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wordswithrach's review against another edition
4.0
I definitely think this book will appeal to a lot of people.
I didn’t relate to any of the characters, but I did feel for several pf them deeply. I felt frustrated when certain events took place or happened to them. My favorite character was a rather minor one, but I loved the dialogue with Leopold.
Now, I need my friends who have struggled with infertility to know this is the primary topic of this book. There are a few sexual scenes included in the book and quite a bit of detail about IVF. I have never gone through this, but this book does give me a greater understanding of what the fertility process looks like.
The book was a fairly easy read. The page length is pretty average, but it felt long to me because it doesn’t really have chapter breaks. I have mixed feelings about how the book ended.
You may like this one if you like family dramas.
Thank you to the publisher for my gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
I didn’t relate to any of the characters, but I did feel for several pf them deeply. I felt frustrated when certain events took place or happened to them. My favorite character was a rather minor one, but I loved the dialogue with Leopold.
Now, I need my friends who have struggled with infertility to know this is the primary topic of this book. There are a few sexual scenes included in the book and quite a bit of detail about IVF. I have never gone through this, but this book does give me a greater understanding of what the fertility process looks like.
The book was a fairly easy read. The page length is pretty average, but it felt long to me because it doesn’t really have chapter breaks. I have mixed feelings about how the book ended.
You may like this one if you like family dramas.
Thank you to the publisher for my gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
emilyinherhead's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars.
A male author writing a novel largely about a woman in her late thirties who is desperate to have a child—I will admit I was wary and a bit skeptical. I started this book SO ready to roll my eyes at how poorly Frank understood and portrayed such a deeply female experience and how off the mark his characterization of Costanza was. But! I'm happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Though the story started off a little slow, it drew me in after a while and by the end I was fully invested. I did guess the reveal, but since this isn't a suspense novel, I didn't mind—I'm more interested in the family dynamics and the nuances of all the different relationships.
I recommend this one if you're into character studies, important life decisions, romantic relationships, tension between grown children and their parents, new beginnings, or good food (Costanza cooks a lot and every time I read about her shopping at the market for ingredients or filling the house with amazing smells as she prepped vegetables, I got really hungry), and you don't need a lot of intense plot.
A male author writing a novel largely about a woman in her late thirties who is desperate to have a child—I will admit I was wary and a bit skeptical. I started this book SO ready to roll my eyes at how poorly Frank understood and portrayed such a deeply female experience and how off the mark his characterization of Costanza was. But! I'm happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Though the story started off a little slow, it drew me in after a while and by the end I was fully invested. I did guess the reveal, but since this isn't a suspense novel, I didn't mind—I'm more interested in the family dynamics and the nuances of all the different relationships.
I recommend this one if you're into character studies, important life decisions, romantic relationships, tension between grown children and their parents, new beginnings, or good food (Costanza cooks a lot and every time I read about her shopping at the market for ingredients or filling the house with amazing smells as she prepped vegetables, I got really hungry), and you don't need a lot of intense plot.
nxclx's review
I would have loved to have finished this, but it is simply not my time to read it. It's intriguing and we'll written, but right now it's just not for me. I will be holding on to it and be keeping it in mind for the future however.
deedireads's review
4.0
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/. Big thanks to Michael Frank and FSG for sending a finished copy of this book my way in exchange for an honest review.
What Is Missing is a lyrical, introspective look deep into the relationships and desires of a set of deeply flawed, deeply human people. The characters Michael Frank created drew me in and hooked me until the last page (and even then). I definitely enjoyed it.
The third-person narration mostly bounces between the perspectives of three characters: teenage Andrew, his father Henry, and a woman named Costanza whose famous author husband has recently died. The story opens in Italy, in Andrew’s perspective, just before he meets Costanza for the first time. Soon after they (literally) run into her in a museum, and Henry’s brought into their little world. Henry and Costanza hit it off immediately.
Three months later, in their home city of New York, the trio begin again: Costanza and Henry in a whirlwind of a relationship and Andrew caught in the middle. Soon, Costanza and Henry embark on a quest for a child, as Costanza has long wanted a baby and Henry is eager to begin a new chapter, a happier chapter, of his life. There’s a unique energy and relationship between Costanza and Henry, Costanza and Andrew, and Henry and Andrew. I don’t want to give away too much, but the conflicts that arise within each pair, and among the three of them together, are what charges the story forward and barrels it toward the ending with energy and intensity.
This story deals most strongly in the questions about the relationship between a parent and a child — before the child is born, as the child becomes an adult, and long after that child has become an adult. What makes someone a parent? What makes that relationship what it is? But also: What do our desires, choices, and actions say about us, and can we hold complex emotions at the same time, even while they exist in conflict with one another?
I was very nervous going into this novel about an experience that is so strongly rooted in womanhood — fertility and the journey to a hopeful pregnancy — written by a male author. I was glad to find that Michael Frank’s ability to capture all sides of a complex emotion, combined with (I imagine) some very good early readers who helped to ensure the voice felt authentic, helped Costanza’s character and emotions feel very real. It helps, too, that much of the story is told from Henry’s or Andrew’s perspectives. The choice to examine the conflict and issue through so many characters’ eyes was a good one, one that worked.
I’m glad that I buddy-read this book with two other friends, because the ending was something. As I got closer and closer to the last page, I found myself wondering how the heck this was going to come to any sort of a satisfying conclusion. I did not quite imagine what actually happened, and I wish I could have seen all three characters’ perspectives on what happened rather than just one, but it did feel “surprising yet inevitable,” as endings ultimately should. Can’t wait to talk through that one, though.
“Costanza wondered if all these other women in the waiting room had gotten themselves as wrong as she had gotten herself. What if, instead of reading, or texting, or hiding behind their earphones, they all started speaking, what a conversation that would be, what a chorus of regret and anguish! And anger, probably that too. And heartache. Not a chorus; an opera.”
What Is Missing is a lyrical, introspective look deep into the relationships and desires of a set of deeply flawed, deeply human people. The characters Michael Frank created drew me in and hooked me until the last page (and even then). I definitely enjoyed it.
The third-person narration mostly bounces between the perspectives of three characters: teenage Andrew, his father Henry, and a woman named Costanza whose famous author husband has recently died. The story opens in Italy, in Andrew’s perspective, just before he meets Costanza for the first time. Soon after they (literally) run into her in a museum, and Henry’s brought into their little world. Henry and Costanza hit it off immediately.
Three months later, in their home city of New York, the trio begin again: Costanza and Henry in a whirlwind of a relationship and Andrew caught in the middle. Soon, Costanza and Henry embark on a quest for a child, as Costanza has long wanted a baby and Henry is eager to begin a new chapter, a happier chapter, of his life. There’s a unique energy and relationship between Costanza and Henry, Costanza and Andrew, and Henry and Andrew. I don’t want to give away too much, but the conflicts that arise within each pair, and among the three of them together, are what charges the story forward and barrels it toward the ending with energy and intensity.
This story deals most strongly in the questions about the relationship between a parent and a child — before the child is born, as the child becomes an adult, and long after that child has become an adult. What makes someone a parent? What makes that relationship what it is? But also: What do our desires, choices, and actions say about us, and can we hold complex emotions at the same time, even while they exist in conflict with one another?
I was very nervous going into this novel about an experience that is so strongly rooted in womanhood — fertility and the journey to a hopeful pregnancy — written by a male author. I was glad to find that Michael Frank’s ability to capture all sides of a complex emotion, combined with (I imagine) some very good early readers who helped to ensure the voice felt authentic, helped Costanza’s character and emotions feel very real. It helps, too, that much of the story is told from Henry’s or Andrew’s perspectives. The choice to examine the conflict and issue through so many characters’ eyes was a good one, one that worked.
I’m glad that I buddy-read this book with two other friends, because the ending was something. As I got closer and closer to the last page, I found myself wondering how the heck this was going to come to any sort of a satisfying conclusion. I did not quite imagine what actually happened, and I wish I could have seen all three characters’ perspectives on what happened rather than just one, but it did feel “surprising yet inevitable,” as endings ultimately should. Can’t wait to talk through that one, though.
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