A Friend of the Family

Jan 21, 2012 Greg rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: best-of-the-best

As I was reading this powerful and unbelievably good novel--the story of a successful suburban father, husband, and doctor whose life begins to unravel in a seriously gripping way--I recalled the way I felt as I read the best passages of Philip Roth’s American Pastoral. My heart actually beat a little faster, as if I were witnessing the almost hyperreal, perfectly-dialogued scenes being played out right in front of me. In 300 very quickly moving pages, Grodstein manages to capture not just a swe...more As I was reading this powerful and unbelievably good novel--the story of a successful suburban father, husband, and doctor whose life begins to unravel in a seriously gripping way--I recalled the way I felt as I read the best passages of Philip Roth’s American Pastoral. My heart actually beat a little faster, as if I were witnessing the almost hyperreal, perfectly-dialogued scenes being played out right in front of me. In 300 very quickly moving pages, Grodstein manages to capture not just a sweeping American portrait of suburban family life and the baby boomers’ dreams of it, but the tragedy of how unwavering fatherly pride--and a fundamental belief in how things ideally ought to be so as to preserve happiness--lead to a tragic disconnect between generations.

The main plot: Laura Stern, 30 year-old daughter of narrator Pete Dizinoff’s best friend Joe--comes back to Round Hill, New Jersey over a decade after committing a horrible act of violence. She then reconnects with Pete and Elaine’s adrift 20 year-old son Alec, who’s dropped out of Hampshire to come home, cultivate his artwork and reluctantly think about his next move. It’s the spark between them that turns Pete into an increasingly unsettled and unreliable narrator: a man who truly loves his son and cares so much about his future that he becomes virtually blind to the fact that Laura may not actually be an evil person, and isn't out to deliberately poison his son’s future. Like any concerned parent who wants to bestow the same quality of life on his child that he had, Pete also wants what’s best for Alec--but of course we know that Pete’s only projecting onto Alec what he thinks is best for him.

And therein lies the paradox of parenting. At one point, in a climactic encounter, Laura Stern tells Pete that “there is no one right way to live a life.” No matter her horrible past and the complexity of her motives towards Alec, and no matter how much we simultaneously sympathize and pity the place Pete has found himself: Laura's words could not be truer.(less)

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Sep 02, 2010 Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An absorbing look at a suburban internist and the disintegration of his entire world. While the book cut back and forth in time more than I would have liked, it was a riveting read. Dr. Pete Dizinoff recounts his tale in a way that makes him feel quite real. You can feel his frustration, his despair, his desire to just make his kid do what is best for him all jumping off the page. Some of the tragedy that derails his life is telegraphed, some is surprising, but it is all believable. We are all a...more

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Jan 12, 2011 Nancy Martira rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, library-books

It's not "Freedom," but I'm prepared to call "A Friend of the Family," a great American novel. Resolutely of its time and place (the white whine chilling in the fridge; the Saab is making funny noises, the Jewish Community Center, the shared beach rental, the annual New Years Day Brunch), the book also captures moments in time from Yonkers to Pittsburgh in the last forty years.

The novel centers around two best friends: each doctors, each patriarchs who have chosen to raise their families in the...more

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Feb 05, 2011 Angela rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I completely forgot that the author is a woman writing first-person in a man's point of view - an especially amazing feat as Grodstein was 31 and childless writing about a late-middle-aged man's relationship with his only son. It wasn't until after I'd finished the book and reflected on the story as a whole that all of the complexities of the narration unfolded, and I thought to question the narrator. I was wrapped up in Dr. Pete's emotions and memories as he dealt with life's more complex issue...more

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Feb 11, 2011 CC rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a find. You look forward to certain books months before they're released and happily pay full price for them, only to be underwhelmed. Then you pluck a book off a library shelf for free and have the wind knocked out of you by its sheer... rightness.

A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, by Lauren Grodstein, is this book.

The doting doctor Pete Dizinoff has navigated his life to cater to the success of his only child, Alec, a moody "artist" who, at twenty, has dropped out of his uber expensive university a...more What a find. You look forward to certain books months before they're released and happily pay full price for them, only to be underwhelmed. Then you pluck a book off a library shelf for free and have the wind knocked out of you by its sheer... rightness.

A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, by Lauren Grodstein, is this book.

The doting doctor Pete Dizinoff has navigated his life to cater to the success of his only child, Alec, a moody "artist" who, at twenty, has dropped out of his uber expensive university and moved back home to paint.

We find Dr. Pete living in the garage for unknown reasons, with someone out to get him, and his family barely speaking to him. In a series of flashbacks we discover his lifelong friendships with the Sterns (doctors and millionaires), and his repulsion for the Sterns' daughter, Laura. Laura got pregnant at seventeen, gave birth in the public library, and then proceeded to kill the child. After a decade of being sent off with other rich relatives to "find" herself, she and Alec -- ten years her junior -- meet again, become an item, and make plans to move to Paris. Dr. Pete is outraged. His son is throwing his life away with a baby killer.

The layers of the book captivated me. The secrets everyone keeps. The fact that Pete once lusted for his best-friend's wife and really, still does. The fact that he never dicusses Laura's tragedy, but keeps running thoughts of "baby killer" in his head, this the daughter of his best-friend. It's all nuanced and exquisitely written.

Yet, in the end, as riviting as the confrontation between Laura and Dr. Pete was, I was disappointed. The problems were still elitist. Everyone's rich, and the money protects them from a lot. Is it a problem if you can hire a lawyer or therapist to fix it? Is your spoiled, ungrateful son spoiled and ungrateful because you taught him to be, because you also are? In the end, the suffering... almost wasn't true suffering (or wouldn't be to much of the population). And because of it, the "downfall" of Dr. Pete wasn't much of one. His would still be considered a successful life to most other people.

So glad I read it, though. The dialogue rolls quite beautifully. (less)

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Apr 17, 2013 Sara Serna rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I couldn't wait for this book to be over so I could move on to something else. I was continually lost in time, the story jumped around so much that I had trouble placing where we were supposed to be. A third of the way through the book I noticed that the characters still hadn't been developed enough for me to relate to them or want to learn more about them. It wasn't until somewhere in the last 100 pages that I finally had a curiosity about what was the become of the families involved.

The narrat...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the first few pages of A Friend of the Family a few interesting things are revealed about Dr. Pete Dizinoff. For starters, he's an upper middle aged man whose been cast out by his wife and son to live in the room above the garage. He's scared to pick up the phone to talk to his best friend. And then as if all that isn't bad enough, some crazy guy is accusing him of terrible things and throwing bottles at him at the waterfront.

Whoa, right? Heavy even. I found myself needing to find out what ki...more In the first few pages of A Friend of the Family a few interesting things are revealed about Dr. Pete Dizinoff. For starters, he's an upper middle aged man whose been cast out by his wife and son to live in the room above the garage. He's scared to pick up the phone to talk to his best friend. And then as if all that isn't bad enough, some crazy guy is accusing him of terrible things and throwing bottles at him at the waterfront.

Whoa, right? Heavy even. I found myself needing to find out what kind of terrible things did this guy do. What heinous things would a person need to do to lose a best friend, a job and the love of your family in one fell swoop?

But then you know what happened? Those questions weren't addressed in any sort of meaningful way for what felt like hundreds of pages. The story doesn't even come back around to the crazy guy throwing bottles until the last fifty or so pages and by then I didn't care. I'd spent so long reading about all the baby-killer crap* that by the time anything remotely concentrated on the really interesting plot points started to clear up it was too late.

What is amazing here, and why I think this book won all sorts of critics praises, is Lauren Grodstein has an uncanny ability to create vivid, believably flawed people. What's even more praise worthy is that if the internet is to be believed, she was a 31 year old single woman when this book about a late middle-aged family man was written and when I tell you that I needed to recheck that this was a female author about a quarter of the way through I'm not kidding - the voice is just that convincing.

The Bottom Line: The writing is stellar, the characters feel like they could step out of the page at any second, and the first few chapters compelled me to keep reading. Unfortunately, it's my humble opinion that the entire focus of the book feels unbelievable and forced at times with the added issue of an ending that feels rushed and tacked on. While I would love to recommend this title based on the quality of the prose alone, the storytelling itself must take precedent, and so this one gets a read at your own risk warning.

*Which, in it's own right, was interesting but entirely unbelievable. And just to be clear it wasn't a Sally-Jesse daytime talk show type of unbelievable... more like the 'that just wouldn't happen like that' variety

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Feb 06, 2013 Bobbie Williams rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Almost from the start I was drawn into this book in a very compelling way. I liked that the story is told from the perspective of a father as so often this genre of book is carried by a female voice. You also know straight away that the main character Pete has done something regretful and wrong, which adds just a hint of mystery to the book. As the story unfolds I was pulled full force in to the lives and struggles of this suburban NJ family. The central theme of the book dealt with parent child...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Seth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pete Dizinoff is the patriarch of said family. His son, Alec, is more or less a knucklehead, who despite his father's best efforts has no real ambition in life. Or at least, not the type of ambition that his father would prefer.

Pete meddles rather extensively in his son's life. At one point, frustrated by his son's procrastination, he writes an essay for a college application on Alec's behalf.

The reader might ask, "why not just let your kid make his own stupid mistakes?"

The trick is Alec is his...more Pete Dizinoff is the patriarch of said family. His son, Alec, is more or less a knucklehead, who despite his father's best efforts has no real ambition in life. Or at least, not the type of ambition that his father would prefer.

Pete meddles rather extensively in his son's life. At one point, frustrated by his son's procrastination, he writes an essay for a college application on Alec's behalf.

The reader might ask, "why not just let your kid make his own stupid mistakes?"

The trick is Alec is his only child. And not an only child by choice - Pete and his wife struggled for years to be able to bring a child into the world. So perhaps it's easier to let your kids do what they do when you have other children. But if that's your only offspring? The only one who can carry on your name? Your only hope for a posterity? I imagine it would be much tougher to keep yourself from stressing over his life choices.

Laura Stern is the said friend of the family. She's the oldest daughter of the Dizinoff's oldest friends, Joe and Iris Stern. She may or may not have been guilty of a horrendous crime as a teenager. After years away from home, Laura resurfaces at the age of 30. Her friendship with and influence on Alec drives Pete batty.

It's an interesting enough story. There are tons of flashbacks and flashforwards and you're never exactly sure where you are on the timeline - it would have been helpful if the author had inserted dates or some other device to help the reader keep the story straight.

The descriptions of their suburban lifestyle and Jewish culture were pretty good, I thought the author did a good job making it come alive.

The author inserts tons of medical mumbo jumbo that 99% of readers won't understand, because Pete is a doctor, and I guess that's the only way to convince them.

Crazy lot of f-words in this book, so be forewarned if that's not your thing. It's not my thing, but once you're so far into the book, you just gotta finish. Otherwise pretty mild content as far as sex/violence.

I'd stop short of saying this is an American classic, as other readers seem to be doing. It's good, not great. Which is kind of like my review.

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Jan 12, 2013 Pattie Bethune rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't know yet how I feel about this book. It was very highly-rated by critics, and I agree to the extent that it was well-written. I kept checking to be sure I wasn't somehow mistaken that the male first-person narrator was really written by a woman. At the same time, the author did drag out the foreshadowing and references to the "crime" a little too long; I had a hard time maintaining interest about 2/3 of the way through.

I was also a bit disturbed by the story itself. The shocking crime o...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Beth Peninger rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Grodstein did an amazing job at character and plot development in this story of a father's love gone a bit extreme.
Pete and Elaine tried for years to have a child and finally Alec, their son, arrived. He is the light of their lives. Fast forward to Alec being a young adult. He's reintroduced to an old family friend, Laura, who has been gone for several years due to a murder she committed as well as mental illness. Alec becomes interested in Laura while Pete begins obsessing over this new relati...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Elizabeth Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is not like anything I've ever read. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I'm going to try. On the surface, it seems like a standard, well-written thriller: father worried about his son falling in love with a friend of the family's daughter, who is ten years older and has a pretty checkered past, and what happens when he tries to protect his son.

But here's the thing: I kept thinking about the book when I was done with it because something in it seemed...just a little off. And so I re-re...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Madame X rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Peter, a successful doctor in middle-age, runs into two serious problems almost simultaneously: his son drops out of college to become a painter, and he is charged with malpractice when he fails to properly diagnose a fatal illness in a patient. Faced with the censure of his neighbors, Peter clearly sees the parallel to how he treated his best friend Joe when Joe’s daughter Laura had her own very public troubles.

Laura’s problem was more dramatic than Peter or Alec’s. As a teenager in high school...more Peter, a successful doctor in middle-age, runs into two serious problems almost simultaneously: his son drops out of college to become a painter, and he is charged with malpractice when he fails to properly diagnose a fatal illness in a patient. Faced with the censure of his neighbors, Peter clearly sees the parallel to how he treated his best friend Joe when Joe’s daughter Laura had her own very public troubles.

Laura’s problem was more dramatic than Peter or Alec’s. As a teenager in high school, she got pregnant, carried the baby for six months, then delivered in a bathroom stall at the local public library. Before the baby had taken its first breath, Laura killed it by breaking its skull over her knee.

Peter, appalled by Laura’s crime, was unable to be the supportive friend that Joe needed during Laura’s trial. More than a decade has passed since Laura killed her child, yet Peter carries a lingering anger because he could never fully express how appalled he was by Laura’s crime, and also deep guilt for having failed in his duties as a friend.

The situation gets worse when Alec (only 21) is wrapped up in a romantic relationship with Laura (who is 30 now). When Alec threatens to run away to Paris with Laura, Peter finds all his old feelings about Laura coming back in full force, combined now with panic and fear about his son’s future. By confronting Laura, he manages to end the threat she poses to his son. However, in the process he damages his marriage, ruins his relationship with his oldest friends, and drives his son away.

Like many recent novels about family secrets, this one waits until the very end to reveal the details of what Peter did to bring on the malpractice suit, and the full story of what exactly happened when Laura killed her baby. The broad outlines of these events are clear from early on. The issues that Peter faces, of strained relationships with his friends, guilt about his work, and anxiety over his son’s future, will speak to many people who find themselves in the same situation. The murky morals and tough decisions are real and compelling, but to me the story was ordinary.(less)

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Aug 11, 2012 Heather rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 10, 2012 Kalen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Book groups.

Shelves: 2012-reads

I liked this book a lot though my review may seem otherwise. This is a compelling page-turner, but it is not without flaws.

The big one may or may not have to do with the format. I read this on my Kindle and with an eBook it can be hard to tell if the book itself is poorly edited or if it's just the eBook edition. There were formatting problems and typos, that are likely the result of the eBook conversion but there were editorial errors and inconsistencies, too (Was it a Dutch oven or a Crock-Po...more

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Jan 09, 2012 John Luiz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I absolutely loved this book. It's a struggle for every parent -- how far should you intervene in your children's lives, especially when you fear they're making choices that will destroy their futures. The central character, Dr. Pete, is a family practice doctor with a son who dropped out of college to pursue a career as an artist and who then becomes involved with the 30-year-old daughter of Dr. Pete's best friend, who as teenager killed her prematurely delivered baby in a bathroom stall. And b...more

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Sep 04, 2010 Linda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Almost from the start I was drawn into this book in a very compelling way. I liked that the story is told from the perspective of a father as so often this genre of book is carried by a female voice. You also know straight away that the main character Pete has done something regretful and wrong, which adds just a hint of mystery to the book. As the story unfolds I was pulled full force in to the lives and struggles of this suburban NJ family. The central theme of the book dealt with parent child...more

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Aug 15, 2010 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

At the core of this novel, A Friend of the Family, is Dr. Pete Dizenoff, prominent Internist in Round Hill, New Jersey. Pete is a hardworking man, who is deeply in love with his wife of 25 years, and who only wants the best for Alec, his 20 year old only child. So why is this husband and father, living in the garage, by himself, at the start of this family drama? Pete's dreams of the perfect life is falling apart before his very eyes. His wife wants a divorce, his son hates him, a patient's brot...more At the core of this novel, A Friend of the Family, is Dr. Pete Dizenoff, prominent Internist in Round Hill, New Jersey. Pete is a hardworking man, who is deeply in love with his wife of 25 years, and who only wants the best for Alec, his 20 year old only child. So why is this husband and father, living in the garage, by himself, at the start of this family drama? Pete's dreams of the perfect life is falling apart before his very eyes. His wife wants a divorce, his son hates him, a patient's brother wants him dead, and his longtime friends and neighbors, The Sterns, are no longer sure that Pete is the man they once thought he was. How did Pete's life spiral out of control?

This novel is a story about how far a father will go to protect his only son. For starters, Alec, Pete's 20 year old son, drops out of Hampshire College, and moves back home to pursue art and painting. He converts the garage into his art studio. Pete wants his son to go back to school and finish his degree, and to focus on a career plan, but Alec has other ideas. The trouble intensifies when Alec begins dating 31 year old Laura Stern, who has just arrived back in town. Laura is the daughter of the Dizinoff's long time best friends and neighbors. Pete disapproves of the relationship, not only because of the 10 year age difference, but because of shocking crime Laura committed as a rebellious teen, years earlier. The incident involved the brutal death of her baby. In the end, Pete's inability to let go and let his son live his own life, make his own mistakes, causes him to lose the very things and very people, he was trying to protect.

MY THOUGHTS - The audio book is read by Rick Adamson who did a great job. The novel started at the end, and then bit by bit unraveled to show how a once seemingly perfect life, spiraled out of control. The writing was very good, and the story was chilling in parts, and hooked me early on. This is a novel that will surely give the reader plenty to think about, especially if you are a parent. It begs the reader to ask themself the question, "how far would you go to protect an adult child"? When does protecting a child become an obsession? This story is shocking, horrifying, gripping, and not for the faint of heart. One thing is for sure, this story will not be one you will easily forget. RECOMMENDED(less)

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May 09, 2010 Judith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In terms of the "would you rather...?", this book asks, would you rather have a daughter who, at the age of 17, gives birth in a public restroom and smashes her baby's skull. . . . . or would you rather have a son who is wildly infatuated with this girl when she turns 30 and returns home when he is a struggling 20 year old college drop-out? hmmmm. And does your answer change if you are best friends with the other child's parents?

This book is a page-turner which is so touching because it address...more

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May 09, 2010 Kelly Hager rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It reminded me of Jane Hamilton's A Map of the World and also a little of Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin. (Not so much content, but more of the relentless sense of foreboding and wrong-ness that isn't really justified until the last few pages.)

This book jumps around a lot, but it's about Pete, his wife Elaine and their son Alec, and then their best friends, the Sterns. Joe and Iris have been best friends with Pete and Elaine since college. The Sterns' oldest daughter, Laura, is dat...more

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Mar 25, 2010 JoAnn/QuAppelle rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read a lot of press about this book but it was a major disappointment to me. I failed to see the "great writing" about which I had read.

The anticipation was not worth the result and the writing was overly dramatic. The plot development was SO SLOW. I hated the foreshadowing and the jumping back and forth in time. Sometimes I would get a couple of sentences into a paragraph and then realize she had shifted time YET AGAIN. Annoying.

There was way too much detail, but about what?.....something t...more

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Mar 16, 2010 Jlaurenmc rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wanted to like Lauren Grodstein's A Friend of the Family. I really wanted to. But in the end, I was disappointed. The novel was named one of Amazon's Best Books of the Month in November 2009; critics gave it rave reviews. Usually, that means something. And I'll have to hand it to Grodstein -- she made me interested in her story and in her characters. I wanted to know: what did Dr. Pete Dizinoff do? And truly, that is the driving question behind the story.

In the novel's beginning, Grodstein wri...more I wanted to like Lauren Grodstein's A Friend of the Family. I really wanted to. But in the end, I was disappointed. The novel was named one of Amazon's Best Books of the Month in November 2009; critics gave it rave reviews. Usually, that means something. And I'll have to hand it to Grodstein -- she made me interested in her story and in her characters. I wanted to know: what did Dr. Pete Dizinoff do? And truly, that is the driving question behind the story.

In the novel's beginning, Grodstein writes, from Pete's perspective, that he "ha[s:] a home, of sorts -- the room [he:] built . . . above the garage" (1) behind his house. She then relates a scene in which a half-drunk can of beer is thrown at Pete by a young man who obviously holds disdain for him; "'I'll get you!' the kid on the boat screams" (12) as Pete walks along the Hudson River. Slowly -- and I do mean slowly -- Grodstein introduces her readers to several problems in the dream life Pete and his wife have built. They live in a suburb of New York City, and Pete has made it his business to look be an early detector for unusual diseases. It's his specialty in his internal medicine practice, and he takes pride in his constant perusals of the Journal of the American Medical Association. But disaster strikes as his son pursues his own dreams rather than those of his parents, a friend's daughter moves back into town, and his medical practice comes under fire.

But which is the problem that has caused Pete to be banished to the garage apartment, and what exactly is his crime involving that problem? That we don't find out until very late in the book, and by that time I had lost all interest in anything else. It's almost as though Grodstein does TOO good a job at building suspense. She doesn't know when to let go and tell a good story. Because there are pieces of good stories mixed into the novel -- infanticide, adultery, cancer, art versus education... However, none of these are developed into a full plot with a timely climax. And while I was searching for the answer to the above question (What did Dr. Pete do?), I completely skipped over large sections of (what I'm sure was) beautiful prose and character development. 'Yes, yes,' I could almost hear myself thinking out loud, 'He's tortured. I get it! He loves his wife. I get it! And his son. I get it! But what did he DO?' Grodstein held out a little too long, and in the end I was flipping pages in the hopes that the next paragraph/ page would hold the answer.

When I finally found out, I was disappointed. I won't say more -- I don't want to spoil the story for those of you who will go on and read it. But it was disappointing to me. And the eventual ending? Also disappointing. True-to-life, perhaps, but disappointing all the same. And I never really developed any sort of empathy for the main characters. Pete is self-absorbed; his son is immature; his wife is a pushover; and the "friend of the family" Laura is a bizarre portrait of a troubled young girl with little reasoning given for her crisis-bound state.

Still want to try the novel for yourself? Remember, most people loved it, including more experienced critics than me!**

**Note on the use of "me" rather than "I": I consulted with Grammar Girl on this one, and she says both "me" and "I" are correct after "than", according to standard English. On one hand, this is because the "understood" parts of the sentence can be more than one thing. For example, I could have been saying: "Remember, most people loved it, including more experienced critics than [I am:]." But something else to think about is the way it sounds. Grammar Girl says that most people aren't going to say, "I'm taller than he," because it "sounds too formal in casual setting." Also, there is much debate on whether or not "than" can sometimes be a conjunction and or whether it is always a preposition. Prepositionists say "me" would always be correct after "than", while conjunctionists argue that "I" is often correct. (less)

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Feb 08, 2010 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mar-apr-2010

Critics were unanimous and unwavering in their praise for Grodstein's third work of fiction--"an unqualified success," according to the Boston Globe--lauding her compelling and believable characters, superb storytelling skills, and sharp ear for dialogue. Grodstein is a "perceptive and knowing critic of suburbia" (Washington Post). Her depictions of upwardly mobile suburbanites are as incisive as her descriptions of their relationships--particularly those between parents and children--are aching...more

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Jan 14, 2010 Malena Watrous rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Just finished this novel last night--my first Kindle read. I had mixed feelings about the way that Grodstein built and sustained suspense about (at least) two different things that happened to (and as a result of) the narrator's misguided actions. On the one hand, I wanted to keep reading to find out what he had done wrong. On the other hand, I felt a bit manipulated by the amount of time it took to get the "prize" of these answers. Granted, this is part of the way that mysteries work. But the n...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So I liked this book in that it was interesting, held my attention, and compelled me to read until the end. I like how the author has the main character, Dr. Pete, jump around in his narration, so you're "discovering" the backstory of how he's gotten to where he is. Pete (long story short) is trying to keep his son Alec from a serious relationship with his best friend's daughter, Laura - nicknamed "The Baby Killer" after she delivered an early baby in a library and left it in a dumpster with its...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Kathy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An interesting study of the life and hopes of an upper- middle class suburban man. Pete Dizinoff has it all: a loving and supportive wife, a handsome young son, good friends, a thriving medical practice, and a lovely home in a well-to-do suburb of New York City. But underneath the veneer of the good life, there are problems: struggles with infertility, a cancer diagnosis, career missteps, and children that go awry. It is that last thing, wayward children, that are the undoing of Pete Dizinoff. N...more

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Jan 29, 2010 Tammy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The author grabbed my interest with the narrative style of writing on the first page as I scrambled to download a quick copy on my Kindle before take-off as my airplane taxied on the runway (then quickly turned off the Whispernet). I was not disappointed for the rest of the flight and the book held my interest until the "turn" of the last page. The author did an excellent job of holding my suspense about what offense the main character had committed, and did so in such a way that I was not disap...more

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Nov 04, 2009 Carly Thompson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, contemporary-fiction

A Friend of the Family traces the disintegration of a wealthy New Jersey suburban family. The novel is narrated by Pete Dizinoff, a successful family doctor with a wife, a son, and close friends. Jumping back and forth in time, Pete describes the idyllic life he and his wife built with their beloved son Alec and the present day when Pete is estranged from his family and being sued for malpractice. Pete traces the problems in his life to the reappearance of Laura (the daughter of his best friends...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Rosie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein is set in North Jersey, not far from New York. This contemporary fiction novel focuses on family, friends, love, and strife. The majority of the novel is based on flashbacks from the viewpoint of the protagonist, Pete.

Throughout the novel two couples who are best friends, Elaine and Pete, and Iris and Joe, as well as, their respective Children, journey through life together. The four adults meet in college and vacation in Rehoboth Beach while their chil...more A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein is set in North Jersey, not far from New York. This contemporary fiction novel focuses on family, friends, love, and strife. The majority of the novel is based on flashbacks from the viewpoint of the protagonist, Pete.

Throughout the novel two couples who are best friends, Elaine and Pete, and Iris and Joe, as well as, their respective Children, journey through life together. The four adults meet in college and vacation in Rehoboth Beach while their children are growing up. Eventually, both families move into a wealthy community, Round Hill, only a few blocks apart. Pete and Joe are both doctors, whereas Elaine is a teacher and Iris is a lawyer. No matter what life throws their way, their friendship never fails to overcome the obstacles of growing up and growing old.

Joe and Iris’ daughter, Laura, a troubled teen who committed an unimaginable crime in high school, returns home more than ten years after the incident to try to reconnect with a family she barely knows. Alec, Elaine and Pete’s son, has also struggled with his own life after dropping out of college to work on his art, independently. Alec is drawn to Laura and her need to be saved. They soon fall in love, despite both of their father’s disapproval.

As the story progresses, the present day crisis drags on and on. Rosanne Craig is a young girl who is a patient of Pete’s. Her symptoms of depression are present throughout the novel, making the reader wonder when the reason for her storyline is going to be explained. You won’t even find out what the main problem is until the story more than 75% over. All of a sudden the turning point comes, the problem is resolved (sort of,) and then the novel ends, just like that.

I enjoyed this novel mostly because the author, Lauren Grodstein, is a professor at Rutgers University in Camden, the college I attended and graduated from. The novel mentions many locations in New Jersey that I am familiar with, including Rutgers itself. I wouldn’t say I disliked the ever-changing storyline within the novel, but I thought it was slow moving and ended too abruptly. There could have been fewer flashbacks from Pete so that more time was spent elaborating on the ending and resolving a few more problems that occurred during the flashbacks. All in all, the novel held my attention long enough so that I could read large chunks of it each time I picked it up. (less)

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Jan 08, 2010 Rhonda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

I was surprised at how good this book was, and I don't know if that's because I had never heard of the author, nor the book, or what, but it was a gripping tale of two couples, and one's son and his relationship with the other's daughter.
As you start the first chapter, you are in present day, after-the-fact mode, and the rest of the story is told looking back at "how it all came to be". You are never quite sure how it will unfold; it keeps you interested, and is told in an easy, flowing manner....more

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