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The Testing of Luther Albright
Luther Albright is a devoted father and a designer of dams, a self-controlled man who believes he can engineer happiness for his family by sheltering them from his own emotions.
But when an earthquake shakes his Sacramento home, the world Luther has constructed with such care begins to tilt: his son's behavior becomes increasingly bizarre and threatening, his loving wife seems to grow distant, the house he built with his own hands shows its first signs of decay, and a dam of his design comes under investigation for structural flaws exposed by the tremors. Nightmarish connections begin to whisper at Luther from the most innocent of places as debut novelist MacKenzie Bezos tightens her net of psychological suspense around the reader with bravura skill. This is a harrowing portrait of an ordinary man who finds himself tested and strives not to be found wanting.
But when an earthquake shakes his Sacramento home, the world Luther has constructed with such care begins to tilt: his son's behavior becomes increasingly bizarre and threatening, his loving wife seems to grow distant, the house he built with his own hands shows its first signs of decay, and a dam of his design comes under investigation for structural flaws exposed by the tremors. Nightmarish connections begin to whisper at Luther from the most innocent of places as debut novelist MacKenzie Bezos tightens her net of psychological suspense around the reader with bravura skill. This is a harrowing portrait of an ordinary man who finds himself tested and strives not to be found wanting.
272 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
May 8, 2014
I think it's pity when good books frequently get low star ratings because some readers want a conventional 'plot' with lots happening.
The 'story' can be the unfolding of consequences of characters' actions and/or events that have happened to them. A good writer will detail emotions, regrets and lessons learned, often too late.
In the case of Luther Albright over- thinking, second guessing and repression add up to the loss of both family respect and his own self worth. As the book progressed, I did not agree with other reviewers who say that nothing happens. Insight and understanding is needed to appreciate the subtleties in this portrayal of the human condition - I thought it a good read.
The 'story' can be the unfolding of consequences of characters' actions and/or events that have happened to them. A good writer will detail emotions, regrets and lessons learned, often too late.
In the case of Luther Albright over- thinking, second guessing and repression add up to the loss of both family respect and his own self worth. As the book progressed, I did not agree with other reviewers who say that nothing happens. Insight and understanding is needed to appreciate the subtleties in this portrayal of the human condition - I thought it a good read.
September 28, 2018
Like an artist mixing colors on her palette MacKenzie brings an array of color to the life of Luther Albright. I really felt I was peeking in on someone else’s daily existence. I thoroughly enjoyed how the book developed from beginning to end. It’s nice to see a book written from the view point of someone living life like the rest of us. Happy reading!
November 25, 2017
The opening phrase “The year I lost my wife and son…” and the description of an earthquake that follows create a feeling of impending doom straight away, and the atmosphere remains tense throughout the book. The narrator is an engineer who believes that everything in his life needs to be precise, careful and controlled, as a reaction to his own childhood experiences with an unpredictable father prone to manipulative behaviour and emotional outbursts. Luther Albright is determined not to repeat his father’s “selfish failure to hide” his feelings of anger, weakness and insecurity, and therefore responds (frustratingly) to his adolescent son’s escalating attempts to provoke him into dropping his mask by increasing his efforts to maintain a façade of perfect confidence and calm. As the story is told through the obsessively claustrophobic thoughts of Albright himself, it is left ambiguous whether the mini-dramas he describes deserve the significance he ascribes to them – as some reviewers here have noted, not much actually happens! – but I felt that the book does a good job of making the point that a shift in the quality of a treasured relationship can be as much of a tragedy as an obvious catastrophe. I didn’t really understand why the narrator labeled particular events as his “last chance” though – perhaps I’m more of a believer in second chances than the author? I picked this up out of curiosity because the author is married to Jeff Bezos, and I’m glad I did – I was impressed by this quietly sad and subtly insightful book.
September 4, 2014
Almost nothing "happens" in this book, but it is a deeply moving, intimate picture of the daily interactions and struggles between father and son.
February 4, 2020
True story: I received both of MacKenzie's books as a present and read them in a heartbeat. Recommended for readers who enjoy truly complex characters evolving in ways that might surprise you. Although I usually read Fantasy and Sci-Fi, this novel did not disappoint. It's lovely.
January 19, 2019
It's a little odd how reflective and emotionally aware the first person protagonist is but only in retrospective... He lives a lifetime constantly unable to correct for problems he is aware of and accepts. It's a very enjoyable and underrated book, but that one major flaw is distracting.
August 14, 2013
Not a good book. Luther is married with a teenage son, Eliot. Luther doesn't open up to him. They do plumbing together. Wife gets a job. I finished it to find out what happens but nothing does!
June 28, 2021
I was drawn to this book by two things… first, it was written by Jeff Bezos’ wife, the 3rd richest woman in the world, herself a successful person, but now wearing a new philanthropic shine. Who is this person? The second, it was about a California dam engineer (which I am also kind of).
I found this book to have lengthy, and often accurate descriptions of the anal retentive engineer mindset, challenged with emotions and relationships, including raising a child with that engineer accuracy and also that precision of process. So a lot of these anecdotal ‘situations’ hit the nail on the head for me. Luther Albright, the victim/protagonist is dealing with so many choices that run contrary to his unfortunate natural tendencies, which include being closed, not taking proactive steps he knows he ought to take, and putting the ‘milk’ in milksop. Are all engineers this socially awkward? Was also sad to also see a constant paranoia… of everything? Luther’s inner voice grew to be overwhelming and disturbing, detailing excruciatingly, every little insecurity.
Bezos clearly earned her Princeton English degree, but the descriptive sentences didn’t flow easily for me, and I often had to go back and reread them. Perhaps I was daydreaming? Like Luther? Maybe not so much my fault? I finally realized that explaining the unexciting is, well… kind of unexciting. The added conversation with the author at the end of the story helped my appreciation, and I better understood her intent, which I did think was met.
June 22, 2023
This was a pick for my book club, and it definitely was not for me. I'm not a big fan of character driven stories, which is what this is, and this book had my least favorite aspects as those kinds of books. It was extremely slow paced, the story wasn't interesting, and Luther's character stayed pretty much static. So much of this book is people not communicating. Luther because of his extreme anxiety. The son and the wife walked on eggshells around him, and this book suffered from a lack of climax. I will say that the writing itself was not bad.
February 23, 2009
This book is a sad case of literature. The author writes beautifully, but somehow missed that she needs a plot in order to make a good story. She alludes to a plot and you keep thinking that something is going to happen at the end, but you are left sorely disappointed.
November 6, 2020
I did not make it all the way through this book - most of what had kept me going was curiosity about how the protagonist would lose his wife and son as he states at the outset he did. But it became increasingly painful to observe his failures to communicate and I gave up.
February 23, 2012
Picked it up beacuse it was set in my old hometown. Thought it was going to be a little more suspenceful but was disappointing.
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October 20, 2021Book Review: The Testing of Luther Albright by MacKenzie Bezos
----
The Testing of Luther Albright is MacKenzie Scott’s debut novel published under her previous name. The 239-page book explores the mental and emotional states and the actions of Luther Albright, who resolves to keep his wife (Liz) and son (Elliot) in a bubble. The book challenges my Weltanschauung in many ways, but two approaches---liminality and duality of interpretation---are particularly worthy of exploration here.
Written from Luther’s point of view, most of the pages of this well-polished literary work portray the protagonist passing through an in-between mental and emotional space. To me, the elegance and mastery of the writer allow for a literal and figurative reading of the text. The surface interpretation of the book is incredibly familiar, so the unorthodox, allegorical interpretation deserves some attention here.
Anthropologist Arnold van Gennep introduced the notion of liminality, which according to the Oxford Dictionary of Critical Theory, characterizes the “phase of transition in which a person is no longer what they were, but is not yet what they will be.” In recent decades the term has become a valuable tool of analysis in discourses across many intellectual disciplines. Liminality in the novel adds to the subtlety and intricate dynamics of the narrative.
The earthquake marks the liminal turn---the threshold. Henceforth, the unfolding state of affairs pushes him farther and farther away from his family. The earthquake that struck Sacramento caused minor damages to Luther’s house. A dam he designed soon has come under investigation in the aftermath of the earthquake. We begin to witness the ornate growth of inner turmoil and moral doubt in Luther and how this strand of behaviour gnaws at his mind further and causes his estrangement from Liz. This period is one of transition and uncertainty for Luther as if it were a rite of passage. Elliot’s behaviour as he grows into an adolescent adds to Luther’s liminal concerns and misgivings.
Luther, who works for the California Department of Water Resources, believes himself a better father than his own. And so it is telling that in a crucial moment of reflection after an encounter with his son, he blames himself: “A better father would have thought to speak a word of affection or wisdom into that silence.” Luther’s irritation and impulsive disposition towards his son reflect a character in transition, encountering liminal experiences. He detests the “minor child irritations” his son causes him. His irritation, for instance, boils over when he sees Elliot working with a naked flame while plumbing around the house. He asks Elliot: ”Jesus Christ, Elliot, what the hell do you think you’re going?” To make amends, Luther immediately tries to soothe his son’s jangled nerves for losing his temper.
In the context of the novel, pregnancy, for example, is transformative and a period full of uncertainty. Pregnancy emerges as a liminal threshold Liz has to navigate skillfully in her marital home. Her wish to be pregnant with Luther’s child soon after their wedding was unanswered. She may not have made a force of it, but as Luther confesses, the husband’s consent is crucial in such a matter. There is a leitmotif here: it derives from the inherent power structure within the patriarchy itself. Even when it proves incompetent, the patriarchy always privileges men. Liz is unaware that Luther has agonizing moments of doubt and self-criticism over his seeming incompetence to impregnate her. This process leads Luther to even “fixate irrationally” on the other needs of Liz he’s been unable to meet. Liz’s journey from pregnancy to giving birth follows a liminal process: waiting on Luther’s willingness to have a baby, the pregnancy, the miscarriage she has had to deal with, and, finally, giving birth to Elliot. The patriarchy dichotomizes roles between male and female and holds that men have more authority than women; men determine the power relations---even if these divisions do not coincide with the distribution of talent and ability in reality. Luther, wanting to protect Liz in every way even though she is stronger than him, speaks to the inherent assumptions of the patriarchy contributing to Luther’s inner struggle. The patriarchy reinforces the liminal experience in the novel.
The moment when Luther confronts Liz over her decision to pin a newspaper clip about philanthropy in the Bay Area that shows “Trish standing between her two daughters on the porch of their hilltop Victorian” to their refrigerator is another pointer to his inner struggle. Luther sees this as a slight meant to prick his pride and cast him, by analogy, as an ineffectual husband. He does not hide his anger. As he later admits, his outrage was misplaced, but his “ego” did not subside quick enough for him to see the reason behind Liz’s envy. Luther’s intellect, temper, and ardour are in transition.
Places also anchor liminal perspectives in the book. For instance, the reader knows that Luther abhors the “oppressive quiet of hotel rooms”. Hotel rooms and hallways signify emptiness and separation. Hotel rooms are places and spaces for temporary presence, and they denote a physical and symbolic transition between a familiar past and an uncertain future. Here the occupant’s thought processes are in flux. The precincts of the hotel mark the physical borderlines of a place that subverts and dampens his spirits; for, he is most comfortable when his wife and son accompany him on a visit to an engineering project away from home. The companionship of the family is reassuring; it privileges presence over absence.
There are passages in the book that reveal Luther’s unbridled anxiety and how this runs away with him while keeping a stiff upper lip. For instance, he worried about Elliot without admitting it to Liz. He says: “I wanted badly to tell her I wasn’t worried about Elliot, although, in fact, I was.” The discrepancy here between the workings of Luther’s mind and his actions portray the turmoil and chaos he is experiencing.
Being immersed in liminal experiences means that it is not uncommon for Luther to engage, as he admits, in mental bewilderment and diversions. Anxiety and trauma intersperse the trajectory of his experiences. Luther has not been forthcoming, and Elliot’s liminal transition into adolescence manifests itself in seemingly challenging ways. As it has become clear to Luther at some point, “Elliot was searching for a new model of conduct to fit his changing circumstances”. And so, not unsurprisingly, when Elliot invites Luther to have a look at something he believes he would like to see, the request set off uncontrollable speculation in Luther’s mind. As Luther puts it: “At this, my pulse raced. I felt a haunted conviction, a certainty that he was finally drawing his sword. Wild guesses flashed through my mind---nude pictures, drug paraphernalia, his report on my father---but I cut my thoughts short. I did not want to pause long enough to allow him to complete his move.”
When Liz, who finds Luther’s quoted remarks in the Sacramento Bee slightly shocking, asks him to confirm that the newspaper quoted him correctly, Luther immediately affirms that he was. Yet this sets his train of doubts in motion, and he sees this as an indication of his growing distance from his wife: “The man she had known before I sent her away was a man who suppressed all impulse. By now she was too distant from me to guess that my self-control had finally been plundered by my sorrows.” One cannot help but feel sorry for him.
Luther’s unemployment underscores the liminality in the novel. He makes the point that the loss of his job has hardly caused him any stress. Yet his calm external disposition belies his inner turmoil. It is precisely at this point that he becomes increasingly anxious about Elliot’s enquiries about his paternal grandfather. Secrecy and shame are liminal categories that underline Luther’s changing personality. As Luther admits: “When [Elliot] looked at me the chasm of omission in comments for his biography made me feel secretive and shameful.”
As an allegory, Luther’s trials and sufferings represent the sins of every man. He is every individual on a pilgrim of self-worth, self-realization or redemption. Luther’s misfortunes, anxieties, and afflictions are many: loss of his parents; earthquake hits the city where he lives with his family; his house sustains minor damages; the dam he constructed comes under investigation; hounded even though he believes the dam did not sustain any structural damage; his resignation; becoming distant from his family to protect them; confessions of being secretive, of shame---are the equivalent of the temptations and tribulations a believer faces in the match towards salvation. None believers might as well encounter these metaphorical obstacles within the self.
Luther embarks on a journey comprising introspection, self-realization, remorse and self-condemnation. He grapples with his feelings and moral failings throughout his journey: from the earthquake to the miscarriage his wife suffered; from being secretive to not being intimate with his family; from lying to Liz to being jealous of the moments Elliot is close to his mother; from his questionable choices to his lack of insight; from anxiety to being reticent; from feeling ashamed to constructing a tower of evasion; from being unable to assure Liz of his love to being unable to appreciate her worth and beauty.
In a significant moment of reflection, Luther lets us into his thoughts: “I was so full of things at the moment---bloodrush, fury, sweat, habit, adrenaline, confusion, shame, and, maybe most potent of all, the invisible misfires and wirepulls of memory---that despite the pain of an unbearably complex fullness, almost at bursting, I cannot say I had any clear thoughts at all.” Luther realizes “vaguely that [he] had robbed [Liz] of her feeling in the domain where it would have meant the most to her.”
Luther wears a contrite heart and seizes a redemptive moment at Liz’s deathbed. Here he admits silently and inwardly his failure to praise Liz’s beauty or highlight her kindheartedness and capacity to come to the aid of other people. Seeking to make up for lost moments of intimacy, striving to prove his love for her in any way possible, he, like every other person, takes off his self-regarding garb and dons the other-regarding, life-affirming one.
mahdieusavage9@gmail.com
(CEO Renewal BooksPlus Limited/ Green Renewal & Carbon Offsetting Ltd.) London, UK.
----
The Testing of Luther Albright is MacKenzie Scott’s debut novel published under her previous name. The 239-page book explores the mental and emotional states and the actions of Luther Albright, who resolves to keep his wife (Liz) and son (Elliot) in a bubble. The book challenges my Weltanschauung in many ways, but two approaches---liminality and duality of interpretation---are particularly worthy of exploration here.
Written from Luther’s point of view, most of the pages of this well-polished literary work portray the protagonist passing through an in-between mental and emotional space. To me, the elegance and mastery of the writer allow for a literal and figurative reading of the text. The surface interpretation of the book is incredibly familiar, so the unorthodox, allegorical interpretation deserves some attention here.
Anthropologist Arnold van Gennep introduced the notion of liminality, which according to the Oxford Dictionary of Critical Theory, characterizes the “phase of transition in which a person is no longer what they were, but is not yet what they will be.” In recent decades the term has become a valuable tool of analysis in discourses across many intellectual disciplines. Liminality in the novel adds to the subtlety and intricate dynamics of the narrative.
The earthquake marks the liminal turn---the threshold. Henceforth, the unfolding state of affairs pushes him farther and farther away from his family. The earthquake that struck Sacramento caused minor damages to Luther’s house. A dam he designed soon has come under investigation in the aftermath of the earthquake. We begin to witness the ornate growth of inner turmoil and moral doubt in Luther and how this strand of behaviour gnaws at his mind further and causes his estrangement from Liz. This period is one of transition and uncertainty for Luther as if it were a rite of passage. Elliot’s behaviour as he grows into an adolescent adds to Luther’s liminal concerns and misgivings.
Luther, who works for the California Department of Water Resources, believes himself a better father than his own. And so it is telling that in a crucial moment of reflection after an encounter with his son, he blames himself: “A better father would have thought to speak a word of affection or wisdom into that silence.” Luther’s irritation and impulsive disposition towards his son reflect a character in transition, encountering liminal experiences. He detests the “minor child irritations” his son causes him. His irritation, for instance, boils over when he sees Elliot working with a naked flame while plumbing around the house. He asks Elliot: ”Jesus Christ, Elliot, what the hell do you think you’re going?” To make amends, Luther immediately tries to soothe his son’s jangled nerves for losing his temper.
In the context of the novel, pregnancy, for example, is transformative and a period full of uncertainty. Pregnancy emerges as a liminal threshold Liz has to navigate skillfully in her marital home. Her wish to be pregnant with Luther’s child soon after their wedding was unanswered. She may not have made a force of it, but as Luther confesses, the husband’s consent is crucial in such a matter. There is a leitmotif here: it derives from the inherent power structure within the patriarchy itself. Even when it proves incompetent, the patriarchy always privileges men. Liz is unaware that Luther has agonizing moments of doubt and self-criticism over his seeming incompetence to impregnate her. This process leads Luther to even “fixate irrationally” on the other needs of Liz he’s been unable to meet. Liz’s journey from pregnancy to giving birth follows a liminal process: waiting on Luther’s willingness to have a baby, the pregnancy, the miscarriage she has had to deal with, and, finally, giving birth to Elliot. The patriarchy dichotomizes roles between male and female and holds that men have more authority than women; men determine the power relations---even if these divisions do not coincide with the distribution of talent and ability in reality. Luther, wanting to protect Liz in every way even though she is stronger than him, speaks to the inherent assumptions of the patriarchy contributing to Luther’s inner struggle. The patriarchy reinforces the liminal experience in the novel.
The moment when Luther confronts Liz over her decision to pin a newspaper clip about philanthropy in the Bay Area that shows “Trish standing between her two daughters on the porch of their hilltop Victorian” to their refrigerator is another pointer to his inner struggle. Luther sees this as a slight meant to prick his pride and cast him, by analogy, as an ineffectual husband. He does not hide his anger. As he later admits, his outrage was misplaced, but his “ego” did not subside quick enough for him to see the reason behind Liz’s envy. Luther’s intellect, temper, and ardour are in transition.
Places also anchor liminal perspectives in the book. For instance, the reader knows that Luther abhors the “oppressive quiet of hotel rooms”. Hotel rooms and hallways signify emptiness and separation. Hotel rooms are places and spaces for temporary presence, and they denote a physical and symbolic transition between a familiar past and an uncertain future. Here the occupant’s thought processes are in flux. The precincts of the hotel mark the physical borderlines of a place that subverts and dampens his spirits; for, he is most comfortable when his wife and son accompany him on a visit to an engineering project away from home. The companionship of the family is reassuring; it privileges presence over absence.
There are passages in the book that reveal Luther’s unbridled anxiety and how this runs away with him while keeping a stiff upper lip. For instance, he worried about Elliot without admitting it to Liz. He says: “I wanted badly to tell her I wasn’t worried about Elliot, although, in fact, I was.” The discrepancy here between the workings of Luther’s mind and his actions portray the turmoil and chaos he is experiencing.
Being immersed in liminal experiences means that it is not uncommon for Luther to engage, as he admits, in mental bewilderment and diversions. Anxiety and trauma intersperse the trajectory of his experiences. Luther has not been forthcoming, and Elliot’s liminal transition into adolescence manifests itself in seemingly challenging ways. As it has become clear to Luther at some point, “Elliot was searching for a new model of conduct to fit his changing circumstances”. And so, not unsurprisingly, when Elliot invites Luther to have a look at something he believes he would like to see, the request set off uncontrollable speculation in Luther’s mind. As Luther puts it: “At this, my pulse raced. I felt a haunted conviction, a certainty that he was finally drawing his sword. Wild guesses flashed through my mind---nude pictures, drug paraphernalia, his report on my father---but I cut my thoughts short. I did not want to pause long enough to allow him to complete his move.”
When Liz, who finds Luther’s quoted remarks in the Sacramento Bee slightly shocking, asks him to confirm that the newspaper quoted him correctly, Luther immediately affirms that he was. Yet this sets his train of doubts in motion, and he sees this as an indication of his growing distance from his wife: “The man she had known before I sent her away was a man who suppressed all impulse. By now she was too distant from me to guess that my self-control had finally been plundered by my sorrows.” One cannot help but feel sorry for him.
Luther’s unemployment underscores the liminality in the novel. He makes the point that the loss of his job has hardly caused him any stress. Yet his calm external disposition belies his inner turmoil. It is precisely at this point that he becomes increasingly anxious about Elliot’s enquiries about his paternal grandfather. Secrecy and shame are liminal categories that underline Luther’s changing personality. As Luther admits: “When [Elliot] looked at me the chasm of omission in comments for his biography made me feel secretive and shameful.”
As an allegory, Luther’s trials and sufferings represent the sins of every man. He is every individual on a pilgrim of self-worth, self-realization or redemption. Luther’s misfortunes, anxieties, and afflictions are many: loss of his parents; earthquake hits the city where he lives with his family; his house sustains minor damages; the dam he constructed comes under investigation; hounded even though he believes the dam did not sustain any structural damage; his resignation; becoming distant from his family to protect them; confessions of being secretive, of shame---are the equivalent of the temptations and tribulations a believer faces in the match towards salvation. None believers might as well encounter these metaphorical obstacles within the self.
Luther embarks on a journey comprising introspection, self-realization, remorse and self-condemnation. He grapples with his feelings and moral failings throughout his journey: from the earthquake to the miscarriage his wife suffered; from being secretive to not being intimate with his family; from lying to Liz to being jealous of the moments Elliot is close to his mother; from his questionable choices to his lack of insight; from anxiety to being reticent; from feeling ashamed to constructing a tower of evasion; from being unable to assure Liz of his love to being unable to appreciate her worth and beauty.
In a significant moment of reflection, Luther lets us into his thoughts: “I was so full of things at the moment---bloodrush, fury, sweat, habit, adrenaline, confusion, shame, and, maybe most potent of all, the invisible misfires and wirepulls of memory---that despite the pain of an unbearably complex fullness, almost at bursting, I cannot say I had any clear thoughts at all.” Luther realizes “vaguely that [he] had robbed [Liz] of her feeling in the domain where it would have meant the most to her.”
Luther wears a contrite heart and seizes a redemptive moment at Liz’s deathbed. Here he admits silently and inwardly his failure to praise Liz’s beauty or highlight her kindheartedness and capacity to come to the aid of other people. Seeking to make up for lost moments of intimacy, striving to prove his love for her in any way possible, he, like every other person, takes off his self-regarding garb and dons the other-regarding, life-affirming one.
mahdieusavage9@gmail.com
(CEO Renewal BooksPlus Limited/ Green Renewal & Carbon Offsetting Ltd.) London, UK.
March 7, 2013
It is amazing, from my point of view, how a woman author writes in a first person male protagonist.
The story reverberates of how many trials a father can be.
I choose this book in the store over the book The Beautiful Boy: the Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff, because it almost the same in topic--parental love and other things we perceived wrong about their love but it is not good to compare books.
It will remind you of your/ the role as a father or parent, spouse and a friend. The testing is not about written exam but simply a trial of behaviors and consequences. In particularly I learned the meaning of "silent treatment" in other view and how it resulted from your past life and not all of silent treatment can be based as negative but only the limitation of our understanding of what we see and not we actually feel--love.
Happy reading! :)Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
The story reverberates of how many trials a father can be.
I choose this book in the store over the book The Beautiful Boy: the Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff, because it almost the same in topic--parental love and other things we perceived wrong about their love but it is not good to compare books.
It will remind you of your/ the role as a father or parent, spouse and a friend. The testing is not about written exam but simply a trial of behaviors and consequences. In particularly I learned the meaning of "silent treatment" in other view and how it resulted from your past life and not all of silent treatment can be based as negative but only the limitation of our understanding of what we see and not we actually feel--love.
Happy reading! :)Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
November 1, 2019
Current events will affect my choices when it comes to books. And a billionaire "novelist" piqued my curiosity.
This is the first novel from MacKenzie Bezos and the more highly acclaimed of her two. This is one of those books you just know was workshopped and agonized over for years by virtue of its density.
There is so much technical information in this book, I could see readers finding it a slog. However, at the heart of this is a conflicted, flawed and incredibly fleshed out man, Luther Albright, his equally complicated son Elliott and his wife Liz.
The interesting thing is that Liz is thinly drawn. Bezos made it her business to concentrate on developing the men - a bold choice for a first-time (female) author.
I'm curious if her future holds more writing or if life's dramas are keeping her away.
This is the first novel from MacKenzie Bezos and the more highly acclaimed of her two. This is one of those books you just know was workshopped and agonized over for years by virtue of its density.
There is so much technical information in this book, I could see readers finding it a slog. However, at the heart of this is a conflicted, flawed and incredibly fleshed out man, Luther Albright, his equally complicated son Elliott and his wife Liz.
The interesting thing is that Liz is thinly drawn. Bezos made it her business to concentrate on developing the men - a bold choice for a first-time (female) author.
I'm curious if her future holds more writing or if life's dramas are keeping her away.
August 7, 2017
I would not have known about this author if her husband Jeff Bezo hadn't had his few hours of being the richest man in the world a few weeks ago. I wanted to know more details and found that his wife is an author so out of curiosity I downloaded her book. I'm glad I did. It is an unsual book and it took awhile to get into the style of writing. It reads like a stream of consciousness, a narration of the mind. A father who seems to be constantly second guessing his wife and son. His ongoing analysis, observations, critique and imaginings of their actions and possibly his failures. It is truly looking into the mind of one man as he lives his daily life and what he is thinking. It's fascinating and well done.
December 31, 2013
This book reminded me so much of Stoner by John Edward Williams. It's also a very quiet book. It's about a man, a proud but quiet man who builds dams in CA. He lives with his family in a house that he built with much love and care, but now it is aging and in need of many repairs. A major dam that he has built is being investigated for design flaws. Confronted with pressure at work and his own difficulty sharing articulating his feelings, his wife becomes distant and his adolescent son starts acting out. It's a story about a pretty ordinary man, being severely tested at a time in his life, when he perhaps expected more peace, just trying to do the best he can.
February 1, 2019
I vacillated between 2 and 3 stars for this book. Ultimately, there was waaay more detail about plumbing, pipes and house construction than I needed or wanted. And man, what a passive, pathetic main character.
November 27, 2014
One of my Favorites
July 6, 2020
This book was different from what I thought it would be. It is a very relatable story of an American family and the struggles between father and teenage son.
January 14, 2019
I gave this a try for about 5 minutes because the author has been in the news. The writing didn’t work for me. Gave up.
May 9, 2019
Well written but the protagonist was so emotionally constipated I would not have finished had we not had a power failure.
February 26, 2020
Thought-provoking Novel of Wishful Thinking
Most insightful story of a man, written by a woman! Short but most engaging.
Luther Albright is a calm, clear-headed civil engineer and designer of dams, who tries to manage or design his life and family like another engineering project---logically---but it doesn't work well!
In this her first novel, MacKenzie Bezos skillfully portrays the internal struggles of a pragmatic and highly introverted man, facing the emotional needs of his family amid his own emotional insecurities.
The story begins in 1983, with flashbacks to the late 1950s and 1960s reflecting on Luther's strange relationship with his parents and his early relationship with the woman he meets and marries.
The author's accurate insights into how many men think and perceive the world and people are both astute and eye opening. This first-person narrative by Luther is his reflective introspective of a pivotal few months that tried and shape his life and influenced the actions and feelings of his wife and maturing son. I found this storyline both entertaining and enlightening, a trait of an insightful literary novel.
Each of us is a "work in process," and this well-written book uses eight parts or "books" that focus on the various trials Luther faces at work and with his wife and son. His problem is that no matter how hard he tries, he seems aloof and insensitive to others while blindly perceiving himself the best employee, husband, and father.
This is no suspense or thriller with lost of action. However, it has it's own slow tensions and conflicts that build amid surprising situations as the plot rushes to several unacceptable potential conclusions. It's easy to see Toni Morrison's teaching influences on this new author's character and storyline development.
Given that the author had been married to Jeff Bezos for 10 years when this book was written, I wondered how it might have been influenced by her then husband's engineering and systematic approaches to life. Hmmm?
I enjoyed the Audible narration to the book, finding added enjoyment to my reading experience.
It was a fast and worthwhile read, and I plan to read the author's more recent second novel soon.
Most insightful story of a man, written by a woman! Short but most engaging.
Luther Albright is a calm, clear-headed civil engineer and designer of dams, who tries to manage or design his life and family like another engineering project---logically---but it doesn't work well!
In this her first novel, MacKenzie Bezos skillfully portrays the internal struggles of a pragmatic and highly introverted man, facing the emotional needs of his family amid his own emotional insecurities.
The story begins in 1983, with flashbacks to the late 1950s and 1960s reflecting on Luther's strange relationship with his parents and his early relationship with the woman he meets and marries.
The author's accurate insights into how many men think and perceive the world and people are both astute and eye opening. This first-person narrative by Luther is his reflective introspective of a pivotal few months that tried and shape his life and influenced the actions and feelings of his wife and maturing son. I found this storyline both entertaining and enlightening, a trait of an insightful literary novel.
Each of us is a "work in process," and this well-written book uses eight parts or "books" that focus on the various trials Luther faces at work and with his wife and son. His problem is that no matter how hard he tries, he seems aloof and insensitive to others while blindly perceiving himself the best employee, husband, and father.
This is no suspense or thriller with lost of action. However, it has it's own slow tensions and conflicts that build amid surprising situations as the plot rushes to several unacceptable potential conclusions. It's easy to see Toni Morrison's teaching influences on this new author's character and storyline development.
Given that the author had been married to Jeff Bezos for 10 years when this book was written, I wondered how it might have been influenced by her then husband's engineering and systematic approaches to life. Hmmm?
I enjoyed the Audible narration to the book, finding added enjoyment to my reading experience.
It was a fast and worthwhile read, and I plan to read the author's more recent second novel soon.
July 18, 2025
First of Jeff Benzos first wife wrote this book. Not the second wife who married Benzo's wealth. The first wife who has shown so much depth and understanding inside her soul.
Not going to lie It took me 4 long evening to read this book, and I had to stop a lot to consider the emotions and how I felt about Luther. He could not express his feelings or emotions although he had them lots of them.
Then I realized Luther was a character study of a man who is not only repressed but has anxiety, a hard time giving his family what they so desire as in a connection. Can you imagine worrying about how to respond to your own wife and child and not knowing how. He totally over analyzes even the smallest of things and is always second guessing himself. Let's just say, he was never messy about anything. He was perfect until it came to expressing his emotions.
But for all his terror in not expressing emotions to his wife son, or co-workers. He actually has a lot of emotions and anxiety of what he is going to say, how he is going to react, how he will do things in a precise manner with no errors. He just never learned how to express any of it. I felt saddened, pity, tenderness and compassion for him and his family. I think many people either express to much or don't express enough of their emotions.
It's called the human condition.
Don't get dissuaded into giving up on Luther while reading this book it would be a shame not to see inside another's soul to learn compassion and acceptance of the differences in people. How they were raised and what made them who they are.
Not going to lie It took me 4 long evening to read this book, and I had to stop a lot to consider the emotions and how I felt about Luther. He could not express his feelings or emotions although he had them lots of them.
Then I realized Luther was a character study of a man who is not only repressed but has anxiety, a hard time giving his family what they so desire as in a connection. Can you imagine worrying about how to respond to your own wife and child and not knowing how. He totally over analyzes even the smallest of things and is always second guessing himself. Let's just say, he was never messy about anything. He was perfect until it came to expressing his emotions.
But for all his terror in not expressing emotions to his wife son, or co-workers. He actually has a lot of emotions and anxiety of what he is going to say, how he is going to react, how he will do things in a precise manner with no errors. He just never learned how to express any of it. I felt saddened, pity, tenderness and compassion for him and his family. I think many people either express to much or don't express enough of their emotions.
It's called the human condition.
Don't get dissuaded into giving up on Luther while reading this book it would be a shame not to see inside another's soul to learn compassion and acceptance of the differences in people. How they were raised and what made them who they are.
August 4, 2021
This is a drama about inner life — emotions, how to deal with them, how to not deal with them. So it’s not a novel driven by much external plot. Unfortunately the main character, narrator Luther Albright, is so repressed, anxious and overthinking that I couldn’t stand to be in his head. There are strong metaphors throughout — testing, dams, etc. — but one of the few external plot lines (was one of Luther’s dam designs faulty, possibly to a fatal degree?) is never resolved. The whole book is an exercise in tolerating frustration, but there’s never a release. Imagining the details of the handbuilt house, however, is delightful, which is why I give this a second star.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 26, 2025
I was curious as to what kind of book Mackenzie Scott had written given her impressive philanthropic tendencies. The writing is definitely well-done and, while I can see where some might complain of a thin plot, I can say that enjoyed this one more than I expected. I found Luther to be a huge overthinker at first, almost to the point of not liking him. But as the story unfolded, I found myself relating to him in unexpected ways. It's not a long novel, but I think it examines the emotional dynamics (or lack thereof) in a very relatable way.
April 9, 2025
Fabulous book and I'm sorry that I missed it when it first was released. The story is one of coming of age--not so much as a teenager (though that is a major storyline) but as a parent and spouse. The writing hit me like a stiletto--after some descriptions I realized I had been deeply, emotionally cut though it was not obvious at first pass. This novel captures so many ambiguities of intimacy in those relationships that are most important to us and reminded me of how important it is to do the work which is inherent in our own stories and ancestry in order to not repeat the worst of it.
May 1, 2025
This was a very thoughtful story with incredible detail about a father's journey through his son's coming of age. It is told with powerful images and descriptive passages that accurately reflect his pain of being emotionally unavailable to his son and his wife. The main setting of the house he has built from scratch serves as an excellent metaphor for this family and the troubles it is facing. I look forward to reading more from MacKenzie Bezos as she is a masterful story-teller.
February 24, 2021
This novel is more about small accumulations of emotional brutality than something grandiose and cataclysmic. She's a very good writer and observer, and the climax packed a surprising emotional wallop.
November 21, 2021
A very interesting and moving book with a theme of withholding inner pain. This leads to emotional loss. The plot is slow, but the characters are beautifully created. I'm impressed by the author's writing.
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