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kmrose's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed rooting for these characters. Nice, quick summer read.
givnuapeacesign's review against another edition
4.0
The Condition is a character study of family dynamics and ever changing relationships. Paulette and Frank married young and soon had a family. Each of their three children is unique and challenged in separate ways. Gwen the oldest has Turner’s syndrome, stuck in a body which remains small and does not go through puberty. As Paulette tends to hide Gwen’s condition, Frank studies it, tests it, looks for drugs and methods to help it. Scott was born hyperactive, never following the refined path generations before him have been expected to take. Beautiful, driven Billy never really came home from his elite boarding school and through his parents divorce was placed right in the middle. To the outside world, this family appeared perfect. Yet as we watch their lives unfold, we learn even on a life with minimal rifts, currents brew below the surface.
vazielinski's review against another edition
2.0
This book was very slow to start. I was hoping it would pick up, but that never happened. Maybe I'll try some other time when I don't have so many other books I would rather read :(
knitter22's review against another edition
2.0
I'm sure there must be something good that I can say about The Condition, but nothing has come to mind after two days' thought. None of the characters were likeable due to their extreme self-absorption, and the minimal plot dragged almost interminably while I kept waiting for something to happen or any one of the McKotch family members to wake up, show an iota of human kindness, or stand up for themselves. There is finally some action at the conclusion when everything is tied up far too neatly. I was so irritated at the matriarch, Paulette, by this point that I just didn't care. This is the book that may make me adopt Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50.
jessicabrazeal's review against another edition
5.0
This one sat on my shelf for a long time and when I finally got to it, I really enjoyed it.
ejamie77's review against another edition
2.0
Engrossing family drama, but there were so many errors/inconsistencies in this book that were distracting to me, and that undermined the novel as a whole.
elibriggs's review against another edition
4.0
excellent study of a family that falls apart and comes back together
amysbrittain's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting premise, but I didn't feel like the characters or situations were fully fleshed out. Just as I got slightly invested in one situation, we were on to the situation of the next character, and I didn't ultimately feel emotionally attached enough to any of them, given how heartbreaking their lives were in so many ways. The last sections drew me in more than I would have thought they would, and offered some redemption for characters in need of it, but the early portions left me a little cold.
mdsnyderjr's review against another edition
1.0
There are too many good books out there to waste time on a really bad one. I read about 200 pages of this book and I'm putting it down. I had to force myself to read every page of it. I hated every character in it.
csprfamily's review against another edition
3.0
I was a little disappointed in this book. It was difficult getting into and there was so much going on with the ins and outs of the father's science community, that it took away from the premise of the novel or at least how it was presented by the book flap. It would be great for those nerdy types that live within the research walls, but that's about it. The rest of the family is presented weakly.