A Friend of the Family

I read this book because the book blurb compared it to a couple movies that I loved, The Ice Storm and American Beauty. Dr. Pete lives in an upper middle class suburb of New Jersey with his wife Elaine. their only son, Alec and close to Pete’s long time best friend, Joe (another doctor). In spite of......more

I read a lot of press about this book but it was a major disappointment to me. I failed to see the "great writing" about which I had read. The anticipation was not worth the result and the writing was overly dramatic. The plot development was SO SLOW. I hated the foreshadowing and the jumping back a......more

Just finished this novel last night--my first Kindle read. I had mixed feelings about the way that Grodstein built and sustained suspense about (at least) two different things that happened to (and as a result of) the narrator's misguided actions. On the one hand, I wanted to keep reading to find ou......more

As I was reading this powerful and unbelievably good novel--the story of a successful suburban father, husband, and doctor whose life begins to unravel in a seriously gripping way--I recalled the way I felt as I read the best passages of Philip Roth’s American Pastoral. My heart actually beat a litt......more

I wanted something different and wow, did I get it! This was dark.. but told in such a way that it was at times wistful and nostalgic, at times ugly and despicable. We're following Pete, a middle-aged doctor who we know has gotten himself into trouble. We get to know him quite well and while I disag......more