Interesting book Hyatt Bass has created here. The book revolves around the lives of one family. Mom and dad are divorced, daughter is getting married, and son has passed away. All the characters have issues they are working on in the book, and it seems they are dancing around the death of the son - which the reasons for his death are being hinted at and implied, and yet it isn't until near the end the reader is let in on what actually happened.I really did enjoy Bass's writing, the way the narration switches between the characters and flipping between past and present. However, the story seems, well, the same story in so many other books - adult child is hitting life milestone (in this case marriage) and has to deal with the parents who just weren't always there for her the way she wanted them to be. The premise is promising: former wild-child daughter of divorced parents is about to marry. Emily Ascher decides to have her wedding on property in upstate New York that once held a family retreat from big city living. She recalls the times she spent growing up here and reminisces about the brother she lost to a devastating disease. Through a series of flash-backs we are meant to learn of the inner workings as well as the dysfunctionality of this family. The bait being dangled before us is that there is a comfortable, if not rosy, conclusion to the story. Turns out this is the story of Joe Ascher, playwright, actor, man-about-town. This character is the pivotal person in the lives of each of his family members and we learn of things mainly through his point of view. It is Joe's actions that have brought daughter Emily and ex-wife Laura to the strained relationship they now share - mutual tolerance of each other. Both, however, blame Joe for the death of Thomas (son and brother) almost fifteen years earlier. The use of flashbacks in this story was somewhat disconcerting to me. I felt jolted each time the scene shifted as there was not even the slightest segue from one time frame to another. Keeping in mind the author's experience as a screenwriter I felt that the chapters worked almost like the shifting scenes one would see in a televised drama. Each of the characters is full of promise. Emily, as the once rebellious daughter of divorced parents, has become the so-called rock of the family - now a lawyer with a brilliant career about to marry a man who is the extreme opposite of her somewhat flamboyant father; Laura, as the long-suffering wife who lives in the shadow of her semi-famous philandering husband until she boots him out the door; Thomas, the true glue of the family who is diagnosed with lymphoma at an early age. Unfortunately, none of these characters was given any depth or complexity even when they interacted with each other. My favorite character was Ingrid, a young woman that Joe meets while on writing assignment. Sadly, we learn at the conclusion that while she was based on someone Joe sees through the hedges, everything we learn about her is purely fiction made up by Joe. A rushed ending, shallow characters, and nothing to define what `the embers' truly are earn this novel an average rating from this reviewer.
What do You think about The Embers (2009)?
I thought this was tough to get through. Somewhat predictable.
—Emerson56
