From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Imagine Me Gone

Adam Haslett

Start date: January 15, 2018

Finish date: February 1, 2018

Discussion: Reading List

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Reading List

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
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What Members Thought

Dec 30, 2017 Jane rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Okay, if a book about mental illness can be amazing, not simply unbearably sad, this book is it. I loved the writing, the way the story is structured--with each of the children and the mother and father describing their lives and their family at various times in the novel.

I copied passages that I found moving...so many. Don't read if you want to come to the book without too much information ahead of time. But perhaps these passages would be helpful for someone who is considering whether to read ...more

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Feb 19, 2017 Sherry rated it it was amazing

Shelves: parnassus-first-edition-club, read-my-own-books-2017

What do you do when someone you love, someone you depend on, is mentally ill? How much of your energy do you expend to try to buoy that person up, fill in the gaps (chasms) that open up to swallow your loved one? Imagine Me Gone is about a family where mental illness plays the main character. John, the father often has tremendous energy, but periodically he shuts off; he cannot function; he can only sleep. His wife and three children try to manage their lives in the void he leaves. Michael, the ...more

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Jan 11, 2017 Clifford rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novels

Beautiful prose in this novel, told from multiple points of view of the 5 members of one family. It's a bit depressing, and the outcome is mostly known from the broad hints in the prologue, but it's a great ride getting there. Writers can learn a great deal about characterization from the wonderful details of how these family members interact with each other. ...more

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Jan 17, 2017 Kate rated it it was amazing

A beautiful, family drama about mental illness and its toll on relationships between husband and wife, parents and children and siblings with one another. This book is dark, but lovely.

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