Lake Life, David James Poissant
Lake Life, David James Poissant
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Lake Life

Author: David James Poissant

Narrator: Jacques Roy

Unabridged: 9 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/07/2020


Synopsis

From the award-winning author of the acclaimed story collection The Heaven of Animals, called “a wise debut…beautiful [stories] with a rogue touch” (The New York Times Book Review), comes a sweeping, domestic novel about a family that reunites at their North Carolina lake house for one last vacation before the home is sold—and the long-buried secrets that are finally revealed.

The Starling family is scattered across the country. Parents Richard and Lisa live in Ithaca, New York, and work at Cornell University. Their son Michael, a salesperson, lives in Dallas with his elementary school teacher wife, Diane. Michael’s brother, Thad, an aspiring poet, makes his home in New York City with his famous painter boyfriend, Jake. For years they’ve traveled to North Carolina to share a summer vacation at the family lake house.

That tradition is coming to an end, as Richard and Lisa have decided to sell the treasured summer home and retire to Florida. Before they do, the family will spend one last weekend at the lake. But what should to be a joyous farewell takes a nightmarish turn when the family witnesses a tragedy that triggers a series of dramatic revelations among the Starlings—alcoholism, infidelity, pregnancy, and a secret the parents have kept from their sons for over thirty years. As the weekend unfolds, relationships fray, bonds are tested, and the Starlings are forced to reckon with who they are and what they want from this life.

Set in today’s America, Lake Life is a beautifully rendered, emotionally compelling novel in the tradition of Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, and Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth.

About David James Poissant

David James Poissant is the author of The Heaven of Animals: Stories, in print in five languages, winner of the GLCA New Writers Award and a Florida Book Award, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, One Story, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, and in numerous anthologies including New Stories from the South, Best New American Voices, and Best American Experimental Writing. A recipient of scholarships and fellowships from the Bread Loaf, Sewanee, Tin House, Wesleyan, and Longleaf writers’ conferences, he teaches in the MFA program at the University of Central Florida and lives in Orlando with his wife and daughters. Lake Life is his first novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Barbara on August 26, 2020

“Lake Life” by David James Poissant is proof that likeable characters are not necessary for an impressive novel. The story takes place at a lake in North Carolina during a week family vacation. The six characters, who provide their own chapter point-of-view perspective, are members of a family. The......more

Goodreads review by Vonda on April 01, 2020

This is your usual family drama - adultry, tragedy, betrayal, lies. The parents decide to sell the family beach house so the adult kids come for one last summer. The characters are despicable and honestly people you want to have nothing to do with. The saving grace is the writing. If Poissant can de......more

Goodreads review by Amy on February 25, 2020

Despite the fact that all of the characters in this book are unlikable and deeply flawed, their stories, their voices, their struggles, stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page - and that is the mark of a skilled writer. A family, gathering for what will be the last time at their summer......more