This is a powerful novel about any parent's worst nightmare- the sudden dissapearance of a child. O'Nan focuses on the effect that disappearance has on the people left behind- the anxious parents, the bewildered sister, the guilt-ridden friends. As the police investigation and search stall, the Larsen family graducally faces the possibility that they might never find an answer to what happened to Kim on that summer afternoon. The story is both poignant and terrifying- a truly excellent read. Highly recommended! ( )

A highly suspenseful book about a missing teenaged girl. Masterfully constructed and full of nuances. ( )

As with Last Night at the Lobster, this novel gives us more insight into the social ties between family and community than most sociological studies focused on the topic. In this case, O'Nan explores the ramifications of having a college age kid unexpectedly, suddenly and tragically removed from her family. The implications are spelled out for family, friends and community in great believable detail. What is so compelling about this novel is that both postive and negative reactions flow from the loss which makes the account seem more honest and ultimately, more human. If some works of fiction are less compelling because we dont care about any of the characters, O'Nan's novels are unusual in that we can related to nearly all of the characters. And with all the detailed descriptions of human strengths and weaknesses in the face of tragedy, there is still a narrative form that moves us continually forward with the speed of a thriller. ( )

Although the author gave voice to the family members and friends affected by a young woman's kidnapping, I felt the book fell short of evoking the emotions one would feel if in that circumstance. Interesting, but not as raw and real as the subject requires. ( )

I usually love O'Nan's work. He has an amazing ability to elegantly and eloquently give meaning and significance to small, every day details about real life. About three-quarters of his new novel live up to that expectation, but the final quarter falls a bit flat. Given that the story is about how a family handles the unexplained disappearance of a daughter, I'm not sure there was a good way to end the story, which comes through in the writing unfortunately.

While still interesting, this novel does not adequately show O'Nan at his best. ( )

A subdued character study about a family disintegrating in the wake of the elder teenaged daughter's disappearance. She's there; she's gone. Her car turns up, but she does not. In the immediate aftermath of the calamity, there's much to do: follow the investigation, put up fliers, organize searches, do tv appearances. But this is a crisis without end whose ongoing pressure forces all facades to crumble. The different ways family members and friends cope--and fail to cope--with the strain of unknowing, the cycles of hope and despair, survivor guilt, and the truths revealed about their lives is the real subject of the book. The younger sister of the victim is especially well done. It dovetails nicely with the Lamb book with its "snatched from the headlines" subject matter and exploration of the consequences of such horrors on ordinary lives. (Used it as an alternate selection for Lamb’s The Hour I First Believed; obvious connection to The Lovely Bones, though without its feel-good she’s watching-over-us thing. Reference librarian Barb H. likens it to Jodi Picoult, but without her contrivance.) ( )

Stewart O'Nan allows his readers to glimpse the lives of those who alternately hope and mourn during the agony of a missing 18-year old girl, Kim. The day-to-day existence is charted from the individual perspectives of those who loved Kim, and how each attempts to cope with her disappearance. It alters relationships between everyone involved in the search to understand what happened to Kim. O'Nan is particularly gifted at these poignant descriptions, and allows the reader to experience all the emotions in this unimaginable event. It also makes us aware of the very real experiences of those whom we see on television pleading for help in finding a missing person. This book will continue to haunt me for a long time. ( )

It was good...Last Night at the Lobster is a "tough act to follow". It reminded me a little of Alice Sebold's Lovely Bones. I agree with other reviewers it does remind us of the other victims...parents, siblings, friends ( )

Although the subject matter is depressing, the writing is not. Stewart O'Nan has written another winner (after Last Night at the Lobster). An 18-year-old girl goes missing in a small town in Ohio in the summer before she is to go off to college. O'Nan tells us the story of the search and the aftermath through the eyes of each member of her family and her close friends. Every character rings true and we feel we are living through it all with them, inhabiting their minds and learning their inner thoughts. An excellent story, highly recommended - this type of writing is why I love to read. ( )

I hated this book. It was very slow, too full of unnecessary detail and very disjointed. The ending very anti-climactic. I felt like I wasted my time in reading it. ( )

I guess I should have realized this novel was about how a family deals with the loss of a child, and not about the happy discovery of the child. O'Nan is a beautiful writer, but I spent the whole book focused on the missing daughter and hoping they'd find her...so it felt like too long of a wait. ( )

Songs for the Missing is not the story of Kim Larsen, recent graduate bound for college. Even though the story opens in her viewpoint, she’ll soon be silenced. And all that will be left behind is her memory. Her parents, sister, boyfriend, friends and community will begin a massive search for her. It’s their songs Stewart O’Nan wants us to hear.

Her mother and father will struggle and falter for a time before they grow into advocates. Her boyfriend will wrestle with guilt and her friends will worry about saving themselves. Her sister will grow from a fifteen year old in the shadow of her older sister to a young woman forever transformed by the time her sister was missing.

This reviewer’s not read any other Stewart O’Nan novels, but will surely be looking to read a few more. The thing Mr. O’Nan does best is tell the story in a matter-of-fact tone that is both tight and unsentimental. This is a rare skill for today’s novelists; one I truly appreciate. The story takes place over a number of years, but the passage of time passes effortlessly for the reader. Because it is so tight, I suspect that some will feel that it lacked something in depth, a fair argument. Songs for the Missing is a character driven, slow plotted story. The narrative is propelled by the voices Kim left behind, not by their actions. Like the story itself, the ending is abrupt and unyielding, a good match for the tone of most of the novel.

When my own children were young, I avoided all books on this topic in fear of making the thought real. It seems, when we imagine this horror, that we would never survive, but what Songs for the Missing does best is to show us the everyday lives of a family taking each step in that horror filled world.
Recommended for readers who enjoy slower paced, character driven stories or readers who have a special interest in missing persons, or readers who enjoy stories examining family/community relationships.

Read from an advanced copy.

Review first published on Many A Quaint & Curious Volume
© Tasses 2007-2009 ( )

Beautifully and compellingly written, but felt sort of cut off. It had such a hopeless feeling, it never really connected with me, although I kept reading until the end. Maybe I was hoping, like the main characters, for Kim's return. ( )

I have some mixed feelings about this novel. It is essentially a modern day middle America story of a teenage girl, Kim Larsen, gone missing and the effect this nightmare has on her family and friends. Definately one of those 'ripped from the headlines' kind of novels, it even mentions Natalie Holloway in the story.

At first I felt it was too 'Lifetime movie of the week' to be affecting -- but as I read on I found the story getting under my skin. We are regaled with the minutia of the search as well as aspects of day-today life for Kim's family. How life goes on whether you want it to or not -- you still have to worry about bills, cooking dinner, passing your driver's licensce test -- even though a loved one has vanished without a trace.

I feel as if the novel only mangaed, however, to scratch the surface of the unimaginable emotions that must be involved in such a situation, and also character depth was lacking. But, overall, it was a compelling read and I am left despondent and a bit haunted by the vivacious young girl whose voice so suddenly disappeared from the narrative. I just wish O'Nan had delved even deeper into his subject matter as this effort borders on the superficial. ( )

This is Stewart's 12 fiction book. This is my first time reading Stewart O'Nan's work. I throughly enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to reading his other books.

The books is about the Larsen family, the friends and a small town community dealing with the disappereance of the Larsen's 18 year old daughter Kim. Kim is a popular and happy go lucky kind of girl. She is a recent high school graduate who is leaving in a few weeks to go to college in the midwest. Kim disappears on her way to work one evening without a trace. There is very little to go on and nothing turns up.

The family is doing everything in their power to find Kim. Fran is doing media, handing out buttons, passing out flyers and seeks out donations to help in the search for her daughter. Ed is getting people involved in search parties. Finally with no leads or nothing to go on the media is no longer interested and the family is having to deal with their loss of Kim not returning home. The family continues to search and keep their hopes alive that they will find her.

Will their efforts pay off? ( )

O'Nan has written a wonderfully moving story about a family dealing with the aftermath of their daughter's disappearance. Unfortunately, Kim has turned eighteen just before graduating from highschool and when she turns up missing after a day at the lake with friends, the police are at first unsure how to categorize her disappearance. Eventually, her car is found, and foul play may be the next assumption. The real story, however, is about her parents, Ed and Fran and little sister Lindsay and how their lives change and evolve as the search for Kim goes on. Their reactions to Kim's boyfriend and friends is very real, as are their rough spots in their family life and eventual strengthening of their marriage. ( )

In Songs for the Missing, Stewart O'Nan allows us only one stunningly ordinary chapter in the life of Kim Larsen before she vanishes without a trace. The one chapter is so barren of clues that we are left just as baffled as the family and friends left behind to dissect how Kim could have disappeared on that last seemingly ordinary day. O'Nan's story, however, is not about Kim. As a matter of fact, Songs for the Missing is not, though it might seem, even a book about finding Kim. Songs for the Missing is a picture of the ordinary people left behind when their daughter, their sister, their friend is just suddenly mysteriously gone.

Each character reacts in their own way to Kim's disappearance. Kim's mother, Fran, loses herself and perhaps even the spirit of her daughter in her incessant publicity campaign to continue the search for Kim. Kim's father, Ed, forsakes his job and even sometimes his family as he follows the action of the search, traveling to each new area where leads are discovered to hang flyers and look for himself, unable to return home and simply wait. Kim's sister, Lindsay, retreats in silence to her room where she takes refuge in books, e-mailing, and the family dog, none of which can replace the identity and future that she has been robbed of with the disappearance of her sister. Kim's boyfriend, J.P. and and her best friend, Nina, struggle with some shady what-if involving drugs and an ex-Marine, whose late discovery robs them of the right to even be involved in the search for Kim.

The reader is present for about three years during which there are some leads but no real news about Kim, and during which all the people she left behind are forced to consider how long is long enough to feel bereft and when, if ever, it is okay to feel okay again. Without any certain resolution, the characters exist in a purgatory where hope has gradually faded away to be replaced with a nothingness that forces them to re-create themselves in a world without Kim without ever knowing whether she is, indeed, dead, as many suspect or merely gone.

Songs for the Missing starts out a mystery and ends up as a penetrating character study of those who lost parts of themselves when they lost Kim. As such, O'Nan's writing shies away from the facts of the investigation in favor of probing the pysches of his characters. As a character study, Songs for the Missing is an undeniable success. Unfortunately, my own curiosity, efforts to pry loose some unnoticed detail that would prove the answer to the mystery, and desire to know the truth about what happened got in the way of my enjoyment of the book. Instead of wanting to know the characters left behind, my mind was focused on what happened to Kim. Because O'Nan skirts those details and offers up an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion to the investigation without ever probing the hows or the whys that keep Kim's fictional family up at night, I ultimately felt let down and as if I had missed something that, it turns out, wasn't there to start with. A certain mindset is called upon to appreciate this book, and I wasn't properly in it.

That said, O'Nan's writing is crisp and clean and beautifully grapples with the very human emotions faced by the characters in this uncertain situation. Having read Songs for the Missing, I'm certain it won't be the last of O'Nan's books that I will read. Then again, it probably won't be my favorite either. ( )

It's the last summer before college for 18 year-old Kim Larsen. She and her friends spend their time at the lake and working at their various summer jobs. Being from a small town in Ohio makes them all ready to get on with the big adventure into adulthood but at the same time they are whiling away the last bits of the summer with the freedom of teens.

Everything changes when Kim disappears on her way to work one day and Songs for the Missing is a chronicle of the thoughts and emotions of those who know and love her.

I didn't have any trouble getting hooked during the first part of this book. I enjoyed learning about Kim, her friends and family and her town quite a bit. Somewhere in the middle though, the story lagged for me and I had to convince myself to pick it up again. I think this is due, in part, to some outside influences in my life and also because this is not a cheerful story. One thing I am sure of is that it had nothing to do with the author's writing. The author did a fine job of making the reader experience pain of the characters from their differing perspectives. Though the subject was a sad one and I struggled to get back to this book, I ended up liking it quite a bit. I'm glad I stuck it out to the end. ( )

Its a very good book but there are a few parts that are really slow ( )

Best Read For: Personal reading, book club reading, great for discussions

In a nutshell: Stuart O'Nan has written a fictional book that reads like non-fiction in that it explores the events and emotions experienced by friends, family, neighbors and volunteers as the search for a missing girl progresses, providing the reader with great insight into what experiences might be like surrounding a missing person. I found myself viewing events going on around me a little differently after reading this book, giving a little more thought to what the friends and family of news stories are experiencing.

My point of view:
A fictional book that seems like a non-fiction documentary. My attention was caught after reading the first chapter - I had to know what happened next! This is the heartwrenching story of a young girl about ready to leave the high school and town she has known all her life to begin her next journey in college, who vanishes.

Stewart O'Nan has done a wonderful job of engaging readers so they can gain some insight into what happens when a family member or friend goes missing. He delves into what thoughts go through peoples minds, what processes are followed and why, and the emotional changes taking place in everyones lives, from the younger sister, father, mother, boyfriend, best friend, neighbors, media, etc.

Prior to reading this book, I had never really considered just what a family goes through when a member goes missing - this book does a great job of filling in the blanks (speaking as someone who has never gone through a situation like this).

This is a thought provoking book that would make a good book club read. ( )

What if a small-town girl, in the summer before she goes off to college, were to disappear? Stewart O’Nan’s answer: Songs for the Missing, an exploration of the effects of such a disappearance on the girl’s family, friends, and northern-Ohio community.

The Songs are a series of third-person narratives, alternating among the girl’s family and friends. Their markedly distant (unemotional) style evokes television news coverage of similar real-life cases, and for me, permitted a mostly intellectual connection with the characters. While I made assumptions about their emotions and motivations based on my life experiences, there was little surprising or unfamiliar to lead me to new understandings. It was a pleasant read -- the first third provided an interesting documentary, the second a more engaging story, and the third a sudden and too-tidy wrap-up -- but in the end, I came away with little new from the experience.

[Coincidentally, Anita Shreve's upcoming novel, Testimony, will be released within a week of O'Nan's, and I happened to read ARCs of them in proximity. Shreve's examination of the precipitating factors and aftermath of a sex scandal at a private Vermont high school is also accomplished through numerous, alternating points of view -- but in contrast, was revelatory and is highly recommended.] ( )

I think that if you're looking for a fast-paced suspenseful thriller, you may be a bit disappointed in this book. In that respect, the cover description is a little misleading. Though this is a work of fiction, it often felt to me like a nonfiction piece, which is neither good nor bad. I enjoyed this book for the most part, although I think something in me wanted it to be a little more suspenseful. As other reviewers have said, it was more of a character study as the result of a tragic incident. In that respect, it was probably more realistic and representative of what a family & community actually does go through when something like this happens. In all honesty, it was a rather depressing book, but that's to be expected with a subject matter such as this. As for the writing style, I found it simple but beautiful, and wasn't bothered at all by the change in points of view. I'm still puzzling over the ending, in that I'm not sure if that would've been my choice, had I been the writer. Whereas I think the last couple of chapters could've made a larger impact on the reader had they been written differently, I felt that O'Nan rushed the ending and I, as a reader, felt rather let-down. ( )

Although Stewart O'Nan's book SONGS FOR THE MISSING gives the hope and impression of a fast paced, highly anticipated read, it falls short. Instead, the readers are the ones who will find themselves missing...missing out on a better book.

Kim Larsen, preparing to enter college, goes missing the summer before she is to leave. The story introduces Kim and her friend’s characters fairly well and also leaves little clues of what secrets they may hold. Remember, however, clues are meant to hopefully lead to an eventual answer. These do not. Kim's family, with parents Fran and Ed, are described well and the book really spends a great deal of its time on their reactions and what they do as they try to find Kim. Also, almost as a side story is the sister, Lindsay, who is trying to be a person on her own, rather just than "Kim's little sister".

O'Nan writes in detail of how both parents go about dealing with trying to find their daughter in their own way. Unless one has been through such a tragic event, it is close to impossible to judge how one should act or feel. And yet, as the reader, one's common sense tends to find some of the parents actions questionable. We see how the parents feel about Kim and all her friends including the boyfriend but are never quite satisfied with any of the open-ended questions especially as many are never answered. It is this kind of writing that leads the reader to find it hard to engage themselves with these characters and the story.

In many of O'Nan's other books like LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER, we are entertained and satisfied with his writing. Unfortunately, I was not with SONGS FOR THE MISSING. I expected so much more and just when I thought I would give up on reading the book, it did pull me back in with hopes of what I might find out, but those hopes were quickly dashed. As I read through to the end of the book, I was left flat and sorry as I felt the end was rushed and had more time been spent in tying up loose ends, the book could have worked better. I am sure there are some who could find symbolism and comparisons of character studies, but I don't like to have to work quite that hard to read a novel. Thank you for the opportunity at least to try. Good luck with the next book! ( )

Another winner by O'Nan.
Kim Larsen, a recent high school graduate, is having the summer of hanging out with friends in her small Ohio town before they all leave for college.
Kim appears for maybe 10 pages in the book. The other pages are devoted to how her disapperance affects her family, his sister, her friends and her boyfriend.
Written with beautiful language, O'Nan takes us into the home, the life, and the small town and we live with these people. O'Nan is an exquiste writer, and never lets me down with a wonderful book! ( )