
I am so glad I read the Boston Globe review of this book a few weeks ago and was able to get a hold of a copy before leaving for my holiday trip. I spent every spare moment reading it. No...it is not riverting in a way a good mystery can be... but it resonates with any one who has been a parent and has tried to shield his child from harm. In fact, the characters are so life-like I feel that I have met them before and wish I could find out what comes next in the story.Pete Dizinoff is a successful internist practicing medicine and living in suburban northern New Jersey (where I come from) and is the father of Alex, a long-awaited and much loved and cossetted son. Pete's best friend and fellow doctor (ob-gyn) Joe lives in the same town, went to the same medical school and has four children of his own. When Joe's oldest daughter Laura was seventeen she was charged with killing her newborn baby and leaving it in a trash can. The story is told in flashbacks; we never know the particulars of what really happened until much later, but the problem for Pete arises when long-lost 30 year old Laura returns to her hometown and meets 20 year old Alex and starts an affair with him.
What lengths will a father go to protect his son's future? Do today's helicopter parents have any clue about when to let their children go and help them to learn from their mistakes. What happens when we impose our own dreams and plans upon kids who choose not to play out their assigned parts?
A not-so-uncommon tragedy, and a great choice for book club discussions.
Posted by:
Susan Amann, Reference Librarian
