Full name: Upstate: A Novel

Author: James Wood Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Fiction, Contemporary Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9781787330627 9780374279530 1787330621 0374279535

Alan Querry, a successful property developer from the north of England, has two daughters: Vanessa, a philosopher who lives and teaches in Saratoga Springs, NY, and Helen, a record company executive based in London. The sisters never quite recovered from their parents' bitter divorce and the early death of their mother, with Vanessa particularly affected, and plagued by bouts of depression since her teenage years. When she suffers a new crisis, Alan and Helen travel to Saratoga Springs. Over the course of six wintry days in upstate New York, the Querry family begins to struggle with the questions that animate this profound and searching novel: Why do some people find living so much harder than others? Is happiness a skill that can be learned, or a lucky accident of birth? Is reflection helpful to happiness or an obstacle to it? If, as a favourite philosopher of Vanessa's puts it, 'the only serious enterprise is living', how should we live? Rich in subtle human insight, full of poignant and often funny portraits, and vivid with a sense of place, Upstate is a perceptive, intensely moving novel. Similar books: The Man Who Was Late by Louis Begley Eeeee Eee Eeee by Tao Lin The Tenants by Bernard Malamud Fishboy by Mark Richard Eddie's Bastard by William Kowalski Something in Disguise by Elizabeth Jane Howard The Dark Arena by Mario Puzo The Lonely Lady by Harold Robbins Real People by Alison Lurie Laura Warholic by Alexander Theroux Any Woman's Blues by Erica Jong The Adventurers by Harold Robbins Out of the Shelter by David Lodge Cockpit by Jerzy Kosinski Somewhere South of Here by William Kowalski Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout Don't Let Me Go by Catherine Ryan Hyde We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver