Peter Rock (1) (1967–)

Twenty five years before this book begins, Helen, age eleven, disappears while on a camping trip with her father, Benjamin. She’s found a week later, a hundred miles from where she disappeared. The circumstances are never explained, and the incident leads to a divorce. Now, after the death of her mother, Helen tries to reconnect with Benjamin, but after her visit, her contact is mostly through faxes and phone calls.

Benjamin has a chance encounter with Melissa and Cisco, siblings who live near him, and who seem to know what happened all those years ago. They try to help Benjamin understand what happened. As the book progresses, odd things begin to happen, creating an eerie atmosphere to the novel.

The narration of the audiobook by Eric Jason Martin was outstanding, helping to create an atmosphere, not so much of dread, but of creepiness and oddness. The book itself doesn’t really have an ending (which I normally hate but somehow have no problem with in this book), leaving one to provide their own vision as to what happened.

My thanks to HighBridge Audio and to Netgalley for providing an ALC of this fascinating novel.… (meer)

Caroline and her father live a simple, meager existence, shrouded in Forest Park, a nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. Ostensibly homeless, they have built a secluded home in the woods, complete with garden, library, and shower. Caroline reads the encyclopedia and runs barefoot in the forest, exploring the boundaries of her domain. Occasionally, she and her father visit the nearby town for food, the library, his SS check, but mostly stay out of the reach of other people.


Peter Rock's My Abandonment is really a huge surprise. This slim novel examines their lives with dazzling, electric prose, starting with the childish naivete of the opening pages, to the shock of her father's subsequent unraveling, to the quiet mournful remembrance at the end. As each chapter unfolds, a stranger, more twisted history evolves, yet Rock writes with a tenderness that belies the darker truths.

Read this. Jeez, it will only take an hour. Okay, maybe two, but it's worth it.

jc
… (meer)