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Everybody's Son
The bestselling, critically acclaimed author of The Space Between Us and The World We Found deftly explores issues of race, class, privilege, and power and asks us to consider uncomfortable moral questions in this probing, ambitious, emotionally wrenching novel of two families—one black, one white.
During a terrible heat wave in 1991—the worst in a decade—ten-year-old Anton has been locked in an apartment in the projects, alone, for seven days, without air conditioning or a fan. With no electricity, the refrigerator and lights do not work. Hot, hungry, and desperate, Anton shatters a window and climbs out. Cutting his leg on the broken glass, he is covered in blood when the police find him.
Juanita, his mother, is discovered in a crack house less than three blocks away, nearly unconscious and half-naked. When she comes to, she repeatedly asks for her baby boy. She never meant to leave Anton—she went out for a quick hit and was headed right back, until her drug dealer raped her and kept her high. Though the bond between mother and son is extremely strong, Anton is placed with child services while Juanita goes to jail.
The Harvard-educated son of a US senator, Judge David Coleman is a scion of northeastern white privilege. Desperate to have a child in the house again after the tragic death of his teenage son, David uses his power and connections to keep his new foster son, Anton, with him and his wife, Delores—actions that will have devastating consequences in the years to come.
Following in his adopted family’s footsteps, Anton, too, rises within the establishment. But when he discovers the truth about his life, his birth mother, and his adopted parents, this man of the law must come to terms with the moral complexities of crimes committed by the people he loves most.
348 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 6, 2017
980 people are currently reading
9123 people want to read
About the author
Thrity Umrigar
20 books2,932 followersA journalist for seventeen years, Thrity Umrigar has written for the Washington Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and other national newspapers, and contributes regularly to the Boston Globe's book pages. Thrity is the winner of the Cleveland Arts Prize, a Lambda Literary award and the Seth Rosenberg prize. She teaches creative writing and literature at Case Western Reserve University. The author of The Space Between Us, Bombay Time, and the memoir First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood, she was a winner of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard University. She has a Ph.D. in English and lives in Cleveland, Ohio. (from the publisher's website)"
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November 21, 2024
David Coleman has a heavy weight to bear. His son, James, was killed in an auto accident on prom night. James was destined to carry on the family name and business. David is a judge, and his father, here referred to as Pappy, was a long-time US Senator. After maybe too short a time, David seeks to fill the large gap James left by taking in a foster child.
Nine-year-old Anton Vesper is having problems of his own. He’d been left alone before in the projects apartment he shared with his mother, but this time was different, longer, for example, seven days, and hotter, with temperatures in the 90s. The power had been shut off as well, and the front door was locked from the outside. Desperate, he breaks a window to get out and go looking for his mother, Juanita. He calls her Mam. Cutting his leg on broken window glass, his bleeding gains the interest of a cop. Mam is found at a crack den, where she had essentially been held prisoner by her dealer. She is charged with child abandonment and Anton becomes a ward of the state.
Thrity Umrigar - from ArtsAtl.com
When David meets Anton, he is smitten, in a parental way. He wants to help the boy, and maybe fill the large hole in his heart at the same time. This is a scenario Umrigar has worked with in the past. In The Weight of Heaven, a man is bereft at the loss of his seven-year-old son, and transfers those feelings onto the son of his housekeeper. Complications ensue, as they do here. In both cases white adults engage with a child of color. Indian in The Weight of Heaven and black in this one.
David becomes increasingly attached to young Anton, and is eager to extend his time with him. Connections are used. Harshness is doled out to Anton’s mother, and David gets what he wants. Later, he engages in a particularly underhanded and cruel act to ensure that Anton would be allowed to stay with him permanently. How long can a building constructed on a corrupt foundation stand? What results when good intentions turn bad?
There are supporting characters in Everybody’s Son, but the focus is on Anton and secondarily, David. Anton grows up in a very privileged white household, one in which he is encouraged, supported, and challenged. He struggles initially, but in short order he is brought up to speed in his school, gains a welcoming friend and thrives. After this, he does not really have to cope much with racial identity issues until college, when he meets and falls hard for a strong, opinionated black woman who challenges all his beliefs.
I suppose one could look at this as a questioning of the impact of nature vs nurture. What sort of life might Anton have had, had he been returned to his crack-addicted mother? No-brainer, right? But what of morality? The legal system favors biological connection, so David had to break the law to get what he wanted. Even if what he wanted was a good life for Anton, using his power to secure rights to the boy outside legal norms is not cool.
Everybody’s Son could so easily have been a morality play about black and white, comeuppance, and unfairness. But Umrigar is far too competent a writer to let things go there. David is not presented in monotones. He is a nuanced, flawed human being who truly wants to see to Anton’s best interests, and is willing to do what it takes, even at the risk of killing his career and marriage to do it. Is there selfishness involved? Of course. But he is neither all good nor all bad. That is not what Umrigar does. Her characters all reflect light in different directions from asymmetrical facets. Even crack-head Juanita is shown in both shadow and light.
The primary journey here is Anton’s. How black is he? How white? And in looking at a wider frame, the tale calls to mind an increasing awareness of race, and how people are treated differently based on externals. Where does cultural blending become domination? Where does mixing become taking? Hardly surprising themes for an Indian woman raised in Mumbai who moved to the USA at age 21. And consistent with her prior work, which looks at the places where this color intersects with that, where have meets have not, where cultures clash and intersect, where need and desire engage with morality.
Friendship permeates the story as well. Both David and Anton have besties who are always there for them. I suppose that is possible, but in both instances, it struck me that the friendships Umrigar describes were rather idealized, lacking the sort of nuance she applied to her characters.
There is consideration given to choice versus destiny. David sees himself as not at all a political animal, and puts up resistance when queried about this or that move up the political ladder. Yet he accedes. Is it because he is giving in to the expectations of the world or is it his true self coming to the surface? Anton faces similar challenges. In fact the early working title for the book was The Destiny.
This is the first novel by Umrigar that makes no use of India or people from India. The crack epidemic of the early 1990s informed setting the beginning of her novel then. While there is a look at the other side of the tracks in this book, it is not a large one. Where she has traveled the globe in prior work, this one is purely an American tale. While the story is definitely engaging, and Anton and David are well drawn, relatable characters, it seemed to me to not quite have the emotional oomph of some of her earlier work. The novel picked up the beat when the female characters took center stage, Delores Coleman, David’s wife, Anton’s mother, Juanita, and Anton’s girlfriend, Corine, all carry special energy to their scenes, adding powerful feeling to the story. While this may or may not be as riveting as some of her earlier work, Umrigar remains an excellent story-teller with interesting things to say, and an engaging way of saying them. An intriguing tale of race and identity, of love and morality, of seeking truth and then having to cope with what one finds, Everybody’s Son merits a spot on everybody’s reading list.
Review first posted – December 2, 2016
Publication date – June 6, 2017
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, and FB pages
Decisions, decisions, decisions. The poem Casabianca is mentioned early in the book. It is worth checking out the full text of it for possible significance in the novel
Other Thrity Umrigar books I have read:
-----The World We Found
-----The Weight of Heaven
-----The Space Between Us
Nine-year-old Anton Vesper is having problems of his own. He’d been left alone before in the projects apartment he shared with his mother, but this time was different, longer, for example, seven days, and hotter, with temperatures in the 90s. The power had been shut off as well, and the front door was locked from the outside. Desperate, he breaks a window to get out and go looking for his mother, Juanita. He calls her Mam. Cutting his leg on broken window glass, his bleeding gains the interest of a cop. Mam is found at a crack den, where she had essentially been held prisoner by her dealer. She is charged with child abandonment and Anton becomes a ward of the state.
Thrity Umrigar - from ArtsAtl.com
When David meets Anton, he is smitten, in a parental way. He wants to help the boy, and maybe fill the large hole in his heart at the same time. This is a scenario Umrigar has worked with in the past. In The Weight of Heaven, a man is bereft at the loss of his seven-year-old son, and transfers those feelings onto the son of his housekeeper. Complications ensue, as they do here. In both cases white adults engage with a child of color. Indian in The Weight of Heaven and black in this one.
David becomes increasingly attached to young Anton, and is eager to extend his time with him. Connections are used. Harshness is doled out to Anton’s mother, and David gets what he wants. Later, he engages in a particularly underhanded and cruel act to ensure that Anton would be allowed to stay with him permanently. How long can a building constructed on a corrupt foundation stand? What results when good intentions turn bad?
There are supporting characters in Everybody’s Son, but the focus is on Anton and secondarily, David. Anton grows up in a very privileged white household, one in which he is encouraged, supported, and challenged. He struggles initially, but in short order he is brought up to speed in his school, gains a welcoming friend and thrives. After this, he does not really have to cope much with racial identity issues until college, when he meets and falls hard for a strong, opinionated black woman who challenges all his beliefs.
I suppose one could look at this as a questioning of the impact of nature vs nurture. What sort of life might Anton have had, had he been returned to his crack-addicted mother? No-brainer, right? But what of morality? The legal system favors biological connection, so David had to break the law to get what he wanted. Even if what he wanted was a good life for Anton, using his power to secure rights to the boy outside legal norms is not cool.
Everybody’s Son could so easily have been a morality play about black and white, comeuppance, and unfairness. But Umrigar is far too competent a writer to let things go there. David is not presented in monotones. He is a nuanced, flawed human being who truly wants to see to Anton’s best interests, and is willing to do what it takes, even at the risk of killing his career and marriage to do it. Is there selfishness involved? Of course. But he is neither all good nor all bad. That is not what Umrigar does. Her characters all reflect light in different directions from asymmetrical facets. Even crack-head Juanita is shown in both shadow and light.
The primary journey here is Anton’s. How black is he? How white? And in looking at a wider frame, the tale calls to mind an increasing awareness of race, and how people are treated differently based on externals. Where does cultural blending become domination? Where does mixing become taking? Hardly surprising themes for an Indian woman raised in Mumbai who moved to the USA at age 21. And consistent with her prior work, which looks at the places where this color intersects with that, where have meets have not, where cultures clash and intersect, where need and desire engage with morality.
Friendship permeates the story as well. Both David and Anton have besties who are always there for them. I suppose that is possible, but in both instances, it struck me that the friendships Umrigar describes were rather idealized, lacking the sort of nuance she applied to her characters.
There is consideration given to choice versus destiny. David sees himself as not at all a political animal, and puts up resistance when queried about this or that move up the political ladder. Yet he accedes. Is it because he is giving in to the expectations of the world or is it his true self coming to the surface? Anton faces similar challenges. In fact the early working title for the book was The Destiny.
This is the first novel by Umrigar that makes no use of India or people from India. The crack epidemic of the early 1990s informed setting the beginning of her novel then. While there is a look at the other side of the tracks in this book, it is not a large one. Where she has traveled the globe in prior work, this one is purely an American tale. While the story is definitely engaging, and Anton and David are well drawn, relatable characters, it seemed to me to not quite have the emotional oomph of some of her earlier work. The novel picked up the beat when the female characters took center stage, Delores Coleman, David’s wife, Anton’s mother, Juanita, and Anton’s girlfriend, Corine, all carry special energy to their scenes, adding powerful feeling to the story. While this may or may not be as riveting as some of her earlier work, Umrigar remains an excellent story-teller with interesting things to say, and an engaging way of saying them. An intriguing tale of race and identity, of love and morality, of seeking truth and then having to cope with what one finds, Everybody’s Son merits a spot on everybody’s reading list.
Review first posted – December 2, 2016
Publication date – June 6, 2017
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, and FB pages
Decisions, decisions, decisions. The poem Casabianca is mentioned early in the book. It is worth checking out the full text of it for possible significance in the novel
Other Thrity Umrigar books I have read:
-----The World We Found
-----The Weight of Heaven
-----The Space Between Us
June 18, 2017
3.5 Anton, a young black boy, was only ten when his life was irrevocably changed. Left alone in a sweltering apartment with little food, by his crack addicted mother, he manages to break a window and climb out. He will be taken by social services and will find himself as a foster child, living with a prominent white family, father a judge, a family who is still recovering from the grief of losing their only child.
Many interesting moral questions arise in this novel, the first novel this author has written that is not about those of Indian descent. Abuse of power, white privilege, a wrong committed, racial bias, would make a good book discussion. Anton is a wonderful character, but this book, his life follows an almost storybook trajectory, Anton, himself almost too good to be true. The writing is without much emotional, mechanical and I was all set to rate this three stars, until the last third of the book. Anton comes face to face with his past, and finally cracks in the facade begin to appear. I decided, don't know whether the author meant this to be, but the writing in the first third I took to mimic the closed off feelings of Anton. He was only I half a life, doing what was expected of him, finding some joy, feeling some sadness, but he was far from a whole person.
The story is interesting and as I said will raise many questions. The prose is clear and concise, and the book flows well. Will being resting to see if any readers come to the same conclusion I did about the writing style mimicing Anton's feelings. Loved the ending, it was fitting and right.
Many interesting moral questions arise in this novel, the first novel this author has written that is not about those of Indian descent. Abuse of power, white privilege, a wrong committed, racial bias, would make a good book discussion. Anton is a wonderful character, but this book, his life follows an almost storybook trajectory, Anton, himself almost too good to be true. The writing is without much emotional, mechanical and I was all set to rate this three stars, until the last third of the book. Anton comes face to face with his past, and finally cracks in the facade begin to appear. I decided, don't know whether the author meant this to be, but the writing in the first third I took to mimic the closed off feelings of Anton. He was only I half a life, doing what was expected of him, finding some joy, feeling some sadness, but he was far from a whole person.
The story is interesting and as I said will raise many questions. The prose is clear and concise, and the book flows well. Will being resting to see if any readers come to the same conclusion I did about the writing style mimicing Anton's feelings. Loved the ending, it was fitting and right.
July 9, 2017
I do believe Thrity Umrigar has a lot of important things to say and she put down a story with great potential, one that forces you to examine your beliefs on issues such as race, class, child welfare, and the justice system as it relates those issues. I was really looking forward to reading Everybody’s Son, but in the end I confess disappointment. It’s my opinion that the writing failed to support a story of this gravity, something I just couldn't get past.
My chief complaint is that of inconstant characterization. Anton’s foster father and the grown-up version of Anton both come off as mercurial, sometimes making instant about-faces on major life issue that seem all too improbable. There are also references made to personality traits that were initially described as the very opposite. These things make it difficult to connect with the characters and I’m surprised that at least some were not caught by an editor prior to publishing.
The other facet I didn’t care for was that the writing in general is overwrought. Too much telling rather than demonstrating how each person feels… to better clarify, it’s like too much description in an emotional moment actually sucks the intensity right out of it. Umrigar is also prone to hyperbole, which really rubs me the wrong way. For example: “David felt his body quiver with pride.” I mean, I understand the message here but it still makes me cringe. Sometime, less is more.
I think that’s probably enough said. I know not everyone will agree, and you might actually enjoy this if you’re not put off by the kind of writing quirks that I’ve described. As for myself, I'm adjusting my original three stars down to two because it was no better than just "ok."
My chief complaint is that of inconstant characterization. Anton’s foster father and the grown-up version of Anton both come off as mercurial, sometimes making instant about-faces on major life issue that seem all too improbable. There are also references made to personality traits that were initially described as the very opposite. These things make it difficult to connect with the characters and I’m surprised that at least some were not caught by an editor prior to publishing.
The other facet I didn’t care for was that the writing in general is overwrought. Too much telling rather than demonstrating how each person feels… to better clarify, it’s like too much description in an emotional moment actually sucks the intensity right out of it. Umrigar is also prone to hyperbole, which really rubs me the wrong way. For example: “David felt his body quiver with pride.” I mean, I understand the message here but it still makes me cringe. Sometime, less is more.
I think that’s probably enough said. I know not everyone will agree, and you might actually enjoy this if you’re not put off by the kind of writing quirks that I’ve described. As for myself, I'm adjusting my original three stars down to two because it was no better than just "ok."
July 11, 2017
“I feel bare. I didn't realize I wore my secrets as armor until they were gone and now everyone sees me as I really am.”
----Veronica Roth
Thrity Umrigar, the bestselling, critically acclaimed author, has penned a terrific and extremely heart breaking literary fiction in her new book called, Everybody's Son: A Novel that centers around a biracial, abandoned kid, who is adopted by a rich and powerful white family while his crackpot mother rotted away in jail, and later he grows up to carry forward his adopted family's name by himself becoming someone important, but he can never shake off the strong relationship he had with his own mother and now after so many years, he is going to learn lots of dirty secrets about his past as well as about his adopted family, that will threaten his whole sanity as well as his existence.
Synopsis:
The bestselling, critically acclaimed author of The Space Between Us and The World We Found deftly explores issues of race, class, privilege, and power and asks us to consider uncomfortable moral questions in this probing, ambitious, emotionally wrenching novel of two families—one black, one white.
During a terrible heat wave in 1991—the worst in a decade—ten-year-old Anton has been locked in an apartment in the projects, alone, for seven days, without air conditioning or a fan. With no electricity, the refrigerator and lights do not work. Hot, hungry, and desperate, Anton shatters a window and climbs out. Cutting his leg on the broken glass, he is covered in blood when the police find him.
Juanita, his mother, is discovered in a crack house less than three blocks away, nearly unconscious and half-naked. When she comes to, she repeatedly asks for her baby boy. She never meant to leave Anton—she went out for a quick hit and was headed right back, until her drug dealer raped her and kept her high. Though the bond between mother and son is extremely strong, Anton is placed with child services while Juanita goes to jail.
The Harvard-educated son of a US senator, Judge David Coleman is a scion of northeastern white privilege. Desperate to have a child in the house again after the tragic death of his teenage son, David uses his power and connections to keep his new foster son, Anton, with him and his wife, Delores—actions that will have devastating consequences in the years to come.
Following in his adopted family’s footsteps, Anton, too, rises within the establishment. But when he discovers the truth about his life, his birth mother, and his adopted parents, this man of the law must come to terms with the moral complexities of crimes committed by the people he loves most.
After 7 days of struggle and abandonment in his own apartment, where his crackpot mother left him for a few minutes that apparently turned into days, Anton Vesper escapes from a window, only to be rescued by the local police, who then later find out the location of his careless drug addict mother, who is immediately charged with child abandonment and faces jail time. So Anton isn't handed over to her, and since David Coleman has his own games to play in this small town, he schemes and plots to foster this abandoned child in order to replace his lost son, who was destined to carry his family's legacy. David and his wife, Delores has recently lost their teenage son, and being a powerful rich white man of the town, he waves his magic wand and makes a few calls, upon hearing about Anton's foster situation. And finally Anton has a loving and caring home to look forward to. The child who loved his mother like anything, despite of her flaws, he grows up to become the Attorney General and through the years, he struggles with his mixed race and skin color, as well as with his dark past, where his mother still lingers like a ghost. But David's lies, that he fed to his wife as well as to both Anton's mother and to the boy, have now come undone and are threatening to ruin the lives of those who matter. And can Anton live with his father's lies or will he confront his own existence? Can he forgive and find his own identity?
Have only heard good things about this author and her books, so when I got the opportunity to review this book, I simply could not pass it on. And I've always loved books that feature a racial angle, the struggles of it and family issues surrounding it. Sadly, the author might not have been able to tie those connection strikingly, but she has successfully manages to concoct a deeply moving story about a young boy, growing up with lies and later on realizes his own worth and the value of his own race and background. Literary fiction aficionados will, no doubt, find this book to be delightful and poignant, all throughout.
A man so greedy for a son, plots to become the father of an abandoned young boy for his own selfish reasons, and why can't he, when he has so much power to achieve that, but can he face the outcome, when his lies come to the light, especially when the boy learns about his cruel intentions? The climax will take the readers off their edges, since it is unpredictable and thoroughly tragic.
The story is powerful, but I wish the story telling could have been a bit eloquent enough. As a result, the readers might find the loose ends dangling from the end of each chapter. Yet the narrative is spot on, laced with enough emotional depth to move the readers as well as contemplate with the characters' voices and their plight. The pacing is bit slow, as the events from the book take a lot of time to develop or rather say, take a lot of time to unfold. The prose is articulate yet somehow the plot development is not that strong enough for the readers to get a grip on the story line.
The characters from the book are realistically painted, but lacks depth and dimensions in their demeanor, so felt a bit bland. The main character, Anton, is an inspiring character who goes through a lot of challenges at a very tender age for his mixed race and that part is handled with enough sensitivity by the author. What irks me is that Anton could have been developed with much more layers, he is bit monotonous. even though the author never fails to portray his emotions in a vivid manner. The next important character from the book is a fine and interesting man with selfish intentions, yes, that's right, David Coleman would go at any lengths to make Anton successful and carry the family legacy of greatness. This story also features about his own personal journey as a powerful judge of the state and his own mistakes that come undone at a later stage. The female secondary characters are not painted so well, all I can say is that they are pretty simple.
In a nutshell, this book is evocative and compelling but somewhere between the lines, it lost its touch of charm and poignancy. Definitely, it could have been much better, since the story will only provoke the thoughts of its readers.
Verdict: an empowering read where the protagonists are on a path to seek truth behind their race and families and discover their individuality.
Courtesy: Thanks to the publishers from Harper Collins India for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
----Veronica Roth
Thrity Umrigar, the bestselling, critically acclaimed author, has penned a terrific and extremely heart breaking literary fiction in her new book called, Everybody's Son: A Novel that centers around a biracial, abandoned kid, who is adopted by a rich and powerful white family while his crackpot mother rotted away in jail, and later he grows up to carry forward his adopted family's name by himself becoming someone important, but he can never shake off the strong relationship he had with his own mother and now after so many years, he is going to learn lots of dirty secrets about his past as well as about his adopted family, that will threaten his whole sanity as well as his existence.
Synopsis:
The bestselling, critically acclaimed author of The Space Between Us and The World We Found deftly explores issues of race, class, privilege, and power and asks us to consider uncomfortable moral questions in this probing, ambitious, emotionally wrenching novel of two families—one black, one white.
During a terrible heat wave in 1991—the worst in a decade—ten-year-old Anton has been locked in an apartment in the projects, alone, for seven days, without air conditioning or a fan. With no electricity, the refrigerator and lights do not work. Hot, hungry, and desperate, Anton shatters a window and climbs out. Cutting his leg on the broken glass, he is covered in blood when the police find him.
Juanita, his mother, is discovered in a crack house less than three blocks away, nearly unconscious and half-naked. When she comes to, she repeatedly asks for her baby boy. She never meant to leave Anton—she went out for a quick hit and was headed right back, until her drug dealer raped her and kept her high. Though the bond between mother and son is extremely strong, Anton is placed with child services while Juanita goes to jail.
The Harvard-educated son of a US senator, Judge David Coleman is a scion of northeastern white privilege. Desperate to have a child in the house again after the tragic death of his teenage son, David uses his power and connections to keep his new foster son, Anton, with him and his wife, Delores—actions that will have devastating consequences in the years to come.
Following in his adopted family’s footsteps, Anton, too, rises within the establishment. But when he discovers the truth about his life, his birth mother, and his adopted parents, this man of the law must come to terms with the moral complexities of crimes committed by the people he loves most.
After 7 days of struggle and abandonment in his own apartment, where his crackpot mother left him for a few minutes that apparently turned into days, Anton Vesper escapes from a window, only to be rescued by the local police, who then later find out the location of his careless drug addict mother, who is immediately charged with child abandonment and faces jail time. So Anton isn't handed over to her, and since David Coleman has his own games to play in this small town, he schemes and plots to foster this abandoned child in order to replace his lost son, who was destined to carry his family's legacy. David and his wife, Delores has recently lost their teenage son, and being a powerful rich white man of the town, he waves his magic wand and makes a few calls, upon hearing about Anton's foster situation. And finally Anton has a loving and caring home to look forward to. The child who loved his mother like anything, despite of her flaws, he grows up to become the Attorney General and through the years, he struggles with his mixed race and skin color, as well as with his dark past, where his mother still lingers like a ghost. But David's lies, that he fed to his wife as well as to both Anton's mother and to the boy, have now come undone and are threatening to ruin the lives of those who matter. And can Anton live with his father's lies or will he confront his own existence? Can he forgive and find his own identity?
Have only heard good things about this author and her books, so when I got the opportunity to review this book, I simply could not pass it on. And I've always loved books that feature a racial angle, the struggles of it and family issues surrounding it. Sadly, the author might not have been able to tie those connection strikingly, but she has successfully manages to concoct a deeply moving story about a young boy, growing up with lies and later on realizes his own worth and the value of his own race and background. Literary fiction aficionados will, no doubt, find this book to be delightful and poignant, all throughout.
A man so greedy for a son, plots to become the father of an abandoned young boy for his own selfish reasons, and why can't he, when he has so much power to achieve that, but can he face the outcome, when his lies come to the light, especially when the boy learns about his cruel intentions? The climax will take the readers off their edges, since it is unpredictable and thoroughly tragic.
The story is powerful, but I wish the story telling could have been a bit eloquent enough. As a result, the readers might find the loose ends dangling from the end of each chapter. Yet the narrative is spot on, laced with enough emotional depth to move the readers as well as contemplate with the characters' voices and their plight. The pacing is bit slow, as the events from the book take a lot of time to develop or rather say, take a lot of time to unfold. The prose is articulate yet somehow the plot development is not that strong enough for the readers to get a grip on the story line.
The characters from the book are realistically painted, but lacks depth and dimensions in their demeanor, so felt a bit bland. The main character, Anton, is an inspiring character who goes through a lot of challenges at a very tender age for his mixed race and that part is handled with enough sensitivity by the author. What irks me is that Anton could have been developed with much more layers, he is bit monotonous. even though the author never fails to portray his emotions in a vivid manner. The next important character from the book is a fine and interesting man with selfish intentions, yes, that's right, David Coleman would go at any lengths to make Anton successful and carry the family legacy of greatness. This story also features about his own personal journey as a powerful judge of the state and his own mistakes that come undone at a later stage. The female secondary characters are not painted so well, all I can say is that they are pretty simple.
In a nutshell, this book is evocative and compelling but somewhere between the lines, it lost its touch of charm and poignancy. Definitely, it could have been much better, since the story will only provoke the thoughts of its readers.
Verdict: an empowering read where the protagonists are on a path to seek truth behind their race and families and discover their individuality.
Courtesy: Thanks to the publishers from Harper Collins India for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
June 12, 2017
I wanted to love this book because I love the premise so much, but I could not get past the unbelievable characters and the terrible dialogue. For example, the 9 year old boy from the inner city on his way to his new foster home says, "Cool. I never seen that. I love kitties." And the foster father calls the boy "Sport" and "Fella." The foster father also says things like, "That's what the combo of a druggie mother and a crappy school system buys you. Our tax dollars at work." None of these are believable. They're just not how people talk.
The character's feelings also are unclear at times - like when the foster father kneels down to talk to the boy before going into his house for the first time, and then is embarrassed when his wife sees him kneeling. Why would you be embarrassed for getting on a child's level to make him feel comfortable? So he pretends to be tying the child's shoes. But also, as with the boy's dialogue above, it makes it seem as though Umrigar thinks her character is 4, not 9.
Additionally, a judge who is close friends with the prosecutor and judge on the biological mother's case would never be made a foster parent, so that part of the premise is flawed as well.
Finally, Umrigar smacks you over the head with foreshadowing, which is insulting as it assumes the reader is not smart enough to see plot developing on his or her own.
DNF.
The character's feelings also are unclear at times - like when the foster father kneels down to talk to the boy before going into his house for the first time, and then is embarrassed when his wife sees him kneeling. Why would you be embarrassed for getting on a child's level to make him feel comfortable? So he pretends to be tying the child's shoes. But also, as with the boy's dialogue above, it makes it seem as though Umrigar thinks her character is 4, not 9.
Additionally, a judge who is close friends with the prosecutor and judge on the biological mother's case would never be made a foster parent, so that part of the premise is flawed as well.
Finally, Umrigar smacks you over the head with foreshadowing, which is insulting as it assumes the reader is not smart enough to see plot developing on his or her own.
DNF.
March 8, 2018
I really liked the first third of the book when Anton was a child. When he was 9 the biracial boy was placed in a foster home with a wealthy white couple who had lost their only son. I felt sorry for everyone here as heartbreaking decisions were made, some of which were ethically questionable. Unfortunately, I wasn't that crazy about the rest of the book. It had too much politics for me and Anton's progression from Harvard to attorney general was so rushed and uneventful. I couldn't believe that he would encounter no racism or other difficulties along the way. Finally, when Anton learned how he had been misled about his past, the resolution felt too pat. I expected to like this more based on the beginning of the book, but I was glad when it was over.
November 18, 2017
Letting this one marinate...
First thoughts: something not quite right in the writing/characters
Big and interesting ethical quandaries but laid out in a way that bypasses the complexities
Narrator may have inhabited a point of view not intended by the author
Interesting plot not quite executed well
Politics within the book were too simplistic and clear cut
Characters were larger than life (meaning they achieved things in ways that seem unrealistic)
Overall novel was good, but lots of unrealized potential
3.5 Stars
Listened to the audio book. Josh Bloomberg did a good job.
First thoughts: something not quite right in the writing/characters
Big and interesting ethical quandaries but laid out in a way that bypasses the complexities
Narrator may have inhabited a point of view not intended by the author
Interesting plot not quite executed well
Politics within the book were too simplistic and clear cut
Characters were larger than life (meaning they achieved things in ways that seem unrealistic)
Overall novel was good, but lots of unrealized potential
3.5 Stars
Listened to the audio book. Josh Bloomberg did a good job.
December 18, 2024
Highs and lows. Review when back from travels. Free library find.
I'm always a sucker for free library finds that I take home and then forget exactly what peaked my interest. Collecting books and reading are two different hobbies but I am trying to read more of what I pick up. I had read a previous Umrigar book (The Space Between Us) and had been meaning to read her latest (Honor). After reading the inside flap of this book I was intrigued enough to give it a go, even though I had never heard or read anything about it.
Published in 2017 it seemed a little dated but maybe that is because I have read many more books about the black experience and about kids who grow up feeling torn or confused by the pull of different cultures.
This is the story of a young black boy who is removed from his home when his mother gets caught up in a crack deal that goes wrong. He ends up being placed for fostering with a wealthy white couple who lost their teenage son and are still working to find a way out of their grief. The fostering father finds a new lease on life through this child, and believes only he can provide the environment to help this child thrive. (If you follow Micheal Oher story from the Blindside it sounded very reminiscent).
There were points that made me angry and a story that I felt a times was written to make a point. But the ending was quite open with much left to the reader to decide.
The 3.5 stars were for the predictability of the story. lowered to 3 as it also as I felt a times the author pushed too hard to make her point (believeability suffered) but I do think it will stick with me. I did listen to the audio at times narration by Josh Bloomberg which was good but I preferred the print.
I'm always a sucker for free library finds that I take home and then forget exactly what peaked my interest. Collecting books and reading are two different hobbies but I am trying to read more of what I pick up. I had read a previous Umrigar book (The Space Between Us) and had been meaning to read her latest (Honor). After reading the inside flap of this book I was intrigued enough to give it a go, even though I had never heard or read anything about it.
Published in 2017 it seemed a little dated but maybe that is because I have read many more books about the black experience and about kids who grow up feeling torn or confused by the pull of different cultures.
This is the story of a young black boy who is removed from his home when his mother gets caught up in a crack deal that goes wrong. He ends up being placed for fostering with a wealthy white couple who lost their teenage son and are still working to find a way out of their grief. The fostering father finds a new lease on life through this child, and believes only he can provide the environment to help this child thrive. (If you follow Micheal Oher story from the Blindside it sounded very reminiscent).
There were points that made me angry and a story that I felt a times was written to make a point. But the ending was quite open with much left to the reader to decide.
The 3.5 stars were for the predictability of the story. lowered to 3 as it also as I felt a times the author pushed too hard to make her point (believeability suffered) but I do think it will stick with me. I did listen to the audio at times narration by Josh Bloomberg which was good but I preferred the print.
Read
November 21, 2017EVERYBODY'S SON probes directly into the tender spots of race and privilege in America--and how those systems can be perpetuated even by those with the best intentions. With assured prose and deep insight into the human heart, Thrity Umrigar explores the moral gray zone of what parents, no matter their race, will do for love.
December 5, 2017
“There were no adults . . . There were just tall children stumbling around the world, walking pools of unfinished hopes, unmet needs, and seething desires. The unsuccessful ones ended up in asylums. The ones who learned to masquerade those needs became politicians.”
My first encounter with Thrity Umrigar was a library sponsored “Date with a Book”. Held around Valentine’s day, patrons were encouraged to fall in love with a new author by taking home a “gift” wrapped in hearts and tufts of red and pink tissue paper. That gift was The Story Hour about the complex relationship between an Indian immigrant and her well-to-do American psychologist. The Story Hour was such a many-layered deep novel, rich with nuance and humanity. Because of this I was so excited when Everybody’s Son was chosen by Literary Fiction by People of Color for the December group read. After hearing the premise – an examination of race and privilege through the lens of a Black foster child being taken in by a politically connected White family – I was ready to be treated by Umrigar’s deft hand.
However, I found she fell short on this one. For some reason her characters did not ring true to me this time around. Instead they seemed like gross caricatures of unidimensional stereotypes: Coleman the politician who views himself above the law where the ends justify the means. Those around him, especially Anton, are treated as commodities despite his professed love. Juanita remains unsophisticated and victimized even in her sobriety. Here is her take on Carine, the only educated Black woman in the book:
“The beauty that had dazzled and blinded him fell away, as if he had drunk a potion in a fairy tale, and he had found himself walking beside the ordinary black girl, one who hid her insecurities behind a façade of bravado and radicalism. Her radicalism is phony, he thought, because it keeps her from seeing the world, blinds her to its mysteries and charms. Even her intellectualism is suspect because it’s not open-minded and skeptical and probing but, rather, circular, chasing its own tail.”
This book had the potential to have been so much more. I was waiting for Coleman to admit to wrongdoing, for Juanita’s strength to shine, for Anton to step into his own. I was waiting . . .
July 7, 2017
3.5 stars for my first Thrity Umrigar novel, & it certainly won't be my last. With a prose concise & clear, EVERYBODY'S SON flowed easily & made for a breezy read. (Difficult subject matter but the structure of the text made it easier to absorb & digest.) Umrigar composes multi-layered MCs who raise some hard questions about nature vs. nurture & just how far you'll go to excuse crooked behavior- how the ends justify the means.
EVERYBODY'S SON takes place over a course of 25 years. In 1991, we are introduced to nine-year-old Anton, who will be taken to social services after it is discovered he has been left alone for a week in an apartment during the heat wave. His mother, a crack addict, was supposed to come back home but never showed. This action will inevitably change both her & her son's lives forever. Anton is sent to live with Judge David Coleman & his wife, Delores, who are still grieving from the loss of their son James.
David immediately becomes fond of Anton, finding that while Anton can never replace James, it does ease the pain in his heart a bit. He knows Juanita (Anton's mother) will be back out onto the streets soon enough, that he will have to hand Anton back over to her. Unless...he can make her give up custody of the boy, convincing Juanita that he is much better off with him & his wife, that they can provide Anton with a life Juanita could only dream of. Which of course, is exactly what he does. Perhaps a bit of a cliche, the character of a corrupt politician, the way that David constructs this lie, the web that he weaves, is absolutely insidious. The white man looking down on & shaming the black woman for not taking care of her son- where have we seen that before? 🤔🤔 It's mind blowing that David truly believes in the falses he spits out; anything to get a chance to call Anton his own. This damage will cause David to officially adopt Anton, legally making him his son, but what about Anton? Is there a shred of truth to his disgusting politics? Did David & his wife really give Anton a better life?
As for Anton, he will follow in David's footsteps. Being brought into a family of politicians that go back generations, Anton will get his own taste of the action as well as running for governor. He will have tossed away the only woman he genuinely loved, Carine, the college sweetheart whose opinions were a little too loud for comfort in the home of elected officials. He will find comfort in Katherine, but I personally believe he will be happy with her. He will endure the loss of his grandfather, Pappy, as well as David's heart attack. He will be on the campaign trail, with the desire to change the communities in his eyes, until a letter from his long-lost mother catches him off guard. Thinking she wrote to him for no other reason than to blackmail him (this is Washington, after all), he goes to track her down. After all these years, he still believes what David told him. That Juanita gave him up, that she couldn't take care of him anymore.
After 25 years, Anton comes to the startling realization that although he is everybody's son, he is really nobody's son. He doesn't know who he is anymore. Can Anton rewrite his destiny, choose to own his identity? Umrigar tackles racism (especially in politics), the cruel reality of a "black" upbringing vs. a "white" upbringing, the lengths grief will fuel you to claim something that isn't yours, trying to figure out who you are, on your own terms & more. This is definitely the type of novel I could picture at book club meetings, themes that force you to have discussions afterwards. EVERYBODY'S SON is a work that will bring awareness to the table & doesn't back down from the tainted concepts of expectations & privilege. I am looking forward to checking out Umrigar's other releases.
EVERYBODY'S SON takes place over a course of 25 years. In 1991, we are introduced to nine-year-old Anton, who will be taken to social services after it is discovered he has been left alone for a week in an apartment during the heat wave. His mother, a crack addict, was supposed to come back home but never showed. This action will inevitably change both her & her son's lives forever. Anton is sent to live with Judge David Coleman & his wife, Delores, who are still grieving from the loss of their son James.
David immediately becomes fond of Anton, finding that while Anton can never replace James, it does ease the pain in his heart a bit. He knows Juanita (Anton's mother) will be back out onto the streets soon enough, that he will have to hand Anton back over to her. Unless...he can make her give up custody of the boy, convincing Juanita that he is much better off with him & his wife, that they can provide Anton with a life Juanita could only dream of. Which of course, is exactly what he does. Perhaps a bit of a cliche, the character of a corrupt politician, the way that David constructs this lie, the web that he weaves, is absolutely insidious. The white man looking down on & shaming the black woman for not taking care of her son- where have we seen that before? 🤔🤔 It's mind blowing that David truly believes in the falses he spits out; anything to get a chance to call Anton his own. This damage will cause David to officially adopt Anton, legally making him his son, but what about Anton? Is there a shred of truth to his disgusting politics? Did David & his wife really give Anton a better life?
As for Anton, he will follow in David's footsteps. Being brought into a family of politicians that go back generations, Anton will get his own taste of the action as well as running for governor. He will have tossed away the only woman he genuinely loved, Carine, the college sweetheart whose opinions were a little too loud for comfort in the home of elected officials. He will find comfort in Katherine, but I personally believe he will be happy with her. He will endure the loss of his grandfather, Pappy, as well as David's heart attack. He will be on the campaign trail, with the desire to change the communities in his eyes, until a letter from his long-lost mother catches him off guard. Thinking she wrote to him for no other reason than to blackmail him (this is Washington, after all), he goes to track her down. After all these years, he still believes what David told him. That Juanita gave him up, that she couldn't take care of him anymore.
After 25 years, Anton comes to the startling realization that although he is everybody's son, he is really nobody's son. He doesn't know who he is anymore. Can Anton rewrite his destiny, choose to own his identity? Umrigar tackles racism (especially in politics), the cruel reality of a "black" upbringing vs. a "white" upbringing, the lengths grief will fuel you to claim something that isn't yours, trying to figure out who you are, on your own terms & more. This is definitely the type of novel I could picture at book club meetings, themes that force you to have discussions afterwards. EVERYBODY'S SON is a work that will bring awareness to the table & doesn't back down from the tainted concepts of expectations & privilege. I am looking forward to checking out Umrigar's other releases.
April 27, 2018
"....that justice always had to be tempered with mercy."
Juanita Vesper locks the door to her home with the intention of coming back. An addict, Juanita just needs one hit and she'll be right back to be with her son Anton. But Juanita does not come back. She is gone for a whole week during one of the worst heat waves the country has experienced. Meanwhile Anton has no food or electricity. Anton breaks a window to escape the suffocating heat and is found by a police officer. Juanita is found shortly after and sent to jail while Anton is placed in foster care. Sent to live with Judge David Coleman and his wife Delores, Anton dreams of being reunited with his mom. A dream that seems more unlikely the more time he lives with the Colemans, Anton must find his place.
The premise is what drew me in to this book. Having read three other works by Umrigar and having added her most recent book to be released on to my TBR list, I had high expectations for this work. If I am being honest, this book did not fare as well the others I have read by Umrigar. Anton Vesper is left alone in a locked apartment by his mom while she visits a crack house. She means to be back shortly but she is kept by the dealer and is unable to leave. Anton, meanwhile, is left without food, electricity and in a suffocating heat. He breaks a window and escapes, cutting his leg in the process. Found by the police, Anton is taken away from his mom who is accused of neglect. Anton is soon taken in by David Coleman and his wife. The Colemans recently lost their son in a car crash and having another boy in the house is a breath of fresh air. The more that the Colemans interact with Anton, the more they become attached to him and as Juanita is due to be released from jail, Judge David makes some power plays that keep Anton with him. Again, great premise but there was something about the writting that did not quite add up. With her other books, the prose had a warm and emotional quality to them which I feel were replaced by a rushed and (almost) forced plot in this work. This took away a big part of the charm that usually acompany Umrigar's books.
This book presents several moral conundrums. Dealing with race, privilige, identity and forgiveness Anton struggles to find his place. Of biracial origin, Anton grew up in comfortable surroundings as a Coleman. Never really thinking about his race, as a black man, but as a Coleman who inherits a political legacy. Anton is forced to face these issues straight on when he recieves a letter from Juanita. I appreciate the fact that Umrigar made complex characters that were not all good and not all bad either. David and Juanita both made mistakes and both care for Anton. Was David wrong for using his influence to keep Anton away from Juanita? Can his actions be justified in any way, knowing the relapse rate for addicts? Given that it was not Juanita's intention to abandon her son, is she not a victim too? The last third of the book was definitely much better executed. It explored more in depth the themes that Umrigar presented earlier. I do think the conclusion was apt if a bit too neat. Not my favorite book by Umrigar but I do have the sequel to 'The Space Between' to look forward to. All in all, this book presented good ideas but felt flat.
Juanita Vesper locks the door to her home with the intention of coming back. An addict, Juanita just needs one hit and she'll be right back to be with her son Anton. But Juanita does not come back. She is gone for a whole week during one of the worst heat waves the country has experienced. Meanwhile Anton has no food or electricity. Anton breaks a window to escape the suffocating heat and is found by a police officer. Juanita is found shortly after and sent to jail while Anton is placed in foster care. Sent to live with Judge David Coleman and his wife Delores, Anton dreams of being reunited with his mom. A dream that seems more unlikely the more time he lives with the Colemans, Anton must find his place.
The premise is what drew me in to this book. Having read three other works by Umrigar and having added her most recent book to be released on to my TBR list, I had high expectations for this work. If I am being honest, this book did not fare as well the others I have read by Umrigar. Anton Vesper is left alone in a locked apartment by his mom while she visits a crack house. She means to be back shortly but she is kept by the dealer and is unable to leave. Anton, meanwhile, is left without food, electricity and in a suffocating heat. He breaks a window and escapes, cutting his leg in the process. Found by the police, Anton is taken away from his mom who is accused of neglect. Anton is soon taken in by David Coleman and his wife. The Colemans recently lost their son in a car crash and having another boy in the house is a breath of fresh air. The more that the Colemans interact with Anton, the more they become attached to him and as Juanita is due to be released from jail, Judge David makes some power plays that keep Anton with him. Again, great premise but there was something about the writting that did not quite add up. With her other books, the prose had a warm and emotional quality to them which I feel were replaced by a rushed and (almost) forced plot in this work. This took away a big part of the charm that usually acompany Umrigar's books.
This book presents several moral conundrums. Dealing with race, privilige, identity and forgiveness Anton struggles to find his place. Of biracial origin, Anton grew up in comfortable surroundings as a Coleman. Never really thinking about his race, as a black man, but as a Coleman who inherits a political legacy. Anton is forced to face these issues straight on when he recieves a letter from Juanita. I appreciate the fact that Umrigar made complex characters that were not all good and not all bad either. David and Juanita both made mistakes and both care for Anton. Was David wrong for using his influence to keep Anton away from Juanita? Can his actions be justified in any way, knowing the relapse rate for addicts? Given that it was not Juanita's intention to abandon her son, is she not a victim too? The last third of the book was definitely much better executed. It explored more in depth the themes that Umrigar presented earlier. I do think the conclusion was apt if a bit too neat. Not my favorite book by Umrigar but I do have the sequel to 'The Space Between' to look forward to. All in all, this book presented good ideas but felt flat.
July 15, 2017
I wanted to like this book, but I did not. I guess the biggest problems I have with it is that it is poorly written, and I did not find the characters to be believable at all. I gave the book the benefit of the doubt and finished it because I kind of wanted to see what would happen, and it was an easy, fast read. It seemed like a combination of Jodi Picoult and John Grisham, blah! Don't recommend it.
Worst line ever, "And then the blackness was over him and he fell asleep, Georgia on his mind."
Worst line ever, "And then the blackness was over him and he fell asleep, Georgia on his mind."
December 5, 2017
A young boy is trapped inside the apartment for 7 days during a heatwave. His mum, a junkie, is going to go to prison for neglect. Foster parents David and FM (Foster Mum) are there to save little Anton. For a little while towards the end it started to feel a bit like a TV drama and I thought I might be very disappointed in the way that the book finished. Instead, what I feel is that for this little kid, everything is going to be ok. Who will write the stories of the not so "fortunate"?
February 26, 2018
SO Good!!! The sould searching unbelieveable.
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
This is so gooood (Anton (lemonade)), David giggles. What Why you laughing?
I don't know.
Who should I ask? Anton said.
Hey. That's Dee's line. Come up with your own.
He had been in the legal profession long enough to know that human behavior was complicated and unpredictable and that justice always had to be tempered with mercy.
Tragedy wasn't about not having someone to love. Tragedy was loving someone and not being able to express it. (David)
It was Thoreau who had introduced Anton to the idea that living a principled life was as much about what you didn't do as what you did. That what you rejected defined you as much as what you embraced.
The most important decision you'll ever make in your life, son, is whom you marry.
But now he knew the trutch-there were no adults. There were just tall children stumbling around the world, walking pools of unfinished hopes, unmet needs, and seething desires.
A mon would never deliberately hurt her child, Anton. (Paula Jones not being Bill Clinton's mother and almost destroyed a president.
Keep crying. It's good for you.
Crying's good for the soul. I do it at least once a week.
If grief had a baby, she would sing like this.
Worthy of the pride? Was he man enough not to be ashamed of Juanita, of the country ways, her imperfect grammar, which was sweet as apring water to him.
The kind of exhilarating fear that pulls joy along with its wake. Like a cliff, he couldn't really see the way after that, but it didn't matter.
Know Thyself.
And if he has this wish granted occasionally, here and there and now and then, he will still be the luckiest of men.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Tap.
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
This is so gooood (Anton (lemonade)), David giggles. What Why you laughing?
I don't know.
Who should I ask? Anton said.
Hey. That's Dee's line. Come up with your own.
He had been in the legal profession long enough to know that human behavior was complicated and unpredictable and that justice always had to be tempered with mercy.
Tragedy wasn't about not having someone to love. Tragedy was loving someone and not being able to express it. (David)
It was Thoreau who had introduced Anton to the idea that living a principled life was as much about what you didn't do as what you did. That what you rejected defined you as much as what you embraced.
The most important decision you'll ever make in your life, son, is whom you marry.
But now he knew the trutch-there were no adults. There were just tall children stumbling around the world, walking pools of unfinished hopes, unmet needs, and seething desires.
A mon would never deliberately hurt her child, Anton. (Paula Jones not being Bill Clinton's mother and almost destroyed a president.
Keep crying. It's good for you.
Crying's good for the soul. I do it at least once a week.
If grief had a baby, she would sing like this.
Worthy of the pride? Was he man enough not to be ashamed of Juanita, of the country ways, her imperfect grammar, which was sweet as apring water to him.
The kind of exhilarating fear that pulls joy along with its wake. Like a cliff, he couldn't really see the way after that, but it didn't matter.
Know Thyself.
And if he has this wish granted occasionally, here and there and now and then, he will still be the luckiest of men.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Tap.
June 20, 2017
A mixed-race child is born into a desperate situation fraught with dangers from poverty and despair. He is "rescued" when he is sent to foster care. He is assigned to a family, a very rich and powerful white family, who fall in love with him and have the means to help him reach the highest possible academic and professional positions. He, meanwhile, is waiting for his mother.
When his mother is to be released from prison, she becomes convinced that her son would be best served by staying with his foster family, and she allows him to be adopted. He learns the real story of that decision many, many years later.
In the meantime, this mixed-race boy lives with the rich and the powerful. He sails off of Cape Cod. He wears the clothes that mark him as a member of the elite. He gets good grades, does good work, spends time with good people....but something's always just a bit off.
This book is an exploration of race, class, entitlement, and possibility, and these topics are explored in all of their painful and sobering complexity while, at the same time, Umrigar provides realistic characters, real choices, and thought-provoking insights. From the first page, the reader is gripped by the people and the situation, and comes away at the end with new ways of thinking about some of the huge issues that plague our society.
Fabulous book.
When his mother is to be released from prison, she becomes convinced that her son would be best served by staying with his foster family, and she allows him to be adopted. He learns the real story of that decision many, many years later.
In the meantime, this mixed-race boy lives with the rich and the powerful. He sails off of Cape Cod. He wears the clothes that mark him as a member of the elite. He gets good grades, does good work, spends time with good people....but something's always just a bit off.
This book is an exploration of race, class, entitlement, and possibility, and these topics are explored in all of their painful and sobering complexity while, at the same time, Umrigar provides realistic characters, real choices, and thought-provoking insights. From the first page, the reader is gripped by the people and the situation, and comes away at the end with new ways of thinking about some of the huge issues that plague our society.
Fabulous book.
December 30, 2017
the central premise, the burning moral conundrum of this novel, is: how do you save a black child from living with a black mother in a black community, a fate that will certainly lead him to a blighted life and quite possibly early death?
yeah, no.
no.
definitely not.
totally fucking racist.
no way.
yeah, no.
no.
definitely not.
totally fucking racist.
no way.
August 25, 2017
Anton, a 9 year old mulatto boy, is accustomed to being left alone by his crack addicted mother. He isn't worried for the first day or two, but when a week passes and there is no food and the apartment has reached a sizzling 95 degrees he breaks a window and escapes. Found walking down the street bleeding by a police officer, Anton is placed in the hands of Children's Services. Anton is taken in by David and his wife Delores. David is a judge and the son of a popular Senator. Having lost their son in a tragic traffic accident, David is looking to fill the void in his heart. David though makes some unethical choices, believing he is doing the right thing. Anton is torn between his love for his mother and his longing for home and the feeling of loyalty and gratitude to his foster parents.
The book explores some timely issues, racial division, privilege vs. poverty and nature vs. nuture. Highly recommend.
The book explores some timely issues, racial division, privilege vs. poverty and nature vs. nuture. Highly recommend.
March 11, 2018
Everybody's Son kept me turning the pages, wanting to find out what happens to Anton, a neglected bi-racial child who is taken in and then adopted by a wealthy white couple. Umrigar writes about important themes, but the story felt simplified and the writing strained.
March 21, 2018
This book captured my interest right away-I could not pull myself away from Everybody's Son.
Anton is a 9 yr old biracial boy, who is left alone in a locked apartment by his drug addicted mother for 7 days in sweltering heat. He breaks out and is rescued but ends up in foster care where he is taken in by David Coleman, a prominent judge, who is white. There is "a dearth of black foster parents"
It is hard not to like Anton, a young boy, that thanks to his adoption, meets and surpasses all expectations. But yet, there always seems to be something missing for him. When the truth about his mother and adoption come to light, Anton's shell begins to unravel.
This book addresses so many important issues : race inequality, white privilege, abuse of power, grief, love and forgiveness. Another major one is fitting in-when Anton goes from a poor neighborhood to a rich affluent area.
Carine, Anton's college girlfriend , says to him: " I can't decide if you're the blackest white man I've ever met or the whitest black man." A very telling phrase.
This book was a winner for me- I loved the story and how it made me reflect on so many things!
Anton is a 9 yr old biracial boy, who is left alone in a locked apartment by his drug addicted mother for 7 days in sweltering heat. He breaks out and is rescued but ends up in foster care where he is taken in by David Coleman, a prominent judge, who is white. There is "a dearth of black foster parents"
It is hard not to like Anton, a young boy, that thanks to his adoption, meets and surpasses all expectations. But yet, there always seems to be something missing for him. When the truth about his mother and adoption come to light, Anton's shell begins to unravel.
This book addresses so many important issues : race inequality, white privilege, abuse of power, grief, love and forgiveness. Another major one is fitting in-when Anton goes from a poor neighborhood to a rich affluent area.
Carine, Anton's college girlfriend , says to him: " I can't decide if you're the blackest white man I've ever met or the whitest black man." A very telling phrase.
This book was a winner for me- I loved the story and how it made me reflect on so many things!
January 8, 2020
4.5 STARS
Everybody's Son is the second novel by Thrity Umriga I've tried and most definitely will not be my last. I loved her novel The Space Between Us when I read it a while ago but think I may have enjoyed listening to this one even more. Josh Bloomberg did a wonderful job of the narration but he had terrific material to work with. Whilst The Space Between Us was set in India and Everybody's Son was set in the USA they both centred around the divide between classes, the ways socio-economic situations play a huge factor in the lives of many but she skillfully brings the issue into focus in a very personal way.
In this case our central character was Anton, a young black boy who had been placed into foster care aged seven after his drug addicted mother had left him alone in their home for a whole week. We follow Anton through the early days as he desperately misses his mother, as he eventually assimilates into his new life of wealth with his foster parents who later adopt him. The novel deals with a range of topics and forces readers (listeners) to think seriously about some big moral issues. Whose interests are more important; those of the child? the biological parent? or the adoptive parents? It's a story which reels you in and makes you want the best for every character even when they're making poor decisions. It's about family. It's about love and about making sacrifices. It's about race, it's about privilege and poverty. It's an excellent book.
I highly recommend this audiobook and commend both the author and narrator for their efforts. Looking forward now to reading her other titles.
Everybody's Son is the second novel by Thrity Umriga I've tried and most definitely will not be my last. I loved her novel The Space Between Us when I read it a while ago but think I may have enjoyed listening to this one even more. Josh Bloomberg did a wonderful job of the narration but he had terrific material to work with. Whilst The Space Between Us was set in India and Everybody's Son was set in the USA they both centred around the divide between classes, the ways socio-economic situations play a huge factor in the lives of many but she skillfully brings the issue into focus in a very personal way.
In this case our central character was Anton, a young black boy who had been placed into foster care aged seven after his drug addicted mother had left him alone in their home for a whole week. We follow Anton through the early days as he desperately misses his mother, as he eventually assimilates into his new life of wealth with his foster parents who later adopt him. The novel deals with a range of topics and forces readers (listeners) to think seriously about some big moral issues. Whose interests are more important; those of the child? the biological parent? or the adoptive parents? It's a story which reels you in and makes you want the best for every character even when they're making poor decisions. It's about family. It's about love and about making sacrifices. It's about race, it's about privilege and poverty. It's an excellent book.
I highly recommend this audiobook and commend both the author and narrator for their efforts. Looking forward now to reading her other titles.
January 17, 2022
Overall I thought that this novel was a great exploration of race, class and the search for identity.
November 15, 2017
I had some issues with this book. The first half we know about Anton from the blurb on the jacket. Nine-year-old Anton was left locked in his apartment for seven days without air conditioning and food, while his mother went to a crack house. Anton finally breaks the window and escapes with a gash on his leg from the chard of glass.
So the first half of the book is a page-turner. Anton's mother, Juanita, is arrested and Anton is placed with child services. There are too many attorneys in the mix, and Anton is moved to the home of US Senator, David Coleman who lost his only son in an automobile accident. Anton now has access to better schools, and personal tutoring from Coleman's wife Delores. So for the next months that turn into two years, Anton has everything a child of white-privilege might have.
The story slows down when Anton graduates from High School then Harvard, and becomes an Attorney General, with his sights on becoming Governor.
There is so much anger in Anton during that time. He visits his mother in Georgia after she sends him a letter, so happy about the magazine stories she has read about him. Somehow Anton gets it all twisted, thinking his "Mam" wants to extort something from him. But gradually he starts to understand the love she has for him and would never try to steal anything from him.
How many attorneys can dance on the head of a pin? Too many for Anton's liking.
So the first half of the book is a page-turner. Anton's mother, Juanita, is arrested and Anton is placed with child services. There are too many attorneys in the mix, and Anton is moved to the home of US Senator, David Coleman who lost his only son in an automobile accident. Anton now has access to better schools, and personal tutoring from Coleman's wife Delores. So for the next months that turn into two years, Anton has everything a child of white-privilege might have.
The story slows down when Anton graduates from High School then Harvard, and becomes an Attorney General, with his sights on becoming Governor.
There is so much anger in Anton during that time. He visits his mother in Georgia after she sends him a letter, so happy about the magazine stories she has read about him. Somehow Anton gets it all twisted, thinking his "Mam" wants to extort something from him. But gradually he starts to understand the love she has for him and would never try to steal anything from him.
How many attorneys can dance on the head of a pin? Too many for Anton's liking.
June 10, 2017
Everybody's Son by Thrity Umagar
I have never been disappointed in any of Umagar's book so it is great pleasure that her newest book is a winner in my book. It is primarily about race in America. I really don't want to say too much because I think it is an emotional read and there will be many reactions to the questions poised in the narrative. 5 stars. Highly recommend.
I have never been disappointed in any of Umagar's book so it is great pleasure that her newest book is a winner in my book. It is primarily about race in America. I really don't want to say too much because I think it is an emotional read and there will be many reactions to the questions poised in the narrative. 5 stars. Highly recommend.
March 21, 2020
At 9 years old, Anton is placed in foster care with David and Delores Coleman, a wealthy white couple who lost their own son on his grad night. David is so determined to be a father again and to provide Anton with every advantage that he bends and then breaks the law Years go by, decades go by and eventually the hidden truth emerges.
This novel felt awkward. It is split into four books, generally representing different decades. The entire novel could have survived on book 1 and 4 only. The rest was unnecessary and dull. There was way too much information about US elections, laws and governors for my interest, especially since none of it moved the plot forward. David and friends could have been school teachers with no difference to the plot or the societal questions being addressed.
Umrigar tells - rather than shows - how the characters are feeling and describes their thoughts and inner dialogue rather than bringing them to life through situations. Over and over, I felt that I was being lectured at rather than reading. In the final 20 pages, when the plot is being resolved and Anton is finally making decisions that right the various wrongs of his life, Umrigar goes into a four page lecture on how Anton's actions are effecting every character. It just seemed like the height of the climax lost all its momentum, resulting in me skimming over pages just to have it over with.
Umrigar also has a way of delivering dialogue which was both unrealistic and stilted. People just don't speak like this in real life, no matter whether you are a US governor or a down-and-out druggie.
Overall, it was an interesting premise that didn't reach its potential.
This novel felt awkward. It is split into four books, generally representing different decades. The entire novel could have survived on book 1 and 4 only. The rest was unnecessary and dull. There was way too much information about US elections, laws and governors for my interest, especially since none of it moved the plot forward. David and friends could have been school teachers with no difference to the plot or the societal questions being addressed.
Umrigar tells - rather than shows - how the characters are feeling and describes their thoughts and inner dialogue rather than bringing them to life through situations. Over and over, I felt that I was being lectured at rather than reading. In the final 20 pages, when the plot is being resolved and Anton is finally making decisions that right the various wrongs of his life, Umrigar goes into a four page lecture on how Anton's actions are effecting every character. It just seemed like the height of the climax lost all its momentum, resulting in me skimming over pages just to have it over with.
Umrigar also has a way of delivering dialogue which was both unrealistic and stilted. People just don't speak like this in real life, no matter whether you are a US governor or a down-and-out druggie.
Overall, it was an interesting premise that didn't reach its potential.
September 12, 2023
Eloquently written with incredible character depth - it was difficult to take a break from this audiobook. As per usual, this author explored the ethics of racial and socioeconomic differences in a thoughtful and heartfelt manner.
After losing his teenage son in a tragic accident, David, a judge and son of a former state governor, and his wife Dee become foster parents. They are asked to look after a 9 year old bi-racial boy whose mother is in jail for locking him in their apartment during a heatwave and abandoning him for several days.
After losing his teenage son in a tragic accident, David, a judge and son of a former state governor, and his wife Dee become foster parents. They are asked to look after a 9 year old bi-racial boy whose mother is in jail for locking him in their apartment during a heatwave and abandoning him for several days.
June 23, 2017
This novel tells the story of a black child who is trapped in an apartment for a week while his drug-addicted mother is missing, breaks out, and is put in the foster care system, where he is cared for by a couple who recently lost their son in a car accident. The foster father, an influential judge, loves the boy and convinces himself that the boy would be better off raised by them than going back to his mother, and, perhaps unintentionally, uses his influence to make sure the natural mother gets the maximum sentence, then -- totally intentionally, and illegally -- manipulates the natural mother to give up custody so he and his wife (who had no idea he is doing this) can adopt the child. The child grows up to be successful and influential himself, but is torn by issues of race, thrown in his face by his less privileged black girlfriend.
The novel is well-written, making you want to continue reading to find out what happens, but there are few surprises. The racial issues are a bit obvious. The author is most effective in inducing anger in the reader toward the adoptive father, who is clearly rationalizing his own need to replace his deceased son by convincing himself that it is best for the child and that his wife needs it, even though she made no such request that he use his power to take advantage of a poor, uneducated woman. What went through my mind was how selfish this man was to never let it cross his mind that he could still be involved in the boy's life, even if the boy went back to his mother.
I can recommend this book while also saying that I doubt that it will stick with you like other books that deal with racial issues, most memorably books like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Sula.
The novel is well-written, making you want to continue reading to find out what happens, but there are few surprises. The racial issues are a bit obvious. The author is most effective in inducing anger in the reader toward the adoptive father, who is clearly rationalizing his own need to replace his deceased son by convincing himself that it is best for the child and that his wife needs it, even though she made no such request that he use his power to take advantage of a poor, uneducated woman. What went through my mind was how selfish this man was to never let it cross his mind that he could still be involved in the boy's life, even if the boy went back to his mother.
I can recommend this book while also saying that I doubt that it will stick with you like other books that deal with racial issues, most memorably books like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Sula.
August 4, 2017
I waited for this book to come out for over a year. And then I devoured it in two days.
That is the story of my life, I am afraid. Although this story had a dubious start--I was afraid it would turn out to be the exact same plot as "Under the Weight of Heaven," and it's true there are definitely strong similarities--the ending was altogether different and wonderful.
Thrity Umrigar is one of those rare novelists whose understated but profound way of looking at the world propelled me from book to book until I had finished her entire body of work. She is one of those authors whom Google thinks it knows when it recommends "if you liked this author, try this other author!" Invariably, the recommendations are nothing like her work. They lack the charisma, the magic, the nuance, the sadness. Sure, the topics and subject matter may be similar. The plots may even be similar. But no other author has captured me like Umrigar, ever.
Looking more at race than perhaps any of her other work, Everybody's Son is another triumph in Umrigar's collection. She plots not only the twisted relationships between two families (one black, the other white) but also the slow plod of liberalism in America as it has moved steadily, but not perfectly, left since the days of the Civil Rights movement. She calls out the privilege and faux-liberalism of white, middle-class Americans who think they're pretty progressive because they voted Obama in '08. And yet, it is not simply an indictment of white America. She proposes, by the end, that it is possible for multiple cultures to have confluence in American politics. Even, perhaps, within a single American man, biracial and devastated by the various ways in which both of his families have failed him throughout his life.
I'll never get over this book. Isn't that just the best?
That is the story of my life, I am afraid. Although this story had a dubious start--I was afraid it would turn out to be the exact same plot as "Under the Weight of Heaven," and it's true there are definitely strong similarities--the ending was altogether different and wonderful.
Thrity Umrigar is one of those rare novelists whose understated but profound way of looking at the world propelled me from book to book until I had finished her entire body of work. She is one of those authors whom Google thinks it knows when it recommends "if you liked this author, try this other author!" Invariably, the recommendations are nothing like her work. They lack the charisma, the magic, the nuance, the sadness. Sure, the topics and subject matter may be similar. The plots may even be similar. But no other author has captured me like Umrigar, ever.
Looking more at race than perhaps any of her other work, Everybody's Son is another triumph in Umrigar's collection. She plots not only the twisted relationships between two families (one black, the other white) but also the slow plod of liberalism in America as it has moved steadily, but not perfectly, left since the days of the Civil Rights movement. She calls out the privilege and faux-liberalism of white, middle-class Americans who think they're pretty progressive because they voted Obama in '08. And yet, it is not simply an indictment of white America. She proposes, by the end, that it is possible for multiple cultures to have confluence in American politics. Even, perhaps, within a single American man, biracial and devastated by the various ways in which both of his families have failed him throughout his life.
I'll never get over this book. Isn't that just the best?
August 5, 2022
I actually really enjoyed this book. I also always read the review of a book after reading it and have found my opinion sits quite differently on this piece. While some may argue it didn’t quite take advantage of the implications of its racial tones, I think that’s almost what makes it so powerful. It demonstrates exactly how many families think in this white savior narrative but also calling to light how the issue extends to be far more complex than simple racism. It’s loving someone who completely screwed part of your family over, but yet have done so many positives that are ingrained in your memory and are included in who you view as family. It’s loving someone who is ignorant, who doesn’t see your culture as part of your identity, and yet not realizing that their refusal to see color is harming you in the long term. Maybe it’s just that I have parallels in my own life, obviously not to the extent of tragedy that Anton had, but that same mental struggle over those who support you and those who see you. Yes, the book foreshadowed a bit too strongly, was quite unrealistic, and I could somewhat predict what would occur next, but I still couldn’t put it down.
June 17, 2017
This might be the best of Ms. Umrigar's six books that I have read.
This is a story about a well-to-do white family who takes in and adopts a black child. So we come to the nature v. nurture ideology. It probes into the delicate areas of race and privilege, and the consequences of broken trust. It's also a reminder that we all should know from where we came because that aspect of our lives never leaves us, truly.
At the end I had some sad feelings for Anton, our protagonist. He broke through a shell and I hope he came through whole.
This is a story about a well-to-do white family who takes in and adopts a black child. So we come to the nature v. nurture ideology. It probes into the delicate areas of race and privilege, and the consequences of broken trust. It's also a reminder that we all should know from where we came because that aspect of our lives never leaves us, truly.
At the end I had some sad feelings for Anton, our protagonist. He broke through a shell and I hope he came through whole.
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