Father of the Rain: A Novel (edition 2010)

Lily King is a gifted writer. I like coming-of-age novels, and this one enhances the traditional genre by focusing largely on Daley as an adult daughter of an alcoholic father. I agree with an earlier reviewer that Jonathan is perhaps just a little too patient and forbearing to be true, but I would probably have been disappointed if he had been otherwise. I love the way King respects language: her choice of words, her images, her phrasing are impeccable. Her characters have depth, and they move in and out of Daley's life in a way that reflects how relationships really develop over time. Definitely worth reading! ( )

Divorce is never easy on children. They often find it difficult to split their love two ways. Daley Amory is no exception. At eleven years of age, she watches her mother move on to a happy new relationship, but her father, Gardiner, is bitter and angry. He is also a drunk.
Gardiner's alcoholism has always been a "fact of life" for Daley. He could be huge fun one minute and a raging, malignant fool the next. So when Daley has the opportunity to go away to college, she doesn't hesitate to take it. She excels academically and discovers the stability of a warm and loving relationship with her boyfriend Jonathan. They are on the brink of moving to the West Coast of America where Daley has gained a professorship in anthropology...the pinnacle of her career. When everything looks as if it is going right for them, the spectre of her father looms again when Daley receives the news of his descent into deep depression. His second wife has left him and he has lost the will to live. Against her better judgement, Daley makes a detour to New England to try and pick up the pieces of her father's shattered life, before meeting up with Jonathan at Berkeley.
I found this book truly absorbing. The author manages to convey the desperation and conflict of trying to maintain a bond with an alcoholic parent. Daley wants to do the best she can for Gardiner, but there is only so much one human being can take and the voice of reason in her head urges her to flee and turn her back on her father. In truth, Gardiner seems beyond help.. Her friends and her lover want her to walk away, but the family tie is strong. Daley believes she can help her father to recover and sacrifices her new job and her relationship with Jonathan to stay and care for him. This part of the novel is heart breaking and very well written.
"Father of the Rain" is a very accomplished novel which beautifully illustrates the emotional rollercoaster of living with alcoholism and the strong pull of family duty. Is Gardiner a lost cause? Can Daley succeed in her endeavours? From the first quote at the beginning of the book to the quiet last page I was completely hooked!
This book was made available to me, prior to publication, for an honest review. ( )

Father of the Rain by Lily King – an emotional book about family relationships

This story takes the reader on a journey through 3 periods in the life of Daley Amory; it is largely told in sequential order without any irritating jumps in time, making it easy to follow.

We start in Daley’s early teens, when her mother leaves her father; this is a very painful period for Daley, adjusting to life with her mother and fitting in with her father’s new family. We get a clear picture of her father and stepmother, both drunks, neither very good at child care; and of how hard it is for Daley to keep moving between weekends/holidays with them and weeks alone with her mother.

The second part of the book moves on to Daley’s late 20’s, when she has completed her PhD, has a warm and loving relationship, and is about to move to a prestigious job at Berkeley and a new life in California with her partner, Jonathan. Just at this point her brother calls; her father is in crisis. She rushes home intending to stay only a few days, but finds that her father needs her and she is unwilling to leave so quickly. But to stay would mean losing her new job, and maybe even sacrificing her relationship.

The third part of the book moves on several years, but I won’t say too much for fear of introducing spoilers.

I enjoyed this book a great deal more than I expected. I chose it off Vine with some reservations (best of a selection I was lukewarm about, rather than with a “must have” feeling), but I am really glad that I did.

I loved the writing style; it is fluid and easy to read and the characters are mostly believable. More importantly, I was carried along by the story (and, indeed, sat up late into the night reading it!). I felt I was sharing Daley’s concerns about her relationships with her father, her brother and her lover (this is very much a book about how a woman comes to terms with herself and her interactions with the men in her life – the female characters are more lightly drawn), and I even felt I could sympathise with her decisions, though I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have made the same choices!

A 4½* read for me, I hold back from the full 5*s because I felt it was slightly “rose-tinted” in places; Jonathan, for instance, is just a little too nice to be true (but then, maybe I’m just jealous!). However, warmly recommended to anyone who likes reading about family relationships and the choices and compromises we all have to make. ( )

While i found this book quite compelling, there is something about it that bothered me. The dysfunctional family thing seemed quite cliched. The narrator (daughter)was too easily manipulated for my taste. Nevertheless, it's a good read.

Lariat List 2010, fathers and daughters, family, alcoholism, Massachusetts ( )