A review by zilfworks
A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein

4.0

This is a fairly fast read, and most of the time, as I was reading it, I wasn't overly impressed with the quality of the prose (it wasn't bad, but didn't by any means impress me as uniquely lyrical or magical in any way). By the end, however, I was quite caught up in the story's spell and, even more, extremely impressed with the way the author made the male protagonist entirely believable. In fact, I completely forgot that it was a female author spinning the story until after I finished the book. And then learning that this female was 31 and childless when she wrote the story - about a 53-year old man and his wrenching relationship with his 22-year-old son - made it even more impressive. I have a hunch this one is going to stick with me a while, which in the end makes it much better than I expected it would be.