Wish You Were Here

Rating:
Summary: Character driven novel about ongoing dysfunction
Review: I can not speak for anyone but myself when I say that I found this book missing something. I checked it out of the library solely on the level of seeing different generations interact. I did see that in this book, but found most of them, save maybe Arlene, amazingly dull and shallow. I wonder if the writer would have been better off to focus on a smaller group, really getting to their deepest levels.
I found myself becoming infuriated by the characters inability to say how they really feel. The dysfunction continues in this family because no one is willing to say what is bothering them, from the mother, to the alcoholic daughter, to the bitter wife. There is no conclusion in this book....just stories hanging in the wind.

Rating:
Summary: Complex and accurate family portrait
Review: Stewart O'Nan has done here--successfully--what one of the members of the family he portrays longs to do as a photographic work: he captures the summer world of Lake Chautauqua, where time moves slowly and every change seems a betrayal of memory, rather than a step in progress. But this only the setting; the true stars of this drama are the family. O'Nan examines its web of relationships, politics and attitudes with an uncannily accurate eye. He assumes each character's point of view lovingly; he knows them all, young and old, male and female. And so do we, because we've been there ourselves--the recognition is half the fun of the reading. The detail, too, is marvelous: whose workbench, for example, has never been graced with a Chock-Full-O-Nuts can crammed with dead paintbrushes? Wish You Were Here reminds us what a flawed species we are, so eager to turn away from each other to search for that Something that must, by nature, elude us--the perfect light, the impossible love, the exquisite memory, the undiluted attention of our parents. There are no jarring plot twists, no car chases, no fights-to-the-death, no special effects--just fine writing, arresting characters, right-on dialogue (spoken and internal) and a week's crash course in what makes us bizarre creatures tick. Read; recognize; enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Rufus speaks
Review: The book captured me -- primarily because of the shifting points of view. Alone with Emily in her thoughts, I liked her and felt compassion for her. From Lise's point of view, I saw only a bitter mother-in-law. Which only made me feel compassion for BOTH of them, and the huge space between them neither seemed emotionally skilled enough to cross.

So rather than finding flat, dull, unlikable characters, as some other reviewers have, I found multidimensional characters with main themes they couldn't -- despite themselves -- shake. Is there love in this family? More on Friday and Saturday of the long week, even more in the recollections. Life is like that. I mean c'mon -- Aunt Arlene pitching the wiffle ball to Sammy "Whammy Bammy" Maxwell like his grandfather once did? O'Nan gives you many, many moments such as this that resonate.

Should the kidnapped gas attendant have been found? Should a character have careened through a wild arc of growth and self-discovery? While some readers may want that, O'Nan doesn't give it -- and that's his perogative. It left me feeling as I often do in life -- searching.

I found the climax of the book to be release -- the open bathroom door one reviewer wrote about. Maybe loss filters through us physically. Finishing the book, I was reminded of the quote (by Thoreau, I believe) that most of us live lives of "quiet desperation."

Lots more to say, but I'll end with this -- didn't anyone else appreciate the short chapter written from the dog Rufus' point of view? I found the dog one of the most touching characters, oddly. How much easier it is to be our true selves with a nonjudgmental pet rather than those we love and fear at the same time.

Anyway -- four stars. Had to write a review to boost the ratings. O'Nan is too talented a stylist.