The Imagined Life

Quotes

“A fascinating portrait. . . . Foremost among Porter’s 20th-century forebears might be Richard Yates. . . . Like Yates, Porter writes in a style that is lucid and unadorned. . . . He is less caustic than Yates, and more forgiving; generosity, rather than contempt, is the animating impulse. . . The Imagined Life [is] endowed with sympathy and propelled by the mystery behind the Mills family’s undoing. You want to find out what happens.” —Rand Richards Cooper, The New York Times Book Review

“Poignant. . . . The Imagined Life toggles between description—of Steven’s trip up the California coast—and evocative, fine-grained recollections of Steven’s preadolescent life. . . . Porter’s conjuring of al fresco backyard faculty parties fairly gleams.” —Joanne Kaufman, Wall Street Journal

“Porter deftly combines a bildungsroman with the story of a midlife crisis to deliver a cathartic resolution.” —The New Yorker

“The immaculate beach vibes of Andrew Porter’s latest novel make it a perfect summer read . . . Porter’s atmospheric prose, pacing, human insight, and compassion forged a novel I couldn’t put down.”—Adam Morgan, Esquire

"With its quiet confidence and elegant precision, The Imagined Life is a masterpiece of memory, music, and longing. Andrew Porter is one of our finest prose stylists, and everything he’s turned his attention to here—a troubled adult son struggling to understand his troubled father; the slow disintegration of an American family; a boy coming of age amidst the wine and weed of California in the early ‘80s—shimmers into pure gold." —Kimberly King Parsons, author of We Were the Universe

"The Imagined Life is a wise and elegant novel. Andrew Porter bestows so much grace on the confusion of growing up and the relatable anguish of looking back and recognizing our parents as people—true people—who struggle just as mightily with sorrow and love." —Manuel Muñoz, author of The Consequences

"The Imagined Life delves into the space between the people we love and who we wish them to be. With unsentimental precision, Andrew Porter examines the flawed relationship between a father and son, approaching it with the grace of a true literary master." —Jai Chakrabarti, author of A Play for the End of the World

“A gorgeous, glow-in-the-dark novel, and the best book yet, from an unflinching, uncompromising writer of the highest order. A paean to the ‘unreliability of memory,’ the lives we imagine for one another, and the impossibility of ever really knowing those we love and those who love us most.” —David James Poissant, author of Lake Life and The Heaven of Animals

"The Imagined Life is haunting and intimate, Andrew Porter’s prose a master class in restraint and nuance and surprise. There are a handful of writers whose every book I will read, and Andrew Porter—because he writes novels like this—is one of them." —Lori Ostlund, author of After the Parade

"Such an alluring novel, with echoes of The Goldfinch. I was completely absorbed by The Imagined Life." —Roxy Dunn, author of As Young As This

"A fever dream of a novel, the past a faded, flickering film reel of Hockney swimming pools, bleached skies and febrile Californian dusks where secrets and desires can only be half-glimpsed behind closed doors." —Karen Powell, author of Fifteen Wild Decembers and The River Within

“Master prose stylist Porter expertly evokes the heady atmosphere of Steven’s memories while sharply rendering the costs of the ‘imagined life’ that Steven has clung to ever since, possibly at the expense of his own. Recommend to fans of Paul Harding’s Tinkers.” —Booklist

“Porter’s novel is astute about masculinity, shame, and the ways heterosexual matrimony can constrain both wives and husbands.” —Emma Alpern, Vulture

“Psychologically intricate and briskly paced.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A sensitive and insightful novel . . . Porter patiently knits [its thematic] strands together, culminating in an impressively moving climax.”—Harvey Freedenberg, Shelf Awareness