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

2.0

Brief Description: Peter Dizinoff is a successful doctor in ritzy little New Jersey town. However, Pete’s life is starting to fall apart and, as he struggles to make things right, he only succeeds in making them worse. His beloved only son Alec is living at home after dropping out of college and has entered into a relationship with a “friend of the family”—the oldest daughter of Pete’s best friends. Aside from being older than Alec, the girl, Laura, has a past that Pete can’t come to terms with. His wife Elaine doesn’t understand why Pete can’t accept Alec’s choices or stop punishing Laura for her past. Pete’s friendship with Laura’s parents (who happen to be his oldest and closest friends) is strained and threatened as a result of all this. In addition, Pete’s professional life is under fire when a patient’s family threatens to sue him for malpractice. Will Pete be the instrument of his own doom or he can save himself and his family from ruin?

My Thoughts: ACK. I really didn’t like Pete at all. In fact, I thought he was a bit of a stubborn and jerky jackass who caused most of his problems and then couldn’t fess up when things started going wrong. For that reason, I ended up not really liking the book. To be honest, I didn’t care what happened to Pete and thought that Grodstein was juggling so many different plot points that they started to unravel a bit and none felt resolved satisfactorily. Although I finished the book, I didn’t really like it all that much and was happy to be done.