Carolyn ParkhurstBesprekingen

Mystery

I read a lot of books. I am about to catch up to my record of 160 books read in one year in about a week. There are many books that I like and will praise, but know that I probably won't re-read them, but they were fun at the time. There are a few books in my many read books that jump to the list of mind-blowing books. Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst is one of those mind-blowing books. This is one that needs to be read.

The story is told from three perspectives- Alexandra- the mother from the past, Iris- the youngest daughter from the present, and Tilly- the eldest daughter who has a non diagnosable autism from somewhere in the future.

It tells the story of a family that has come to the end of its rope with their daughter Tilly, so much so that they are willing to leave their life behind and join a camp led by Scott Bean. In the camp, they are connected with two other families who have children with other type of needs.

Tilly has a special type of autism where she is extremely intelligent, but she also doesn't know the difference between appropriate and inappropriate. She is also spontaneous and will often break out into violent bursts. She has been kicked out of every single school she has attended. This camp is her only option at this point in her life.

As the families remain in the camp, Scott begins to become unhinged a bit and things are not what they seem.

I have been telling people this is a dark book. I find that important because I have been finding that many books that have autistic characters or deal with autism as a whole start to fall down the path of- we have problems, but we are happy and everything will be fine in the end. I find these books are somewhat unreal and don't really address what it is like to live with an autistic child, at least according to parents I have spoken with.

This isn't that type of book. Tilly isn't going to get "better" and her parents really struggle with what to do with her. At one point she screams- "Your lives would be better if I wasn't around" and Parkhurst gives us the insight that as much as the parents want to say that isn't true, there is a piece of them that believe what she says. This is real.

As for the camp portions of the story, we know something will go wrong from the beginning, so it isn't a spoiler. All I will say is- remember this is a dark story. The ending threw me for a loop and I did not see it coming at all. I actually found the camp portions more tedious than hearing about the past with Tilly, but by the end I saw the purpose of the camp. The parents even know the camp doesn't seem right, but there is literally no where else they can go and just need someplace to go. This is the story of desperate parents.

Take your time with this book. I was not familiar with Parkhurst's writing, but after this book, I want to read everything she has written. She is a phenomenal writer who gets into the head of a couple who want to do the right thing as well as a daughter who wants to love her sister, but finds her difficult to live with.

I gave this one a solid 5 stars. Read this one!

Interesting read. Not the best book ever, though. About how a person or group of people can become in involved in a cult because they desperately want to believe in something.

Ludicrous premise but it's not entirely about the absurdity of a man trying to teach his dog to talk in order to discover the true circumstances surrounding his wife's death - it's about grief, depression and acceptance. There's only brief examples of Paul's efforts to teach Lorelai to talk and, although disturbing and jarring, I felt the Remo sub-plot served as an example for Paul. To show him where grief might ultimately lead him. So it wasn't entirely unnecessary. I definitely didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. Given the weird interview in "Reading Group Guide" at the end of my edition, I guess I may have read more into certain aspects of the book than the author intended but ah, well. I still enjoyed it.

picture book (cooking, younger siblings; preschool ages 3 and up)
action-packed and funny; this would make a great read-aloud. Pictures are bright and appealing; you do need to see them to get the whole story (as when Elliebelly's dolls join the show, or when one of the dolls takes a bath in the batter), so not for dial-a-story, but definitely a crowd-pleaser for group (or one-on-one) readalouds.

Adult fiction. In this order: strange, beautiful, mysterious, tragic.

This book is written by the author of the Dogs of Babel, and while it's no masterpiece (it's kind of an odd nut), it is a thought provoking glimpse into a family with a child on the autism spectrum, and the lengths they'll go through to help their child in any way that they can.

The story is mixed with a large dose of humor. I wasn't a huge fan of the ending, but I'm glad that I read this. I feel like I've gained a deeper level of understanding, and the thoughts expressed in the afterword provided a beautiful perspective. 4.5 stars!

From the first page I really liked this book. It was different. The approach was fresh, the style good, and the subject matter grabbed my attention. I usually don’t reveal what happens in a book, but when it happens on the first page I consider it fair game.

The main character’s wife climbs up an apple tree, falls, and dies. The only witness was their dog. Being a professor of linguistics, the bereaved husband decides to take a leave of absence from his teaching position in order to teach the dog to talk, so that he can find out what really happened the day his wife died.

It seems outlandish because it is. At the same time, the characters are so well developed and the writing so clean that you don’t feel like you’re reading something crazy. About two thirds through the book, the plot takes a twist that I didn’t enjoy. It was a necessary turn; it moves the book along and brings the story full circle. However, if the author had found another way of doing this, The Dogs of Babel may have made it to my top ten favorite novels of all time. I would recommend this book, five stars.

romantic and wee bit sci fi. a bit like "so he takes the dog"

I really enjoyed this book. I liked getting different perspectives from all the charachters and I really like the premise of the Reality Show. Great book!

I really struggled with this book. I've read this book twice and it did not get better. I really didn't like Paul, the main character, too much and struggled with the storyline about experimenting with dogs.

Almost ten years ago a friend was in a women's book club. "Women's" in the sense that everyone in the club was a woman and they only read books written by women. I very much wanted to join this book club, but apparently there weren't any open spots for new members, which makes sense because it's hard to have a conversation of any import if there are too many people in the group. Still, I felt rejected. That didn't dissuade me, though. Like a pitiful junior high-schooler trying to find a spot at the cool kids' lunch table, I set out to read along with the club so I'd be ready when they had a spot for me.

And that's how this novel ended up on my TBR. And this week I finally read it.

It's quirky and not what I expected from the description. Parkhurst's depiction of depression felt spot-on. The story took a couple of weird turns (I wonder if Parkhurst keeps a dream journal herself and if it influences her plot choices?), but I found it an enjoyable read, even if it didn't get me in with the in crowd.

I enjoyed the different views presented as a new chapter. The parts that I felt were missing in the beginning were nicely filled in as the story went along. Overall a good read with interesting happenings.

“A whole life lived on television, that's what I'd be good at.” — Carolyn Parkhurst, “Lost and Found”

Anyone who likes reality TV will probably like Carolyn Parkhurst's 2006 novel “Lost and Found.” This may be why I didn't care for it. I didn't find it nearly as compelling as either “The Dogs of Babel” or “The Nobodies Album,” Parkhurst novels that sandwiched this one.

The entire novel is a reality show called “Lost and Found” in which participants travel around the world following clues that lead them to objects, such as parrots and ski poles, they must then carry with them for the remainder of their journey. Several of these participants narrate their stories, although the main characters are Laura and Cassie, a mother and her teenage daughter. Cassie feels guilty about giving up her baby girl for adoption a few months before, while Laura feels guilty about not even noticing her daughter's pregnancy. The show's producers, feeling guilty about nothing, hope to expose their story to improve ratings.

Finding and exposing secrets, its own game of Lost and Found, seems to be what the reality show is really all about. A couple of Christian homosexuals, married to each other in hope of beating what they view as an affliction, are others with secrets just waiting to be found. Cassie, too, has lesbian feelings she tries to keep hidden.

The line quoted above, about "a whole life lived on television," comes from Juliet, a former child star who hopes to use the reality show to springboard back into the limelight. She's frustrated to discover the producers find others in the game more interesting than her.

The novel makes easy reading. We feel compassion for most of the characters and disgust at the way the mostly faceless producers manipulate them. Yet we sense Parkhurst doing the same with her characters, making her novel, like the TV show, feel like something less than reality.½

Paul's wife Lexy is dead, fallen from an apple tree in their back yard. The police believe it was an accident, but Paul isn't so sure, and he desperately wants to know exactly what happened that day. But the only witness was their dog, Lorelei. So Paul becomes convinced that all he needs to do is to find a way for Lorelei to talk.

It's hard to know quite what to think about this one. The whole talking-dog obsession is honestly pretty ridiculous, as are the weird clues Paul ultimately follows to draw conclusions about what happened. Plus, the dead wife herself, who we learn about through Paul's memories and flashbacks, has a little too much of the manic pixie dreamgirl about her for my taste, even if she's a manic pixie with something of a dark side.

None of this feels like it ought to add up to a good story. But Parkhurst's writing is so good that she darned near pulls it off. She has a real talent for including little details that feel devastatingly real, and for insightful descriptions of what things like grief and depression and desperation feel like.

Rating: I don't at all know how to rate this mixture of the brilliant and the kind-of-dumb, but I guess I'll go with a 3.5/5½

Lost and Found is a reality tv show, similar to The Amazing Race, where pairs of teams race around the world, in this case, on a giant scavenger hunt with extra challenges thrown in. The story is told from the point of view of various contestants, as well as the host of the show. Cassie and her mom Laura are racing together; Justin and Abby, an "ex-gay" married couple, now avid Christians; Juliet and Dallas are child stars; Carl and Jeff are brothers. Of course, most of the contestants have secrets they are hiding from the cameras.

This was really enjoyable. Especially for those who like reality tv, and The Amazing Race, in particular, this is fun. Laura and Cassie seem to be the best developed characters, though there was a lot of focus on Abby and Justin, and Juliet, as well. The relationships were enjoyable to "watch" - those already developed and those that developed throughout the competition. Even though fictional, the "behind-the-scenes" look at reality tv was interesting, as well.

Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst is a satire about reality-TV shows. It alternates between comedy and tragedy while it explores the relationships between the various contestants of an Amazing Race type competition.

As the two person teams journey around the world from Egypt to Japan and Scandinavia, the producers, cameramen, editors and host try to expose the flaws in their contestants all in the name of making a “must-see” program. The raw emotions that they expose only encourage them to continue to dig deeper to unmask secrets and reveal hidden emotions. The teams are varied and interesting, in particular Laura and Cassie, a mother-daughter team whose prickly relationships hides a secret neither wants to publicly acknowledge; Justin and Abby, a married couple who have denied their gay history and have declared themselves born-again Christians but are constantly wrestling with their sexual orientation; Juliet and Dallas, former child stars who can’t seem to find the spotlight that they so desperately desire. The author employs a constantly shifting perspective that works really well in bringing this story to life.

At times heart-breaking but also at times very funny, these characters are pushed to the limit by the requirements of television with it’s relentless scrutiny and lack of privacy and while, the author didn’t break any new ground here, I thought the concept was clever and the story very interesting. The characters have depth and I was both intrigued and entertained by this story.

Successful novelist Octavia Frost is on her way to deliver a new manuscript to her publisher when she glimpses the news headline: her son Milo, whose rock music has achieved more fame than Octavia's novels, has been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend. That's the book's skeleton, but to summarize it based on plot is to ignore its essence. Octavia's newest work, which Ms. Parkhurst inserts piece by piece between the narrative's chapters, isn't truly new; it's a collection of her previous novels' endings, rewritten. And this murder mystery isn't truly focused on whether Milo is the murderer; it's focused on an estranged mother's charging and tip-toeing through a crisis-born breach in her son's wall. Why haven't Octavia and Milo spoken in four years? What happened the day half their family died? Can Octavia be the mother now that she failed to be then?

As always, Ms. Parkhurst's prose doesn't disappoint, and her dialogue shines. Some reviews consider Octavia's new project, The Nobodies Album, to be an intrusion on the primary narrative. I'm first in line to rail at literary gimmicks, but this structure worked for me. The premise outstrips the execution somewhat: the alleged novel "conclusions" actually read like overly summarized short stories. However, I don't see how else Parkhurst could have written them without losing her readers, and they do achieve their purpose: to reveal pieces of the protagonist's soul.

I didn't find the fame-cloistered secondary cast compelling, and the murder mystery wasn't anything profound (and I must still be missing something about the sugar bowl...?). But I'm glad to have met Milo and especially Octavia. She isn't always likable, but she is consistent and understandable. She acknowledges her failures even as she defends them. Through Octavia's introspective, emotionally stilted, self-conscious, desperate voice, THE NOBODIES ALBUM explores the brittleness and strength of family and the mystery of human perspective. If half-stars were allowed, this book would get 3.5.

Harmony is about an autistic spectrum child named Tilly Hammond. She has a younger sister named Iris and her parents are Alexandra and Josh. Her parents are nearly at the end of their rope with regard to controlling Tilly's behavior. They meet a man named Scott Bean, who invites them to help him set up a camp in New Hampshire for families with special needs children. The story is told from the perspective of Alexandra and Iris, with some chapters from Tilly. The novel ends with an interesting twist. The novel is a good insight to families dealing with children with special needs.

Alexandra and Josh Hammond sell everything in D.C. and move to Camp Harmony, New Hampshire, following an unusual educator who promises to help them learn how to parent their young daughter who has been diagnosed with PDD (pervasive developmental disorder). Tilly has been suspended from public and private schools because of behavior problems, and the move seems to be their only alternative. The story is told from the point of view of Alexandra, Tilly and the younger daughter, Iris. Very well done story of the school problems facing children who are are "different" and the hopeless feeling of their parents.

I almost stopped reading this because the premise was so ludicrous but I stuck with it out of curiosity. It was really about depression and stages of grief in the end.

Lost and Found feels like a light, beach read. I found the story concept interesting, but it lost me when it came to the characters. I didn't feel much connection to them, and much of the story felt quite unbelievable. There were definitely moments when it had me laughing and intrigued. I'm not a reality show fan, so that may have been one of the disconnects for me. If you like reality TV shows, and don't mind a story that is a bit outlandish, then this may be a book you enjoy. Well done to Parkhurst for creating something different.

3.5 stars

When Lexy falls (or jumps?) from a tree and dies, her (and Paul’s) dog, Lorelei, is the only one who knows what happened. Paul, a linguist, decides to teach Lorelei to talk so she can tell him. The story also goes back in time to tell Lexy and Paul’s story.

It was good. Can’t believe Paul would take Lorelei with him to that meeting!!! Poor Lorelei. Have to admit, I didn’t really connect with Paul (or Lexy), so I didn’t really feel that badly about Lexy’s death. I maybe felt more badly for Lorelei! Paul just seemed distant or something; he didn’t even seem that affected… or that might have been how it was written. Overall, though, it was still good.½

Ever since Edgar Allan Poe, who invented the detective story, we have known that a good murder mystery can also be good literature. Even so we tend to forget, isolating mysteries into their own genre and their own sections of book stores and libraries. Once in a while someone like Carolyn Parkhurst comes along to remind us of what we already knew.

Her 2010 novel “The Nobodies Album” is a low-key murder mystery with literary aspirations (just as her previous novel “The Dogs of Babel” was a sci-fi/horror story with literary aspirations). The narrator and heroine is Octavia Frost, a successful novelist who is rethinking her career just as she is rethinking her life. The new book she is about to deliver to her publisher is actually a collection of revised endings to all of her previous books. Couldn't they have happier endings?

Her own life, for all her literary success, has been less than happy. Her husband and daughter died accidental deaths some years before, and for the past four four years she had been estranged from her son, Milo, now one of the country's most popular rock stars. He had read something in one of her novels that, for good reason, he took very personally.

It takes a murder to bring mother and son back together. Milo has been arrested for killing his girlfriend. He was intoxicated and remembers little about that night, but he is discovered with her blood all over him and no other person in the house.

Octavia doesn't see herself as an amateur sleuth and doesn't act like one. She is just a mother who doesn't believe her own son could do such a thing and so looks for any other possible explanation for what happened that night. Can this story, too, have a different ending than the one that seems so obvious?

This idea of changing endings replays again and again throughout the novel, including when an aging rock star talks about rerecording some of his biggest hits. Can you go back and change what has already taken place, or must an ending be changed before the ends comes?

In the end, “The Nobodies Album” succeeds better as a murder mystery than as a literary work, yet both attempts are hindered by Parkhurst's inclusion of the last chapters of Octavia Frost's novels as well as the proposed revisions. Some of these are interesting enough, but they all interrupt her story more than they contribute to it.½

The ending was disappointing but the interaction between the children is often hilarious.