Stranger, Father, Beloved

I requested Stranger, Father, Beloved for review consideration because the premise sounded odd and intriguing:

When a man spots his wife talking with a stranger and becomes convinced that he’s seeing her with the man she should have married, he begins planning to replace himself within his family.

I still think the premise is interesting, but the execution fell short for me.

Larsen shifts viewpoints back and forth between Michael James and his teenage daughter Ryan throughout the novel. Michael is a successful businessman who has struggled with mental illness since college; we learn early on that his medications have become less effective as he’s gotten older, and his actions certainly point toward some kind of imminent breakdown. Ryan show more is primarily defined by the ways she is acting out; despite that, I found her perspective more interesting than her father’s.

I don’t have to like the main character in a novel, but I really didn’t like Michael at all. Even making allowances for his “faulty wiring” and trying to treat him as an unreliable narrator didn’t shift my sympathies toward him.

Stranger, Father, Beloved is a debut novel, and for me, it read like one. I think Larsen has some ideas here that could have made this a good psychological thriller, but the suspense never built well or amounted to much. The character development was sketchy and the prose frequently felt overly mannered; in short, the writing just didn’t engage me.

I don’t think a novel can be a disappointment if you go into it with no real expectations. For me, Stranger, Father, Beloved was a disappointment.

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Stranger, Father, Beloved by Taylor Larsen is a recommended debut novel featuring a family falling apart.

The James family is wealthy, living in a very nice Cape-style home on the Rhode Island peninsula. Michael James, his wife, Nancy, teenage daughter Ryan and young son Max should be content, but that isn't the case. Michael has a diagnosed mental illness, neurotic paranoia, and has been on medication for it for years. Now it seems that his medication isn't working as well as it should, probably due to Michael's drinking. That combined with his chronic insomnia is affecting his thought processes. When he sees his wife smiling and laughing with a stranger at a party, Michael decides that this man should be the one Nancy is married to and show more also the father to his children. Michael makes friends with the man, John, and sets his delusional plan into motion.

Stranger, Father, Beloved is told in the third person. Each chapter reflects the viewpoints of either Michael or Ryan, occasionally Nancy. It is all introspection, personal experiences, and thoughts. Michael is unlikable and looks at everything as something that could have been better had he made the right choice - the right choice being not his current life. Ryan, their teenage daughter, stays away from their home for days at a time, yet neither parent stops her. She is going through her own struggles with self-identity. Nancy is the long-suffering wife who loves Michael.

This is a very well written novel; however, it is unrelentingly sad. While I didn't find it particularly compelling, it does capture the slow demise of a family and Michael's paranoia. Ryan is actually the more interesting character, but the focus is on Michael, who is the most irritating.

Michael's constant looking to the past was tiresome for me. I know he has a mental illness, but he also sought out and craved sadness and dissatisfaction. His elevated opinion of his great mental prowess compared to lowly Nancy's lack of any intellectual ability was annoying. Ryan's actions and her freedom to basically do as she pleased because she is unhappy at home were startling. These parents are immersed into self-contemplation and yet so fearful of her reaction that they did not try to talk to her to find out where she has been for the past week?

Finally, the big startling revealing insight at the end felt contrived and opportunistic. Yes, Stranger, Father, Beloved is technically very well written and I stayed with it to the end. I just don't buy it.

Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher for review purposes.

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This one just didn't do it for me. The characters were thin, colored mostly by their own vanities and regrets. Michael was particularly irritating in his obsession with his road not taken, becoming an academic. I felt like he didn't take any responsibility for his decisions and just spent his time evaluating the physical appearance of women and feeling sorry for himself. The depiction of his mental illness was sort of interesting but it just didn't hold the story together for me.

Taylor Larsen's debut novel STRANGER, FATHER, BELOVED is an odd story of one man's descent into mental illness, and the chaos that results in his marriage and family. Michael James and his family seemingly have it all, but everything is not as it seems to outsiders in their quiet, wealthy community. There are deep wells of unhappiness and anxiety at the heart of this family's life. Larsen tells her story from the shifting viewpoints of all four of the family members (Michael, his wife, their teenage daughter, and their adolescent son). This is a nice touch, which allows us to see the family from different perspectives. There is some fine writing on display, although the dialogue (such as it is) can be stilted at times.

But ultimately show more this was a letdown for me. I didn't find the narrative compelling. Maybe it was the cover image . . . or the publisher's description . . . but I thought I'd be reading something dark and unsettling -- a book that would push me toward some very uncomfortable places. But that mood never really seemed present. The story wasn't very disconcerting, and I didn't feel the tension I think Larsen wanted us to feel. Mostly I found that I wasn't overly interested in these characters, and I didn't much care how things would end.

I'm puzzled by the references in the publisher's promotional material to Tom Perrotta and Lorrie Moore, two writers I appreciate. I didn't feel any of the emotional heft, complexity, nuance, warmth, and wit I associate with Perrotta and Moore. Really, nothing about Larsen's novel reminded me of their work.

I liked some things Larsen did here, and I look forward to seeing what she writes next, but I didn't find this novel to be a success. It's a flat, awkward book.

(Thanks to Gallery Books / Simon & Schuster for an advance e-galley. Receiving a free copy did not affect the content of my review.) show less

I do not understand why this book has nothing but good(ish) reviews. Reading this book was painful for me; not in a good that-really-affected me sort of way, but in a torturous can-this-just-be-over-already kind of way. Its not badly written, but the whole plot was uninteresting and tedious and made me feel depressed.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advance copy via Goodreads.

Intriguing story about a conflicted, unfulfilled man and his interactions with those around him. Better than many of the books I've read, but left a number of unfinished storylines in my opinion. This will likely be the first in a series of books with the same lead characters, which is not an approach that I like (or appreciate properly? - to me it seems as if the author is "mailing it in" by not developing new, fresh characters).

This story is a family drama at the core. But you are introduced to a perfect (but not) family.

The husband, Michael, has mental issues, including paranoia and his behavior is going to drive the couple apart.

The background is Rhode Island, but reminds me of a book I just read called Indiscretion (not the plot but the surrounding).

The characters are good but I'm not sure if I was able to relate to one so much that I was "rooting" for him/her. But I did want the family to be "okay" despite the main characters spiraling downward. But that would not seem likely...