Watching you without me /
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2020Copyright date: 2020Edition: First editionDescription: 303 pages ; 25 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780525658436
- 0525658432
- 813/.54 23
- PR9199.3.C546 W38 2020
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Liberty Lake Library Adult Fiction | Liberty Lake Library | Book | FIC COADY (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 31421000651787 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
LONGLISTED FOR THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE!
From the author of the Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning story collection Hellgoing --an electrifying, brooding novel about the lengths we go to care for family, and what happens when a stranger places himself at the center of one household.
" Watching You Without Me is like a Lorrie Moore book suffering a Patricia Highsmith fever dream. You slide right along on Coady's witty and endearing style, and meanwhile the trap has closed over you without your ever standing a chance." --Jonathan Lethem
After her mother's sudden death, Karen finds herself back in her childhood home in Nova Scotia for the first time in a decade, acting as full-time caregiver to her older sister, Kelli. Overwhelmed and consumed by the isolation of her new role, Karen finds a shoulder to cry on in Trevor--one of Kelli's caregivers. Karen gratefully accepts his friendship and comes to trust him all the more when she discovers how close Trevor was to her mother, Irene. But all is not as it appears to be. What begins with friendly advice and someone to talk to soon takes a dark and mysterious turn. Who is this person Karen has let into her home and into her family's life? How well does she know the stranger she has entrusted with her sister's well-being? As Trevor slowly weaves himself into Karen and Kelli's lives, Karen starts to grasp the unsettling truth about him and his relationship with her mother--and to experience for herself the true and dangerous nature of Trevor's "care."
"After her mother's sudden death, Karen finds herself back in her childhood home in Nova Scotia for the first time in a decade, acting as full-time caregiver to Kelli, her older sister. Overwhelmed with grief and the daily needs of Kelli, who was born with a developmental disability, Karen begins to feel consumed by the isolation of her new role. On top of that, she's weighed down with guilt over her years spent keeping Kelli and their independent-to-a-fault mother, Irene, at arm's length. And so when Trevor--one of Kelli's support workers--oversteps his role and offers friendly advice and a shoulder to cry on, Karen gratefully accepts his somewhat overbearing friendship. When she discovers how close Trevor was to Irene, she comes to trust him all the more. But as Trevor slowly insinuates himself into Karen and Kelli's lives, Karen starts to grasp the true aspect of his relationship with her mother--and to experience for herself the suffocating nature of Trevor's "care.""--
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Publishers Weekly Review
Canadian author Coady's unsettling tale of a clingy family caregiver (after the collection Hellgoing) explores a woman's grief over the death of her mother and her struggle to take care of her intellectually disabled sister. Karen Petrie, a 40-something lawyer, returns to Nova Scotia from Toronto after her mother, Irene, dies from cancer, to settle her older sister, Kelli, into the care facility Irene had chosen for her. At the urging of Kelli's caregiver, Trevor, who Kelli is always overjoyed to see, Karen hesitates at finalizing Kelli's move. Trevor possesses his own key to the house and makes unscheduled visits, leading Karen to believe his claims that he was close to their mother, while Karen decides to take care of Kelli until a bed opens in another facility. When social services calls Karen to follow up on an anonymous tip about Kelli's well-being, Karen leans more on Trevor, ignoring red flags, such as a creeping sense that Trevor had briefly kidnapped Karen and Kelli after a tour of another facility, until his behavior becomes alarming. Karen's sardonic, retrospective narration highlights how her grief clouded her judgment of Trevor, and Coady impresses with her careful, humane characterization of Kelli. This stands out for its incisive, bleakly humorous look at gullibility and the complexities of guilt. Agent: Christy Fletcher, Fletcher & Company. (July)Booklist Review
In her mid-forties and divorced, Karen returns, after 10 years, to her childhood home in Nova Scotia to attend the funeral of her estranged mother, Irene. She's eager to be on her way after she sorts out living arrangements for her older sister, Kelli, born with a developmental disability and whom Irene had cared for her entire life. But when Trevor, a caregiver for Kelli, offers an overwhelmed Karen help, his encouragement persuades her to believe that she can stay on and manage Kelli's care herself. Coady (The Antagonist, 2013) insinuates an ominous undercurrent that spirals to a tense climax when someone reports Karen to Adult Protection. Childlike Kelli's repetitive catch phrases, her whispering and rocking, become a comforting salve amidst the ratcheting action that puts the sisters in danger and leads Karen to a shattering realization about her mother's last years. Emotionally complex, with the twists of a chilling thriller, Coady's novel explores mother-daughter and male-female relationships, what it means to be a family, the rewards of selflessness versus selfishness, and the human need not to be alone.Kirkus Book Review
A woman returns to her childhood home to settle her late mother's affairs. A household aide is suspiciously eager to assist. Karen, the narrator of Coady's sixth novel, has returned from Toronto to her childhood home in Nova Scotia after her mother's death. In addition to arranging to sell the house, Karen needs to find a place for her developmentally disabled sister, Kelli, and she feels lucky to have a plan already in place: A decent facility has a room ready, and a home aide, Trevor, has been showing up regularly to take Kelli on walks. Kelli and Trevor seem to have a great rapport, but practically from the start Trevor's demeanor seems manipulative and vaguely threatening: He's overly familiar around the house, making nonregular visits using his key while steering Karen away from sensible decisions regarding Kelli's care. And Kelli herself soon suffers spells of illness that are hard to explain. That Karen is being gaslit is never in doubt; the novel's drama comes from Coady's sensitivity to how Karen, a savvy woman, could be manipulated by a man who isn't especially bright but knows her emotional weak spots. Coady has a talent for inventing creeps: Her novel The Antagonist (2013) features a half-crazed man who feels his life has been exploited by a novelist. Trevor is similarly unstable, and Coady takes a giddy pleasure in stretching out scenes that expose his capacity for menace while cloaking his intentions. And Kelli, inspired by Coady's real-life uncle, is a rich character in her own right: Coady is careful not to make her a mere plot device, inhabiting her hard-to-express thoughts and emotions with an acuity that heightens the drama. Karen and Kelli's unique sisterhood deepens the more Trevor tries to drive a wedge between the two. A thoughtful and intense drama about how insidiously family ties can be exploited. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.Author notes provided by Syndetics
Lynn Coady was born in Cape Breton. She has a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton University and an MFA from the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver. She has edited an anthology of new writing from Canada's east coast called 'Victory Meat,' and a novel called 'Mean Boy' has been sold to Doubleday Canada. She writes for newspapers and magazines from time to time as well.Her title, Strange Heaven has won the Dartmouth Book Award in 1999, the Atlantic Bookseller's Choice Award in 1999, the Air Canada/Canadian Author's Association Award for Most Promising Writer Under Thirty in 1998, and was shortlisted for the Governer-General's Award for Fiction in 1998. Her title, Play the Monster Blind, won the Canadian Author's Association's Jubilee Award for a short fiction collection in 2001, was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 2000, was shortlisted again for the CNIB Award, and The Writer's Trust Award in 2001.
(Bowker Author Biography)
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