Overview

A year in the life of the members of the divided McKotch family, revealing their secrets and their conflicts The house by the sea held sepia-tinted family memories tight within its walls. Once a year it was dusted down, its windows flung open, the sound of laughter echoed throughout its rooms; this was the rhythm of family life. All that is about to change. When Gwen, the youngest child, is diagnosed with Turner's Syndrome, the family knows that her body will never grow to adulthood. Frank her scientist fascinated by the disease, while Paulette her mother is horrified. As they struggle to cope with the ramifications of Gwen's illness, her parents see the cracks within their marriage widen irreparably.

Full Product Details

9780007271252

Table of Contents

Reviews

Praise for The Condition 'With humour, grace and an abiding compassion that is becoming her signature, Jennifer Haigh illuminates the dark tangle of desire and deed that is the family, that crucible we so often yearn to flee yet keep coming back to again and again. The Condition is unsentimental, compelling and moving, and i urge you to read it!' Andre Dubus III NYT bestselling author of House of Sand and Fog 'The ailment at the centre of this remarkable novel is the human condition itself. Jennifer Haigh has written a sprawling, emotionally gripping account of one family's troubled history, enlivened by her formidable intelligence and deep insight into her character's hearts and minds.' Tom Perrotta, bestselling author of Little Children 'Haigh creates a realistic family dynamic from richly drawn characters, capturing the family members' various expectations of assumptions about one another. Compelling; highly recommended for all fiction collections.' Library Journal

PEN/Hemingway Award winner Haigh's third novel (Baker Towers, 2005, etc.) focuses on the now disconnected members of a once close-knit New England family.The summer of 1976 is the last Paulette and Frank McKotch and their three children will spend together as a family at her parents' Cape Cod cottage before the house is sold and Frank and Paulette are divorced. Cold but needy Paulette, who dropped out of Wellesley to marry, and warm but self-centered Frank, a scientist and professor at MIT, are sexually incompatible - he wants more and she wants less. Their already shaky marriage falls apart when their 13-year-old daughter Gwen is diagnosed with a chromosome deficiency that keeps her from developing physically in puberty; Frank wants to pursue medical solutions while Paulette wants to protect Gwen from pain. Cut ahead 20 years to the mid-'90s. Frank and Paulette have never remarried. Both are painfully lonely. Bill, their oldest son, has become a cardiologist in Manhattan. He is in a genuinely loving relationship with another man, but he keeps his sexuality a secret from his parents, and completely avoids Frank, who always favored him. Youngest son Scott, the family black sheep, has fallen into marriage with a woman whose coarseness is portrayed almost as a moral deficiency. At 30, teaching at a mediocre private school, he barely supports her and their two children. Although he lives in nearby Connecticut, he too rarely sees his parents or siblings. At 34, Gwen still has a child's body. She lives a lonely life working in a museum. On a vacation in the Caribbean, Gwen falls in love with her guide. Paulette, a conventional snob and overly protective mother, sends Scott to find Gwen, setting in motion a chain of reactions that ultimately force each of the McKotches to reexamine their relationships with each other and with themselves.After the lovely opening, filled with genuine insight and touching lyricism, Haigh overly orchestrates her characters' lives. (Kirkus Reviews)

Praise for The Condition 'With humour, grace and an abiding compassion that is becoming her signature, Jennifer Haigh illuminates the dark tangle of desire and deed that is the family, that crucible we so often yearn to flee yet keep coming back to again and again. The Condition is unsentimental, compelling and moving, and i urge you to read it!' Andre Dubus III NYT bestselling author of House of Sand and Fog 'The ailment at the centre of this remarkable novel is the human condition itself. Jennifer Haigh has written a sprawling, emotionally gripping account of one family's troubled history, enlivened by her formidable intelligence and deep insight into her character's hearts and minds.' Tom Perrotta, bestselling author of Little Children 'Haigh creates a realistic family dynamic from richly drawn characters, capturing the family members' various expectations of assumptions about one another. Compelling; highly recommended for all fiction collections.' Library Journal

Author Information

Jennifer Haigh is the author of the critically acclaimed Mrs Kimble, for which she won the Pen/Hemingway Award, and a second novel Baker Towers was equally well recieved. She grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania and now lives in Hull, Massachusetts. This is her third novel.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available