The Nobodies Album

Jun 09, 2010 Annalisa rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: f words

Shelves: first-reads, literary, mystery-thriller, psychology

I loved Parkhurst writing, how she so precisely describes human emotion where I can connect with the moment and say "yes, I know what you're talking about; I've felt that too." I love it when a book captures my own epiphanies and experiences in life and feeds them back to me.

It is because of this that I connected with Octavia Frost. Battling regrets in her personal life, she writes a novel compiled of the endings of her previous works with new endings. On the day she is submitting the project to...more I loved Parkhurst writing, how she so precisely describes human emotion where I can connect with the moment and say "yes, I know what you're talking about; I've felt that too." I love it when a book captures my own epiphanies and experiences in life and feeds them back to me.

It is because of this that I connected with Octavia Frost. Battling regrets in her personal life, she writes a novel compiled of the endings of her previous works with new endings. On the day she is submitting the project to her editor, she learns that her estranged, rock-star son has been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend. I think I enjoyed Milo's character more than Octavia's, not because I liked him more but because I didn't. He was a complex character I enjoyed exploring as much as Octavia did from outside his inner circle.

As she sets out to redevelop a relationship with him and delve into his innocence or guilt, her story is dispersed with the excepts from this novel of regrets. As a literary device, showing that Octavia had regrets and that an author always puts herself in her novels, I enjoyed the excerpts, but it didn't always work realistically. The excepts worked as summaries of these fictitious novels so I never believed they were actual excerpts of last chapters. They seemed more like discarded ideas that weren't enough of a story for an entire novel. My other issue with the excerpts were the interruption. The shorter ones I did not mind, but a couple of them were lengthier tandems that I would have liked.

My other complaint about the book would be the ending (no spoilers). It wasn't bad, but after Octavia's comment (which I can't find right now) that an ending should not be predictable but the reader should feel like it was the only logical conclusion, I was expecting that sort of conclusion. Instead I was given an ending like the excerpts, a summary that wasn't inevitable. It read more like an epilogue. I get the correlation to the excerpts and that Octavia did have to accept the ending her life was heading toward, that she could change her regrets, but I would have preferred to be wowed.

They are few and minor complaints. Since this was an ARC, there were also several mistakes, mostly with punctuation, but I expect will be fixed by the release. Even though it took me a good week to read this story, I was into it and savored much of it. Overall, I think Parkhurst is a very talented author. I will be checking out her other books, which I rarely am inspired to do. When I can find them, I'll come back and list some of my favorite quotes.(less)

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Jun 25, 2011 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I finally got around to reading this, even though I won it as an ARC ages ago... It's a story within a story, that has more stories within. Confused yet? The main character is an author who is rewriting the endings of her novels, which are excerpted throughout this novel. The problem is, they read more like short stories to me; I don't quite see how they succeeded as actual novels. There's also a huge detail conveniently left out and revealed at an opportune time, affecting the murder investigat...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Robert Starner added it

This is a greatly entertaining read with many fascinating layering well executed by the author. The story line is author Octavia Frost is submitting her latest manuscript to her editor in New York when she sees the newsfeed on Times Square indicating that her son, a successful rock singer, has been arrested for the alleged murder of his girlfriend. So Frost flies to San Franciso to aid her son in any way she can. They haven't spoken in four years. Their relationship is strained due to circumstan...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Ikebukuro rated it 5 of 5 stars

Un vrai coup de coeur pour ce roman de Carolyn Parkhurst et la découverte d'un auteur à travers un livre brillant tant dans la construction que dans l'écriture. J'ai adoré cette histoire qui mélange habilement drame familial, enquête policière, questions sur la littérature et sur le déroulement d'une vie à travers les choix que l'on peut faire.

L'auteur a construit son roman en prenant le parti d'intercaler l'évolution littéraire de son héroïne Octovia Frost à travers les derniers chapitres de se...more Un vrai coup de coeur pour ce roman de Carolyn Parkhurst et la découverte d'un auteur à travers un livre brillant tant dans la construction que dans l'écriture. J'ai adoré cette histoire qui mélange habilement drame familial, enquête policière, questions sur la littérature et sur le déroulement d'une vie à travers les choix que l'on peut faire.

L'auteur a construit son roman en prenant le parti d'intercaler l'évolution littéraire de son héroïne Octovia Frost à travers les derniers chapitres de ses livres et les nouvelles fins qu'elle vient de proposer à son éditeur et les jours qui suivent l'arrestation de son fils pour le meurtre de Bettina sa petite amie. Un fils marqué par la perte accidentelle d'une petite soeur et d'un père quand il était enfant, un fils devenu rock star qu'elle n'a pas revu depuis des années et qu'elle ne connaît plus qu'à travers les magazines people et les chansons qu'il écrit. Un fils qui a coupé les ponts avec elle et qui refuse de la voir !

J'ai trouvé que tout au long du livre ces deux parties de complétaient et se répondaient constamment, l'une donnant des clés pour comprendre la relation mère fils, l'autre expliquant les choix littéraires d'Octavia. L'intrigue est prenante et les relations entre les personnages sont particulièrement intéressantes, le suspens est maintenu jusqu'à la fin même s'il n'y a pas vraiment d'enquête policière a proprement dit : pas d'inspecteur de police, d'interrogatoires, de procès... tout tourne autour des relations entre les personnages et l'importance de leur implication dans l'histoire. Tous sont attachants à leur manière, Milo le fils retrouvé, Joe l'ami d'enfance, Roland la "vieille" rock star père de substitution, Chloe la compagne de Joe qui sera là pour aider à recréer le lien entre Milo et sa mère, l'ombre de Bettina qui plane au-dessus du livre... tous ont leur rôle à jouer dans l'intrigue et tous ont su m'émouvoir chacun à leur façon.

J'ai aussi beaucoup aimé les chapitres qui nous présentent les livres d'Octovia avec leurs nouvelles fins. Je crois que ce sont des romans que j'aurai aimé lire et chacun à sa manière est une clé supplémentaire qui explique Octovia l'auteur et Octavia la mère. Le drame qu'elle a vécu a constamment influencé son écriture et la fin dramatique de ses romans. Son désir de changer le cours des choses transparait à travers ce nouveau livre qui regroupe les nouvelles fins qu'elle souhaite donner à ses histoires. Mais peut-on vraiment changer le passé ? Comment ses lecteurs vont-ils accueillir ces nouvelles fins à des livres qu'ils ont aimé ? Ne vont-ils pas se sentir lésés par ces nouvelles versions ? Est-ce que j'aimerai que Jane Austen ait écrit deux fins à Orgueil et Préjugés ? Mon émotion serait-elle la même à la lecture d'un livre si l'auteur me donnait le choix entre deux conclusions ? Autant de questions sur la lecture et l'écriture que pose ce roman(less)

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Dec 27, 2011 Samantha rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After reading some of the other reviews of this book on goodreads, I am in the minority on thinking this book was just "okay." I'm not even really sure I thought that it was just okay. It is, at best, in my mind, mediocre. The words agonizingly boring come to mind. To me, that's as good as it gets.

Octavia Frost is dropping off a manuscript for her most recent book in NYC when she reads a ticker saying her estranged son, Milo, has been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend. This book is books...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Loyola University Chicago Libraries rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: beth

Cudahy Main Stacks: PS3616 .A754 N63 2010.

Parkhurst has chosen an unusual structure for this novel. The main thrust is a murder mystery about an author, Octavia, who learns that her estranged son, Milo, has been accused of killing his girlfriend. Interspersed are the endings and rewritten endings of Octavia's books, presented in reverse chronological order. These snippets have nothing to do with the murder, but they do obliquely tell the story of Octavia and Milo's estrangement; as Octavia revis...more

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Jun 12, 2011 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010

I thoroughly enjoyed Carolyn Parkhurst's first 2 books, Dogs of Babel and Lost and Found, which were both fast paced, light, and intriguing reads, so I was excited when I heard she had a new book coming out. The idea was certainly unique; the different nature took a bit to get used to but was engaging after that.

Octavia Frost is the best-selling author of 7 novels who has just traveled to New York City to personally hand in the manuscript for what she hopes will be her next novel. In an unpreced...more I thoroughly enjoyed Carolyn Parkhurst's first 2 books, Dogs of Babel and Lost and Found, which were both fast paced, light, and intriguing reads, so I was excited when I heard she had a new book coming out. The idea was certainly unique; the different nature took a bit to get used to but was engaging after that.

Octavia Frost is the best-selling author of 7 novels who has just traveled to New York City to personally hand in the manuscript for what she hopes will be her next novel. In an unprecedented twist, Octavia has changed the endings to all of her novels and compiled them in her new book she's entitled The Nobodies Album in reference to a conversation she once had with her famous rock star son, Milo Frost; the book is also an indirect attempt to re-initiate a relationship with her son with whom she has been estranged for the past 4 years for reasons that are cleverly intertwined with the other plot points.

Upon walking through Times Square, Octavia is gobsmacked when she reads on the news ticker (I assume above the Good Morning America studio -- go GMA! check out my love for GMA and all things New York here) that her son has just been arrested for the murder (MURDER?!) of his girlfriend, Bettina Moffett. Octavia quickly drops her manuscript with her agent, canceling lunch, and rushes out to California where she hopes for the chance to support her son and prove what must be his innocense.

Mingled within the story of Octavia and her son, are the original and revised endings to her previous novels. Each novel is introduced with the title and year of publishing followed by the synopsis from the jacket cover. We then read the entire original ending, and, after that, the parts she changed. This was initially difficult to get used to because of its choppy nature in the narrative and also because I didn't find most of the first featured novel that interesting. After that, though, I was surprisingly entranced within the endings of the other stories, finding that I almost forgot I was reading a slice of a novel within another novel.

The story of Octavia and her son, however, was even more interesting than those endings and was the driving force that kept me hooked. Parkhurst evoked such genuine emotion in her character, Octavia, that I felt as though I were reading the deeply personal reflections of a mother's struggles to reconnect with her son combined with her regrets over her actions that led to their estrangement; the emotions were so genuine that for the majority of the novel I confused myself on more than one occasion, feeling as though I were reading non-fiction. She describes, without necessarily stating bluntly, the way in which she walks on thin ice around her son for fear that if she says or does something wrong she'll be alienated from him again. In addition to the strained nuances of the mother/son relationship, Octavia delves deeply into the life of a writer and cogitates on what it's like to be a writer and how each book is and is not an extension of the authors themselves.

The Nobodies Album was an interesting and satisfying read. While reading it I felt like though I enjoyed it, it wasn't as much as I did with her previous novels. But the more I've thought about it since completing this book, the more I realized how well-done this novel was and how it deserves it's own consideration rather than being compared to the other novels. The one thing I didn't quite catch on to was what each of the stories had to do, if anything, with the primary storyline. They all related in some way to the author's life, but I feel like maybe I missed some of the significance.

Regardless, a good read -- Carolyn Parkhurst has a part of her site dedicated to this book... it's set up like the website for Octavia Frost, and they even have covers to some of the novels we read about in The Nobodies Album. It's sort of fun... check it out!

Taken from my blog at www.takemeawayreading.com (less)

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May 20, 2011 Anne Broyles rated it 5 of 5 stars

I started this book this morning and finished it this evening--found lots of excuses to read because I was immediately hooked. As a writer, as a mother, as a reader, Parkhurst's language and sensibility drew me into both the narrative and unusual structure. I was fascinated by the idea of an author revising the endings of previously published books, but the mother-son relationship with all its complicated permutations is what kept me reading even though I was also interested in the mystery that...more

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Feb 27, 2011 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Carolyn Parkhurst is an amazing novelist; if you've never read The Dogs of Babel (2003) then you definitely need to add it to your wish list right away. Her ability to shock readers and to write characters so intimately is truly a gift.

Octavia Frost is a bestselling novelist whose latest publication features re-writes of all the last chapters of all the books she's ever written and is entitled "The Nobodies Album". While en route to delivering the finished manuscript to her editor, Octavia catch...more Carolyn Parkhurst is an amazing novelist; if you've never read The Dogs of Babel (2003) then you definitely need to add it to your wish list right away. Her ability to shock readers and to write characters so intimately is truly a gift.

Octavia Frost is a bestselling novelist whose latest publication features re-writes of all the last chapters of all the books she's ever written and is entitled "The Nobodies Album". While en route to delivering the finished manuscript to her editor, Octavia catches a glimpse of a newsreel in which her famous musician son Milo has just been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend. Despite the estranged relationship between her and Milo, Octavia can't help but follow her motherly instincts and fly directly to Los Angeles to offer support to her son. Accompanying this storyline is the side-plot in which Octavia evaluates whether or not her family's past and Milo's upbringing has caused Milo's apparent meltdown. In addition, all of the final chapters from Octavia's "The Nobodies Album" are interspersed throughout Parkhurst's novel, revealing secret details about Octavia's and Milo's family past.

The first page of chapter one in The Nobodies Album is beautifully written and will immediately draw you in, all but demanding your undivided attention. The proud voice of Octavia Frost defends her written works, referring to the impact she has on her audience:

"But isn't that the point -- to write something that will last after the book has
been put back on the shelf?"

Why yes, Octavia, it sure is, and readers will nod with approval upon accepting this truth, knowing right off the bat and feeling in their bones that Carolyn Parkhurst has a fascinating tale in store for us.

The Nobodies Album is undoubtedly an original piece of literature and the book within a book just adds to the richness of the plot. Carolyn Parkhurst has the same effect on me as does Dani Shapiro; both authors write their characters so candidly, open and honest that you can't help but become emotionally involved. The Nobodies Album proves that family is what you make it; blood ties don't necessarily mean you know another person and that your intrusion into their life is always welcome. Parkhurst demonstrates how one must tread carefully when re-entering somebody's life after tragedy has torn apart the relationship.

Read more book reviews at http://dreamworldbooks.com.(less)

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Feb 14, 2011 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, mystery

The Nobodies Album could be classified as a mystery novel. After all, the plot hinges on whether novelist Octavia Frost’s son Milo killed his girlfriend Bettina. Milo isn’t just any old accused murderer though. He is a famous rock star—the lead singer for a group called Pareidolia. His arrest for the murder of Bettina is national news. In fact, Octavia finds out about the murder on a news ticker in Times Square. She doesn’t hear it from Milo directly because they’ve been estranged for the past f...more The Nobodies Album could be classified as a mystery novel. After all, the plot hinges on whether novelist Octavia Frost’s son Milo killed his girlfriend Bettina. Milo isn’t just any old accused murderer though. He is a famous rock star—the lead singer for a group called Pareidolia. His arrest for the murder of Bettina is national news. In fact, Octavia finds out about the murder on a news ticker in Times Square. She doesn’t hear it from Milo directly because they’ve been estranged for the past four years. Dropping everything (including her new novel called The Nobodies Album), Octavia flies to San Francisco to help … yet she isn’t even sure if Milo will talk to or see her. We follow Octavia as she attempts to reach out to Milo and uncover the truth about Bettina’s murder.

However, there is much more going on in this book so that calling it a “murder mystery” doesn’t quite do it justice. Although the murder mystery propels the plot, there are several other story lines that I found just as compelling. We know from the beginning that Octavia and Milo are the only two surviving members of the Frost family, but we don’t quite know what happened to the other two members. Another mystery is what caused the estrangement between Milo and Octavia. As you read, Parkhurst doles out bits and pieces of information that provide answers to both of these lesser (but no less interesting) “mysteries.”

The other aspect of the book that I enjoyed were the excerpts from Octavia’s latest book, which is also called The Nobodies Album. The concept of the book is that Octavia is rewriting the ending of all her novels. Throughout the book, we get to read the original ending and then the revised ending. These little “breaks” from the main narrative were interesting and intriguing, and I enjoyed them quite a bit. I thought adding this aspect to the book was ambitious of Parkhurst; it wasn’t something she needed to do.

Another thing I liked about the book was the humor. I thought Octavia was pretty funny, and I was often amused by her thoughts. For example, she is constantly telling herself: “If this was a murder mystery, this is the part where I would talk to the doorman and discover the clue.” This kind of meta-narration (after all, this is a character talking about the writing of a murder mystery in a murder mystery)—as well as the fact that Octavia’s book and this book are both called The Nobodies Album—was appealing to me. It seemed to me like Parkhurst was having a little fun and challenging herself.

Before The Nobodies Album, the only book I’d read by Carolyn Parkhurst was The Dogs of Babel, which was a wonderfully different story of a widow attempting to teach his dog to talk in order to discover if his wife committed suicide or died in an accident. It was a memorable and unique book, and Parkhurst managed to pull off what seems like a quirky premise and make it powerful, real and affecting. I think she managed to do the same with The Nobodies Album. Rather than just writing a straightforward murder mystery, she dabbles around with metafiction. It was a fun little experiment, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you’re looking for a literary fiction book that can double as a murder mystery, The Nobodies Album would be a good choice. It has a sly sense of humor and contains some interesting experiments by the author. I definitely plan to go back and read Parkhurst’s second novel, Lost and Found.(less)

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Aug 20, 2010 Jonita rated it 5 of 5 stars

Author Octavia Frost is fighting a whole host of personal demons. She's estranged from her rock star son. Her daughter and husband died many years ago in a tragic accident. Since so many of her novels carry an element of personal truth contained within her fictional words, she decides to rewrite the endings of her novels in a supplemental volume titled The Nobodies Album. She'll erase any truth out of the endings and by doing so, may help to erase the pain of her past.

After completing The Nobodi...more Author Octavia Frost is fighting a whole host of personal demons. She's estranged from her rock star son. Her daughter and husband died many years ago in a tragic accident. Since so many of her novels carry an element of personal truth contained within her fictional words, she decides to rewrite the endings of her novels in a supplemental volume titled The Nobodies Album. She'll erase any truth out of the endings and by doing so, may help to erase the pain of her past.

After completing The Nobodies Album she decides to hand-deliver it to her agent in New York. When she arrives there, she finds out some shocking news- her son, Milo, has been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, Bettina. Shocked and unable to make sense of the tragedy, Octavia flies to San Francisco to try to re-connect with her estranged son. Although she's not welcomed at first, she and Milo slowly form a relationship of sorts, and the events of the past couple of years of Milo's life are slowly revealed.

"The Nobodies Album" was absolutely riveting. I was sucked in from the very beginning, and wasn't released until the very last page. The way is which this story is told is what made it so compelling. Parts of the story are told from Octavia's point of view, but other parts are excerpts from her fictional novel The Nobodies Album. First we read the original ending of one of Octavia's stories, and then we read the revised ending. Each of these stories were relevant to the story of Octavia and Milo in some way and we, as the reader, are the ones who get to decipher how it is relevant. The mystery- did Milo kill Bettina? If not, who did?- is revealed to us piece by piece, and the characters are not privy to any information that we don't have. It was wonderful to be able to figure out the mystery along with Octavia and Milo, and to not know from the beginning who did it. The ending was not at all what I expected that it would be, but in a good way. For once I couldn't see it coming from miles away.

How much I could relate to the characters in a book often determines how much I will like the book in general. Happily, I loved the characters contained within the pages of The Nobodies Album. Octavia was easy to relate to as a woman who has lost so much, and is afraid to lose more. Although we don't get the opportunity to see inside his head, Milo was extremely likable as a heartbroken and often confused rock star who does not remember much of the night in question. Joe, Milo's childhood friend, was someone that you instantly approved of, and even Bettina, who we only get to know posthumously, seemed like someone with a generally likable personality.

Engrossing and often stunning, "The Nobodies Album" is one that you'll want to read as you return to the thought-provoking novels synonymous with the fall season.(less)

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Aug 09, 2010 Joanna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 100-books-2010

I enjoyed this book more than Parkhurst's "Dogs of Babel," but less than "Lost and Found." I keep reading her, I think, because she is such an ambitious writer. She really throws herself into new ideas and seeems unafraid to write books that are unique and literary and sometimes beautiful in their humanity.

I liked the story of this book, the semi-famous mother and son so estranged that they keep up with one another mainly through gossip magazines. I liked the buried tragedy in their shared past...more

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Jul 20, 2010 Andy Katin rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very enjoyable somewhat literary reading experience, with great writing that I wanted to savor. Particularly moving were the interspersed chapters of a fictitious book written by the narrator in which she goes over previous books she has written and provides the original last chapter and a changed one. The settings were varied and imaginative but all had to do with tragedy and loss and a writer's use of her personal life to create fiction. The main story of "The Nobodies' Album" is a somewhat...more

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Jul 11, 2010 Jennyreadsexcessively rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sometimes I tire of quirky, clever novels where the author includes a story within a story (within a story). Here Carolyn Parkhurst delivers a gorgeous metafictional novel that works. The main character is Octavia Frost, a woman who is estranged from her rockstar son and who has experienced the tragic death of her husband and daughter. Octavia is working on a new book that will revisit and rewrite the endings of her previous novels of loss.

(from pg. 3) This book is different from anything I've...more Sometimes I tire of quirky, clever novels where the author includes a story within a story (within a story). Here Carolyn Parkhurst delivers a gorgeous metafictional novel that works. The main character is Octavia Frost, a woman who is estranged from her rockstar son and who has experienced the tragic death of her husband and daughter. Octavia is working on a new book that will revisit and rewrite the endings of her previous novels of loss.

(from pg. 3) This book is different from anything I've done in the past; in fact, I'm going to puff myself up a little bit and say that it's different from anything anyone has done in the past, though there isn't a writer alive who hasn't thought about it. The Nobodies Album isn't a novel, though ever word of it is fiction. Do you see me talking around it now, building up the suspense? Can you hear the excitement creeping into my voice? Because what I've done here is nothing short of revolutionary, and I want to make sure the impact is clear. What I've done in this book is to revisit the seven novels I've published in the last twenty years and rewrite the ending of each one.

The main narrative is about Octavia reconnecting with her son who is accused of murdering his girlfriend. The murder mystery is not my favorite part, but is clearly developed as a vehicle for the mother and son to bond.

What I loved were the sprinkling of the assortment of imaginary final chapters and their revisions. It is through Octavia's fiction that we feel the pain of her loss and the need to go back and fix what is wrong. The short stories do not take up much room and do not distract from the main plot. The biggest compliment I can pay is that I would love to see Parkhurst turn each of these vignettes into actual novels.

Carolyn Parkhurst writes in a beautiful, literary voice. Late in the novel, Octavia reflects on the impact the deaths of her husband and daughter have had upon her writing:

Of course that day and all of the days that followed it became part of my work. It didn't feel like a choice. The profanity of death and the sacredness of grief: what more important material is there When, in each of my subsequent books, I took time to pause and consider what we had had and what we had lost, it was something like the Muslim call to prayer. Such a powerful act. Imagine taking the time to stop your ordinary life five times a day in order to turn to something holy. A supplication, a reminder. Bearing witness. A summing-up of belief. And if, in my own life and in my own work, I didn't exactly fall to my knees and touch my forehead to the ground, I performed a sort of internal bowing. I honor you. I'm thinking of nothing else. I bear witness that they were loved. I bear witness that they are not gone from my body, from my life. Make haste to remember them. Make haste toward prayer.

I encourage readers to reacquaint themselves with the folktale The Pied Piper of Hamelin before reading The Nobodies Album. The author's final story-within-the story affectively reworks the old legend with brilliant results. highly recommended (less)

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Jul 01, 2010 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I saw Richard III, a play when I was 21 years old. I was in London at the time with my sister. With all the Shakespeare talk along with the British accents, I understood very little of it. In fact, I only remember the scattering of the white and red rose petals at the end. Something about the war of the roses. I was bored throughout. I left the theater yawning. Another girl from our group was deeply affected and and kept talking about the beautiful symbolism.

Phht! Symbolism. Boring.

I saw Richard...more I saw Richard III, a play when I was 21 years old. I was in London at the time with my sister. With all the Shakespeare talk along with the British accents, I understood very little of it. In fact, I only remember the scattering of the white and red rose petals at the end. Something about the war of the roses. I was bored throughout. I left the theater yawning. Another girl from our group was deeply affected and and kept talking about the beautiful symbolism.

Phht! Symbolism. Boring.

I saw Richard III again when I was well into my thirties. I couldn't believe how much I had missed the first time.

Back to the book, The Nobodies Album. It takes a certain amount of experience, wisdom, and tragedy to interpret events in a certain way. It takes experience, wisdom, and tragedy for texture to be added to our own lives and meaning to take shape. It takes even more experience, wisdom, and tragedy to accept that endings are what they are based on our choices due to our experiences and how we have interpreted them.

In other words, our lives are one big Rorschach test.

Carolyn Parkhurst offered me a rare glimpse into a brilliant writer's brain. There is constant dialogue, testing, questioning, interpreting and answering. Sometimes the answers were painfully difficult to swallow as they hit so close to home. It is so far from my John Dorian (Scrubs) dialogue I constantly have going inside my head. I'm trying to connect humor. Octavia, the protagonist, is constantly trying to create meaning. The truth is, we are all creatures seeking patterns and predictability.

Octavia is rewriting the ending of all 7 of her published novels. As she narrates her current experience, dropping back to her past to provide a point of reference, it is clear that her stories, as any story, could take many different directions. The last chapter of each novel is intertwined within the book.

Yet I can't help falling back on my desire to create meaning (based on my own experiences) and question if Octavia, with her name taking on the root of the number 8, is symbolic of her 8th novel, the one not published.

Or perhaps it is Pareidolia.

I was going for witty, but I'm afraid I ended up with merely odd. Well, I never said I was good with words. Not ones spoken out loud, anyway.

- Octavia Frost(less)

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Aug 01, 2012 Joanne rated it 3 of 5 stars

An unusual story. Cataloged as a mystery, but infused with character writer Octavia Frost’s re-writes of her novel endings. Truthfully, they were interesting and diverse and showed how things can have a different outcome with a slight change, but I think it took away from the main story and really didn’t add value.

Milo, Octavia’s rock star son is accused of killing his long-time girlfriend on the eve of their engagement. Octavia and her son have endured a hard life and lost family members years...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

A widowed author, a rock star son, a murder mystery, unresolved family issues, this book kind of has it all.

The story bounces back and forth between the main plot, which follows author, Octavia Frost, whose adult son, rock star Milo, is arrested for murder of his girlfriend and a secondary plot. Those portions are chapters from the author’s novels and are part of a collection called The Nobodies Album, which contains the rewritten endings of her books.

At first it was jarring (at least on the a...more A widowed author, a rock star son, a murder mystery, unresolved family issues, this book kind of has it all.

The story bounces back and forth between the main plot, which follows author, Octavia Frost, whose adult son, rock star Milo, is arrested for murder of his girlfriend and a secondary plot. Those portions are chapters from the author’s novels and are part of a collection called The Nobodies Album, which contains the rewritten endings of her books.

At first it was jarring (at least on the audio) to switch between the fictional stories and the author’s life, but after awhile you get into each of the stories within the larger story. It’s really beautifully told. I found myself forgetting that Octavia isn’t a real author and I wanted to read some of her books, particularly The Human Slice.

Part of me, the cynical side I suppose, thought maybe this was a way for the author to fit a bunch of ideas for books into a single book. But even as I say that, I realized that it still worked. It doesn’t feel forced, it just feels like an author reflecting on her books, her “children.” These things that she created and now wishes she could change. It’s about so much more than changing books though; it’s about living a life of regret and realizing you can’t change what’s already happened.

I’ve never read anything by Parkhurst before, but I kept thinking about what an engrossing voice she has. I went back and forth on my rating, because though I really enjoyed it while I was reading it, I think I’ve grown to like it even more in the past few weeks. I keep thinking about new elements of the story and how they say so much more than they seem to at first. It’s almost like the book is just trying to tell a story, but it can’t help but be profound. It was an incredibly satisfying read.

"Why do we think that knowing the events of someone's life gives us insight into the person they are? Certainly we react to the things that happen to us, we are not unchanged by them, but there is no format to it. You may know that a cascade of water can wear away stone, but you can't predict what shape the rock will take at any given moment."(less)

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Jun 19, 2012 Jenna rated it 2 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Parkhurst's second book, "Lost and Found", so I was excited to read "The Nobodies Album". The plot summary was intriguing... famous author's famous rock star son is accused of murdering his girlfriend, prompting the author to try to salvage their estranged relationship and save her son in a way that she couldn't during a tragedy earlier in their lives. But while "Lost and Found" was a very timely examiniation of reality television and its exploitation of those who participate in...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc

I really enjoyed this book which I read as part of Library Thing's Early Reviewers program. I wasn't at all sure the interspersing of the "revised endings" of the main character's novels throughout the book was going to work. I had expected it would be a distraction and a gimmick, but it added a lot of texture to the story. As the novel progressed, more and more meaning could be attributed to the new last chapters.

The mystery part of the novel was a little bit unsatisfying -- I had a strong hunc...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I almost didn't read this after I discovered that the author also did Lost and Found, which is by far one of the worst books I have ever read. So glad I gave her another chance because this was wonderful. I love books where you have to figure out the back story on your own even though the narrator speaks as though the reader already knows everything. In this book, the narrator is an author whose son has been accused of murder. The story unfolds in present time, but the real story is in the excer...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Parkhurst has chosen an unusual structure for this novel. The main thrust is a murder mystery about an author, Octavia, who learns that her estranged son, Milo, has been accused of killing his girlfriend. Interspersed are the endings and rewritten endings of Octavia's books, presented in reverse chronological order. These snippets have nothing to do with the murder, but they do obliquely tell the story of Octavia and Milo's estrangement; as Octavia revisits her novels, she develops a better unde...more

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May 22, 2010 Kari rated it 5 of 5 stars

Carolyn Parkhurst makes me want to write novels. "The Dogs of Babel," one of my favorite books, reads like it was written effortlessly.

The skill involved in crafting "The Nobodies Album" is a little more apparent. The premise is that best-selling author Octavia Frost has decided to rewrite the endings of each of her books. The original and revised endings are woven throughout the book, as Octavia reconnects with her estranged son, a rock star, who has been accused of murdering his girlfriend.

My...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Christina rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a ridiculously good frolic of a book. Parkhurst is an inventive master of post-modern form. In this novel, she brings to bear everything my English-degree stylings could desire, as well as a strapping good story. She plays with narrative, authorship, memory, reader/writer roles, fiction, authenticity, and genre like they are clay, molding them into an amazing book.

The main narrative follows Octavia Frost, successful author, and her estranged celebrity rockstar son. This story is framed a...more

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Jun 04, 2010 Eileen Granfors rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: families, local-color, police-procedural-mystery, women, writing-help

Carolyn Parkhurst has been at the top of my favorites list since I read her first book, the magical Dogs of Babel with its complex love story and beautiful lovers who are poles apart. I lost sleep awaiting this new book, "The Nobodies Album." Darn.

"The Nobodies Album" begins when Octavia Frost, an author of some renown, finds out her son is the prime suspect in the murder of his girl friend, Bettina. The place she learns of the accusation is an eyestopper.

Octavia flies across the US to try to he...more

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May 19, 2010 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: goodreads-firstreads

What lengths would you go to in order to rewrite your past? That is a question that the fictional bestselling writer Octavia Frost asks herself – again and again – in this spellbinding book about the lengths we go to rewrite the chapters that comprise our lives.

Octavia has literally rewritten the last chapters of all of her published books. On the way to her publisher, she reads a news crawl that her son Milo – the famous singer of a band called Pareidola (the human tendency to find meaning wher...more What lengths would you go to in order to rewrite your past? That is a question that the fictional bestselling writer Octavia Frost asks herself – again and again – in this spellbinding book about the lengths we go to rewrite the chapters that comprise our lives.

Octavia has literally rewritten the last chapters of all of her published books. On the way to her publisher, she reads a news crawl that her son Milo – the famous singer of a band called Pareidola (the human tendency to find meaning where there is none) – is charged with murdering his live-in girlfriend.

The problem is, Octavia is estranged from her son. Both are survivors of a family tragedy that ended the lives of Octavia’s husband and her daughter when Milo was only nine years old. Since that time, Octavia consistently comes back to themes that echo the tragedy in her books, including one poignant fictional passage, “They were exactly the wrong two to die.”

But what if she could rewrite these chapters…and indeed, her very life? In the most inventive and imaginative part of this book, Octavia intersperses the last chapters of the books she has written, before and after the rewrites. The sad and poignant endings become transformed into messages of hope with just a few strokes of a pen. These stories are good and leave the reader wondering if Carol Parkhurst will ever take any of these to fruition.

In fact, the stories are superior to the framework of the novel, which focuses on Octavia’s quest to reconnect with her rock-star son and get to the bottom of the events of the dark night when Milo’s girlfriend is killed. The mystery story is somewhat pedestrian; I guessed the true murderer early on.

After completing this imaginative novel, it’s hard to look at “endings” in the same way. Octavia states, “I’ve thought it might be interesting to change the endings. Find out how things might have worked out differently for the characters.” That’s a notion that will stick in your head after the last page is completed.

(less)

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May 20, 2010 Chelsea rated it 5 of 5 stars

Octavia Frost is on her way to drop off her latest manuscript to her editor in NYC, when she sees a news blurb that her son is accused of murdering his girlfriend. This is only big news because her son is Milo Frost, lead singer of the very popular band Pareidolia. Though it's been more than four years since she's seen her Milo, she flies out to be with him immediately. When she gets there, she meets the colorful cast of characters Milo has surrounded himself with, begins to salvage her relation...more

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Jul 01, 2010 Rita rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: loved

It's the kind of story she describes on the first page--one that hooks itself inside you and changes you. Like Dogs of Babel, it's a story that hurts, but is told so beautifully.

As is typical for me, I find it harder to review books that I have liked than to review books that I didn't like. I'm afraid of somehow spoiling the experience for a new reader. I never read jacket covers because I don't want anything given away, I want to open the book with no preconceptions and I like to give others th...more

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Jan 19, 2011 bookczuk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookcrossing, early-review-librarything, favorite-author, read-for-review

I don't remember what it was that first called this book to my attention, but I suspect that it was my previous experiences with the author in The Dogs of Babel (enthralling, well written and sad) and Lost and Found (a bit jumpy for me in the telling of the tale, with switches between POV, but still compelling.) The basic story here, in The Nobodies Album really captured me. Maybe because I am the mother to a son, maybe because I've often played the "what if" game when looking back, to wonder ho...more I don't remember what it was that first called this book to my attention, but I suspect that it was my previous experiences with the author in The Dogs of Babel (enthralling, well written and sad) and Lost and Found (a bit jumpy for me in the telling of the tale, with switches between POV, but still compelling.) The basic story here, in The Nobodies Album really captured me. Maybe because I am the mother to a son, maybe because I've often played the "what if" game when looking back, to wonder how life would have played differently. I've wished that do-overs were real. I can think of 2 or three moments in my I would definitely redo completely.

Basic premise: Olivia is an author of moderate success and much personal tragedy (Her husband and young daughter had died together, leaving Olivia and her 9-year old son to pick up the pieces and carry on with life) On the way to deliver her latest manuscript to her publisher, she learns that Milo, her now-estranged rock-star son, has been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend. Olivia's manuscript, The Nobodies Album, takes the last chapters of her previous novels and gives them different endings -- new opportunities for the characters, new interpretations to the stories. Her son's arrest gives her the chance to possibly do the same with her life and their relationship.

The author has interspersed Olivia and Milo's story with the original endings and then the redos of Olivia's books. Given that normally, I really like stories within stories, it was somewhat surprising that I really disliked the interruptions in the basic story line here. I speculate that maybe it was because I was only fed an ending, not told a full tale, or that maybe because I wouldn't have read Olivia's novels, since they were so full of sadness as she worked out the death of her husband and daughter years before. And maybe, it's because I have mixed feelings about alternate endings. (After all, it would have been just plain boring if Eliza had married Freddy, so I can't object to authors changing endings too much!) If you re-write history, especially personal history, do you change who you are? Or can you learn from your mistakes, the things that would have been "re-dos" and grow even more?

I think this is my favorite Parkhurst book of the three I've read, and it has given me much delicious food for thought.

Many thanks to the LibraryThing Early Review program for sending this on (from the July 2010 batch, and arrived mid January 2011.)(less)

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Oct 27, 2012 Cyndy rated it 1 of 5 stars

Another book that was really good until the last 50 or so pages. The ending was so predictable and very disappointing. I knew almost immediately who "done" it. But that wasn't what chaged my mind about this book. Again, an author thinks that readers are demanding happy endings laced with budding romances that are just too much of a stretch. Also, the estranged relationship with the son went beyond plausability. It was the typical mother/child reconcilation: All is forgiven as long as you take al...more

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Aug 10, 2010 Hattie rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: y

Recommended to Hattie by: DOUBLEDAY/HACHETTE

When I first heard about The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst, I wanted to read it. This feeling hit me because I remembered wanting to read Dogs of Babel. For some reason I never had enough time to read that one. Still, every time I would look at the book on my shelf I had the weird feeling that this is a good book. Stop procrastinating. Read it. This time I refused to miss The Nobodies Album. Then, I finished the book. At some point, I had to write my review.

I had a lot of thoughts about th...more When I first heard about The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst, I wanted to read it. This feeling hit me because I remembered wanting to read Dogs of Babel. For some reason I never had enough time to read that one. Still, every time I would look at the book on my shelf I had the weird feeling that this is a good book. Stop procrastinating. Read it. This time I refused to miss The Nobodies Album. Then, I finished the book. At some point, I had to write my review.

I had a lot of thoughts about the book. The book is written a bit differently from ones I usually read. As you read the main novel, The Nobodies Album, there are other excerpts of novels or endings of novels scattered throughout the pages. These pages are written by Octavia Frost, the author. Toward the end I did get a bit of a handle on the pieces of manuscript written by Octavia Frost. There is part of one manuscript she worked on for ten years. From what I can gather, The Nobodies Album, is her present novel. To make any sense of this book review I will have to write immediately that The Nobodies Album is fantastic. It's a great mystery. The characters are very interesting. However, I would have liked to have known more about Roland, Bettina and Chloe.

In other words the lives of these characters are deliciously plump for explaining and describing in the novel. In stead, Carolyn Parkhurst, the author, mainly draws a huge picture of Octavia and a slightly smaller one of her son, Milo. Also, there is not much about the horrible tragedy endured by this family in earlier years.

It is my feeling the book would have become longer because of the expanded lives of the characters I mentioned above. Carolyn Parkhurst, I feel, had two great novels in one. What happens in Milo's life is his story. His life spins his mom's life out of control, but she is in no way the one I want to read about most of all. The other story I see in the book is Octavia's story with her daughter, Rosemary, and her husband, Mitch. Here, I do want to learn more about Octavia's feelings. In my eyes the novel had too much where there should have been little.

I think Carolyn Parkhurst is a brilliant author. I will always give her another chance when she publishes another novel. In the meantime I will try to read Dogs of Babel soon. I will use Carolyn Hurst's words to describe how I felt at the finish of the book. Perhaps, this quote from The Nobodies Album may describe her main message. If so, I got that message loudly and clearly. The message was indeed poignant."But children are people right from the moment they're born, and in every human relationship there's a question of compatibility. It's quite separate from the matter of love. It's about fit and friction, the carpentry of daily interaction. Some joints dovetail easily, while others scrape at every contact."(less)

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