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Gone by Cathi Hanauer is a story about a man who drove the babysitter home one night and just took off, leaving his wife, his 14-yr-old daughter and his young son to fend for themselves. Does he have an affair with the babysitter? How does his wife and kids get along without him? Does he come back? This was a good book, well worth my time! I liked the daughter best, then the wife and then the son but did not care for the husband at all. (We got a complimentary copy of this book but that did not affect my review in any way.)
(Gerard's review)
(Karen's review):
Gone by Cathi Hanauer is an excellent book about balancing work, family and marriage. Through the inner workings of the Adams family, the author shows the importance of communication between husband and wife and changes that inevitably happen in a marriage. Eve is a part-time nutritionist and new author whose book is selling well. Her husband is a sculpture whose lost his inspiration and hasn’t really sold anything for a couple years. Consequently, Eve feels angry and Erik feels useless which leads to depression and a little 6-week vacation that he neglects to tell his wife about. What really got Eve angry was that Eric took off with their babysitter! When he eventually does try to contact her, she ignores his calls. While he’s away, his two children continue growing up without him. Although Eric isn’t big on new technology, he did text his teenage daughter to keep in touch.
My favorite character in this book was Danny, their young son who got a parakeet after the dad left them. My favorite part of the book was when the husband returned and his first interaction with his family was seeing his daughter sneaking out of the house, getting into a man’s car, and possibly doing drugs. That’s what finally gave him the courage to be “the dad” and step up, telling the guy to never come back and having a good father-daughter talk.
I liked this contemporary fiction book about modern family life and was glad it had a happy ending. I found it interesting that my husband and I liked different characters. He liked all except for the husband and I liked the husband and the son better than the mother and daughter. I think this could be a good book for a book club to discuss, not only the marriage aspect but also the wife’s work, Eric’s mother and sisters, and Eric’s work and the family dynamics. The bottom line is that a good marriage is high maintenance and needs constant attention. I recommend this book to any who like contemporary fiction about relationships.
Here's three teasers from it that I liked for you:
He had officially caught up to himself. Even here. Wherever you go, there you are, he thought—even here, in this still, dark Tucson night, the sweet smell of citrus blossoms on the breeze, the air a perfect velvet dome around him.
Pg. 138
And really, he thought now, more power to her for it.
But it made him feel like an aging pet, something that had to be fed and watered purely because you’d once acquired it, back when it was still cute and relevant.
Pg. 261
Maybe that was the secret. Don’t let perfect ruin good, Eve’s mother used to say.
Pg. 333
(We got a complimentary copy of this new book which is being released June 19, 2012 but that did not affect our reviews in any way.)
If you would like this book, just let us know you'd like to win it in our giveaway in the comments and give us an email address so we can contact you if you win. On June 24 one of our cats will pick a number from the amount of comments we get and the winner will be announced.
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