Leaving the World
Douglas Kennedy, . . Atria, $16 (480pp) ISBN 978-1-4391-8078-5
Published to acclaim in the U.K. and France in 2009, Kennedy’s ninth novel is a complex study of a line early in the book: “nobody gets away lightly in life.” On the morning after narrator Jane Howard’s 13th birthday, her father, citing Jane’s comment that “No one’s actually happy,” walks out on the family. Jane shuts down emotionally, but excels academically and while at Harvard begins an affair with her married thesis adviser, David, which ends four years later when he’s killed in an accident. Moving on from making big bucks in finance, Jane ends up teaching at a third-tier university in Boston where she falls in love and has a daughter with film archivist Theo, who along with his new paramour, cheats Jane out of most of her savings. Life only gets harder, until, just when Jane is ready to give up, she gets involved in a child-murder investigation in Calgary, Canada. Jane is a quintessential heroine who never makes excuses or wallows in self-pity, despite her grief. Episodically structured yet with a strong narrative drive, this is a book with lasting impact: powerful, provocative, and tender.
Reviewed on: 04/12/2010
Genre: Fiction
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