
I always think it's funny that I can read a novel about a big family and become quite jealous of them. I wish I had a family that gathered together at a cherished summer home. I wish I had so many sisters. I wish we could say the things we want to say, but never do. But then, I realize that the family about which I'm reading is troubled, and deeply so. I can pick out character traits and flaws in the people described in this book and relate them to members of my own family. And I'm so glad that I got to enjoy the characters' lives with them for just a while. Great book.
This was hundreds of pages about roughly a week long time span in a family's life. The author describes every single setting- what the characters are wearing, what background players are doing, etc. in a way that made me think of high school descriptive writing classes. I kept waiting for something to happen. The plot was predictable and the characters dull. I can't imagine what we'll have to discuss about this book in our book club meeting.
The first half of the book was good and was just starting to capture my interest when it faltered. Most of the characters didn't fully develop and much of the writing in the second half seemed filled with unnecessary details. I had the feeling the author was going for some great literary effect, but it never really got there. I kept waiting for something to happen - either in the plot or emotional growth of the characters. And then the book just ended.
The family of a dead fighter in the Iraq war meets on the Fourth of July. Each member is having post-traumatic troubles, this nine or so months after the death, and the shock of the novel is that it is the parents--those who held them together--whose troubles are the most destructive. Henkin's style appears slow and perhaps too gentle to some readers; if an intelligent reader wants a good book by an intelligent writer (he also teaches writing at Brooklyn College and is the son of two of American's most brilliant and influential citizens), Henkin is their man. He is a loving, insightful, witty, intelligent novelist. And a very generous writer and person; his treatment of his followers on Facebook and his web page is remarkable. Each of his three novels varies significantly from the others with family and identity being primary themes.
A year after losing a member of the family, several generations gather together in their summer home to perform the final memorial. Family members come from short and long distances to gather once again perhaps for the last time. Family dynamics, memories, grief and loss dominate each person's behaviour.
A stunning announcement is made by the mother at the dinner table, obviously adding great impact to an already grief laden family.
Females play the most dominant part of the plot, although, males in attendance come forth now and then.
As you would expect, considerable time is spent in member's recalling the life of their beloved brother, son, husband as well as the dynamics of their own families.
The end holds some unexpected happenings and some sadness continues, although, all of the members have survived in unexpected ways and with renewed strength.
While I enjoyed it, it was not a page turner and took some time for me to complete it. Nonetheless a good summer read.
It's July 4, 2005, exactly one year after Leo Frankel, a newspaper reporter, was killed after being captured while covering the war in Iraq. His family and friends are traveling from across the world to gather in the Berkshires for a memorial service, since his funeral had been such a public spectacle. But as if the stress and grief associated with commemorating Leo's loss isn't enough, each of his family members has their own problems to deal with, as well as their relationships with each other.
His parents, David and Marilyn, have each dealt with their grief differently--Marilyn has become an outspoken critic of the war and President Bush, while David has become more introspective, preferring opera and biographies to confronting his wife's anger. And this is causing their 40-year marriage to dissolve. Leo's oldest sister, Clarissa, is struggling to become pregnant at age 39, which is wreaking havoc on her relationship with her husband, Nathan. Lily is dealing with an inability to effectively deal with her grief and anger, and doesn't want to have to depend on anyone for help, not even her boyfriend of 10 years. And Noelle went from a youth spent mired in promiscuity to a life in Israel, where she and her husband, Amram, are Orthodox Jews raising four boys. Leo's widow, Thisbe, also flies in from California with their three-year-old son, Calder, and she is dealing with secrets of her own, as well as the struggle to keep Calder from forgetting a father he barely knew. As the family gathers, they deal with their own issues and rehash old hurts, and wonder where the future will find them.
When I read Joshua Henkin's novel Matrimony a few years ago, I fell in love with it completely, and I couldn't wait for him to write another book. The World Without You hooked me immediately, and if it wasn't for the obligations of work, exercise, and sleep, I would have finished the book in a day or two. Yes, this is a familiar story of family frictions and relationship issues, but the characters Henkin creates, and his terrific storytelling ability, raises the book several notches above your typical family drama. This book deals with questions of family, loss, communication, trust, dependency, anger, and need, and it does so quite skillfully. I don't want to have to wait another few years for Joshua Henkin's next book, but since he's such a great writer, I know it will be worth the wait! (That being said, I just ordered his first novel, Swimming Across the Hudson, off of .)
I had this book in my library for ages and for some reason unknown I kept skipping over it to read other books.Then I ran out of reading material and finally read this one.Oh my gosh, what a find. I couldn’t put this book down. It’s a story about a family going through crises, and how each member of the family is affected by the crisis. Because of how the book is written I felt I knew each member. It’s a beautifully written book of a loving family that is decimated by loss but joined by childhood memories.I miss them already.
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