Julia Lambert, an artist, is spending the summer in her old
Maine farmhouse. During a visit from her elderly parents, she hopes
to mend complicated relationships with her domineering father, a
retired neurosurgeon, and her gentle mother, who is descending into
the fog of Alzheimer's. But a shattering revelation intrudes:
Julia's son, Jack, has spiraled into heroin addiction. In her
attempts to save him, Julia marshals help from her loosely knit
clan, but Jack's addiction courses through the family with a
devastating energy, sweeping them all into a world of confusion,
fear, and obsession. In "Cost," Roxana Robinson applies her
"trademark gifts as an intelligent, sensitive analyst of family
life" and creates a "warmly human and deeply satisfying book,
marking a new level of ambition and achievement for this talented
author" ("Chicago Tribune").
Roxana Robinson is the author of four novels and three
short-story collections, as well as a biography of Georgia
O'Keeffe. Four of these were named Notable Books of the Year by
"The New York Times." Her work has appeared in "The New Yorker,"
"The" "Atlantic," "Harper's Magazine," "The New York Times, Best
American Short Stories, " and "Vogue," among other publications.
She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the
National Endowment for the Arts, and the MacDowell Colony. She
teaches at the New School in New York. Longlisted for the
International IMPAC Literary AwardA "New York Times Book Review"
Editors' Choice
Named a 'Good Read' by the National Book Critics Circle
A "Washington Post" Top Five Book of the Year
A "Wall Street Journal" Best Book of the Year
A "Seattle Times" Best Book of the Year
A "Library Journal" Best Book of the Year In "Cost," Roxana
Robinson tackles addiction and explores its effects on the bonds of
family with her hallmark subtlety and precision in evoking the
emotional interiors of her characters. The result is a work in
which the reader's compassion for every character remains
unflagging to the end.
When Julia Lambert, an art professor, settles into her idyllic
Maine house for the summer, she plans to spend the time tending her
fragile relationships with her father, a repressive neurosurgeon,
and her gentle mother, who is descending into Alzheimer's. But a
shattering revelation intrudes: Julia's son Jack has spiraled into
heroin addiction.
In an attempt to save him, Julia marshals help from her looseknit
clan: elderly parents; remarried ex-husband; removed sister; and
combative eldest son. Ultimately, heroin courses through the
characters' lives with an impersonal and devastating energy,
sweeping the family into a world in which deceit, crime, and fear
are part of daily life. "Robinson's fourth novel is an engrossing
tale of a patrician family's unraveling during a summer in Maine.
Julia Lambert is a divorced artist, trying to entertain her
oppressive, former neurosurgeon father (he points out everything
that's wrong with his daughter's run-down cabin) and her
self-effacing mother, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's.
Julia's elder son suspects that his younger brother, Jack, is a
heroin addict, and when this turns out to be true an intervention
is staged. The family's ugly, dysfunctional history pours out in
the process, in sharp contrast with the halcyon setting. Robinson
moves nimbly among the numerous characters' mind-sets, and although
Julia's meditations on 'the long tradition of luminist painting'
can drag, Jack's story maintains its tension until the final,
affecting pages."--"The New Yorker
"
""Cost" is unusual for being as plot-driven as it is
character-driven, and the assured manner in which Robinson builds
toward the inevitable train wreck is matched by her acuity in
bringing us inside the characters' minds . . . [Julia] gains the
strength not only to bear a grievous separation from her younger
son but, more significant, to question the separations she has
imposed on the most intimate relationships in her life. Why, she
wonders, has she done this? . . . Robinson has already shown us
why, having exhumed the many reasons in the preceding pages. But
the question remains worth asking, not only by Julia but by any of
these characters--by anyone, period, still struggling to connect.
With the novel's final words, which made me catch my breath,
Robinson suggests the enormous stakes involved in pursuing the
answer."--"The New York Times Book Review"
"Scarily good . . . I've never read such a spot-on description
of the mingled feelings of affection and frustration one feels for
one's parents as Robinson spins out here with sometimes comic
effect . . . One of our best writers."--"The Washington Post"
""Cost "is both lyrical and unsentimental, richly honest and
humane--summer reading of uncommon stature."--"The Wall Street
Journal"
"Set mostly in a Maine summerhouse more charming than functional,
this is a strikingly realistic, psychologically astute study of
family relations in modern America's educated class. As in a family
itself, competing perceptions of events past and present crowd the
pages. Self-involved preoccupations overwhelm many touching moments
of understanding; defensive postures become hurtful habits nearly
impossible to shift. But when compared with the single-minded
obsession of the younger son, whose heroin addiction organizes the
plot, the degree to which the rest of the characters value and care
for one another, despite their normal measure of self-interest, is
arresting. Robinson gracefully launches and bolsters her
psychological insights with concrete details of her settings. As
always, she writes with impressive polish at both the sentence and
structural levels."--"The Atlantic Monthly
"""Cost" is such an apt title for the latest book of novelist and
Mount Desert summer resident Roxana Robinson. In the novel, much of
which is set in Maine, the cost to Julia Lambert, the protagonist,
and to her immediate and extended family of her son Jack's heroin
addiction cannot be quantified, nor can the cost of the alienation
between Julia and her aging parents. In reading this novel--even
when some of the details made me uncomfortable--I cannot ignore how
Robinson's characters exemplify people I know and how perceptively
she depicts them. As the plot unfolds, the reader slowly realizes
not only that the costs are searing and exist on so many
levels--psychological, emotional, financial, physiological--but
also that various characters in their interior monologues
frequently allude to 'risk.' And taking risks incurs costs.
Robinson's mastery of the interior monologue gives the narrative
depth and intimacy. One identifies with the character and intuits
what may occur. While Jack's heroin addiction is not immediately
known, the reminiscences of his parents, brother and grandparents'
throughout the novel reveal that Jack has always courted trouble.
'Jack always went too far. His exploits were too perilous, the
risks always too great, ' recalls Steven, his older brother. But
the costs in the novel extend beyond the cost of heroin addiction
and alienation. There are the emotional costs of losing a beloved
son, and there are the physical, mental and emotional costs of
aging. Robinson effectively portrays these costs, particularly in
her characteriz
General
Imprint: |
Picador USA
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
May 2009 |
First published: |
May 2009 |
Authors: |
Roxana Robinson
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 137 x 30mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
448 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-312-42846-4 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
0-312-42846-4 |
Barcode: |
9780312428464 |
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