Cost: A Novel
by Roxana Robinson
List Price:
Our Price: $1.98
You Save: $23.02 (92%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Roxana RobinsonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-10
ISBN: 0374271879
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Book Reviews of Cost: A Novel
Book Review: "All new from here on. We haven't been here before."
Summary: 5 Stars
As the Lambert family gathers at their somewhat dilapidated summer place in Maine, Julia is navigating the treacherous waters of her relationship with elderly parents. Ex-husband, Wendell, has remarried, ceding the house to Julia in the divorce. Not in a most desirable location, nevertheless Julia loves this house for all its flaws, the rotting deck planks, the leak under the bathroom sink. Julia's current troubles extend only to the potential problems with her parents, a rigid, authoritarian father, a delicate mother whose mind is fragmenting with each passing day. With the arrival of her twenty-four year old son, Steven, Julia relaxes. Inquiring after her younger boy, Jack, Julia is confronted with information she is ill prepared to process. Jack, a musician, is living in squalor in New York. The family has long supported Jack's itinerant lifestyle, but Steven intimates serious trouble, although loyal to his brother and their lifetime of shared experiences. But Steven cannot ignore what he has seen, the horrifying reality of his once-charmed brother's choices. There is a new, terrible member of the family: heroin.
Everyone used to the recurring dramas of Jack's life, this latest information has ramifications too dire to contemplate. As they have done with all Jack's "emergencies", the Lamberts go into overdrive. Julia contacts Wendell, conferring over the best course of action. Julia wants a family meeting; Wendell wants an intervention. But first someone must bring Jack to Maine. This family has weathered a difficult divorce, the elderly parents seemingly the next issue on the horizon, as well as Steven's struggle with a career choice. But suddenly everything is moot. What is wrong with Jack is serious, life-threatening. Like it or not, this extended family must join forces to confront Jack and implore him to change. Personal concerns, so beautifully detailed with each character, are diminished in the face of this terrible threat, a drug that steals souls and wreaks havoc on anyone in its path.
The denouement is devastating, the family confrontation, the knowledgeable, if smug Ralph Carpenter, arriving to do an intervention. Everyone resents Carpenter's intrusion, but he has ready answers and all they have are questions. At the center of all, Jack squirms with discomfort, enduring his ordeal by imagining his next fix, his escape from these people who are attacking him. Charming Jack is no more, replaced by an angry, frustrated junkie, no longer part of this intimate circle. Robinson's treatment of this story (particularly the intervention), an innocent, vaguely troubled family blindsided the destruction of a son, is harrowing, the detritus of everyday concerns a luxury in the face of Jack's addiction. Chaos, jail, intervention; all are on the table before the stunned parents and brother facing decisions they cannot bear to make. The Lamberts face an implacable and patient enemy; this is a landscape of nightmarish proportions, a minefield few escape unscathed. Luan Gaines/2009.
Domestic Life Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Domestic Life Books
Love Objectby Sally Cooper
Dundurn; Published: 2002-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.92
Price in other shops:
The Shadow Brideby Roy A. K. Heath
Persea Books; Published: 1996-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
The Magnificent Ambersonsby Booth Tarkington
Peter Smith Pub Inc; Published: 1967-06; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Sailing (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)by Susan Kenney
G K Hall & Co; Published: 1989-12; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
A woman of substanceby Barbara Taylor Bradford
Doubleday; Published: 1999; Unknown Binding; Book
Best price: $18.95
Stygoby Laura Hendrie
Scribner; Published: 1995-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.98
Price in other shops:
Christopher Parkby Rosemary Clement
Delphinium Books; Published: 1993-01; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Absolute Heroby Emyr Humphreys
Littlehampton Book Services Ltd; Published: 1986-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.99
Herman Had Two Daughtersby Zelda Popkin
Lippincott; Published: 1968-06; Textbook Binding; Book
Delta WeddingHarcourt; Published: 1979-03; Hardcover; Book
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Elegance of the Hedgehogby Muriel Barbery
Europa Editions; Published: 2008-09-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.15
Price in other shops:
Kieron Smith, Boyby James Kelman
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2008-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.59
Price in other shops:
The Tiger's Wife: A Novelby Tea Obreht
Random House; Published: 2011-03-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.70
Price in other shops:
The Sense of an Ending (Borzoi Books)by Julian Barnes
Knopf; Published: 2011-10-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.97
Price in other shops:
Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendshipby Gail Caldwell
Random House; Published: 2010-08-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.63
Price in other shops:
The Violets of March: A Novelby Sarah Jio
Plume; Published: 2011-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.38
Price in other shops:
A Visit from the Goon Squadby Jennifer Egan
Knopf; Published: 2010-06-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.53
Price in other shops:
A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Fatherby Augusten Burroughs
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2008-04-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.97
Price in other shops:
Home: A Novelby Marilynne Robinson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2008-09-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops: