Cost: A Novel by Roxana Robinson
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Book Reviews of Cost: A Novel
Book Review: Haunting and gorgeous
Summary: 5 Stars
Robinson is a brilliant writer, and here, in Cost, she delves into the unthinkable: a family dealing with a son's drug addiction. Beautifully written--and at times harrowing to read because of the pitch-perfect details about addiction-- Cost is really a stunning achievement that is both literate and page-turning.Book Review: Great book.
Summary: 5 Stars
I liked the description of the impact of one addicted individual on the whole family dynamics. It's an excellent account of the pain and turmoil everyone goes through. I recommend this book highly.Book Review: Powerful story
Summary: 5 Stars
A dark, disturbing story about a dysfunctional family and how they deal with the nightmare of addiction. Beautifully written and highly recommended.Book Review: Got significantly better in the last chapter
Summary: 3 Stars
I picked up Cost after a great review in the Washington Post. Until the last chapter I was underwhelmed. Roxana Robinson's writing is good, but in my opinion, has a tendency to be overcooked. On about 10 occasions I found myself speed reading through sections of the book because they were just too drawn out (the boat rescue as an example). In other areas, however, I savored the writing and would re-read a sentence or paragraph because it was so well wrought.
I did not like the characters. They were not particularly interesting or complex to me. I found them dull and unlikable. Even the most developed mother, Julia, fell short of being either complex or likeable (pitiful, yes). As an artist and college professor, I would think some of Julia's dialogue would be more sophisticated, intelligent, emotionally nuanced. Instead, a lot of what she said and thought seemed so juvenile to me. The hard-headed dictatorial father, the soft and cheery mother, the aloof and chilly sister, the tree-hugging tormented brother were all stereotypical.
In all, I was disppointed in the characters because I guess they all seemed like characters I could have come up with if I had written a book myself. I love to read to see and marvel at writers' varied and amazing creativity that is so much beyond my own. In this regard, the book disappointed.
(SPOILER ALERT) Because of the poignancy of the last chapter, however, I added 2 stars to what would otherwise be a one star review for me. In the last chapter, the focus shifted from the story of trying to get Jack into rehab, to after he's gone into rehab, told from his mother Julia's point of view. I loved the way the author made the shift, very softly. I also loved the unexpected emotions of Julia. Tormented by Jack's failure in rehab and halfway houses (alluded to but thankfully not belabored much), Julia never knows where Jack is, has long since lost all trust of him, and realizes that he is beyond help. She is in a slow and never-ending torture of worry and torment. The only relief from this she has is Jack's ultimate death. The author wrote and handled the last chapter absolutely equisitely. This was a nice ending salvage for an otherwise so-so book.
The jacket painting is beautiful.
Book Review: 400 Page Episode of "Intervention"
Summary: 3 Stars
This book didn't live up to the hypge that surrounded it when it came out, but it was still a very interesting read. Few authors inhabit the minds of their characters as intricately and realistically as Ms Robinson has here. I won't reveal any plot points (there is really only 1) but I'll just say that I felt a tremendous sense of waste when it ended, both about the characters and the author. The book essentially puts a microscope on lives horribly mis-spent and it is both fascinating and crushingly depressing to peer down upon them. You can't not ask if you, too, are throwing away your years--maybe already threw them away and didn't know it. For this, I'm actually thankful to the author. The book woke me up and made me think about how I spend my time, how I interact with my family, what they think of me when I'm not with them. The second sense of waste I felt relates to the author's talents. If her ambition matched her skills, this would have been a completely different and better book--perhaps this book wouldn't have existed at all. She is capable of a sprawlingly complex novel and I hope she writes it--next.