Love and Shame and Love (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780316129381)

Alexander Popper can't stop remembering. Four years old when his father tossed him into Lake Michigan, he was told, Sink or swim, kid. In his mind, he's still bobbing in that frigid water. The rest of this novel's vivid cast of characters also struggle to remain afloat: Popper's mother, stymied by an unhappy marriage, seeks solace in the relentless energy of Chicago; his brother, Leo, shadow boss of the family, retreats into books; paternal grandparents, Seymour and Bernice, once high fliers, now mourn for long lost days; his father, a lawyer and would-be politician obsessed with his own success, fails to see that the family is falling apart; and his college girlfriend, the fiercely independent Kat, wrestles with impossible choices.

Covering four generations of the Popper family, Peter Orner illuminates the countless ways that love both makes us whole and completely unravels us. A comic and sorrowful tapestry of memory of connection and disconnection, Love and Shame and Love explores the universals with stunning originality and wisdom.

Author: Peter Orner
ISBN-10: 0316129380
ISBN-13: 9780316129381
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Language: English
Published: 11/13/2012
Pages: 464
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 12/30/2012 pg. 28