Common Ground [Hardcover]

Andrew Cowan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1997

With his wife, Jane, pregnant, Ashley must resign himself to impending fatherhood and decide whether to assume the values of his parents or shun society like his brother, in a poignant, witty story by the award-winning author of Pig.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Cowan, whose first novel, Pig (LJ 7/96), was received well, has done what many authors find difficult and written a good second book, the aptly titled story of Ashley Brooke's struggle to come to some understanding with his pregnant partner, Jay, and to redefine himself through his new daughter, Maggie. As Ashley becomes increasingly disenchanted with teaching, Jay gets more deeply involved in the fight to save adjoining Hogslea Common from development, and Ashley must overcome his conventional upbringing to accept the new directions their lives are taking. Cowan takes great care to develop Ashley's character, peeling off layer after layer to get to his inner turmoil. Interspersed throughout are wonderful letters from Ashley to his brother in which he ruminates on parenthood and the changes it is making in his life. A well-written, recommended title.
-?Caroline M. Hallsworth, Cambrian Coll., Sudbury, Ontario
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Using the sensitivity to the decay of English society acclaimed in his first novel (PIG, 1996), Cowan offers a companion view: This time, he offers the tale of a young couple facing parenthood in a crumbling house on a rough street in a city where urban blight holds particular menace for a grove of ancient trees on the Common. Ashley and Jay aren't married, but they've lived together long enough to buy a house and to feel at ease with the decision to go through with Jay's pregnancy. Ashley hates his teaching job anyway and is quite willing to share childrearing duties by shifting to half-time work. Jay cuts back at her job, too, but finds it harder to give up her part in the increasingly desperate protests of a group trying to stop a long-planned bypass road from going through the forest on the Common--especially since her activist sister has already become deeply involved. Being thrust into parenthood comes as a rude awakening for both Jay and Ashley, as Ashley chronicles in his frequent letters to a brother who's been trekking around the world in search of himself. Part of Ashley wishes he also were trekking, but, later, another part of him revels in the domestic bliss of watching his new daughter Maggie grow. Eventually, his decision to quit teaching altogether in order to let Jay go back to work full-time seems the right thing to do, and when he finally drops his opposition to her joining fully in the fight against the road (now escalated to an encampment in the trees and physical clashes), Ashley takes his own large step down a road offering answers to the nagging questions in his life. Not as poignant as PIG, but a more comprehensive appraisal of the fissures running deep and long through English life--from intimate family matters on through those of the larger community, and touching issues of personal identity as well as those of a nation. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1st U.S. ed edition (September 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151002657
• ISBN-13: 978-0151002658
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,734,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars As close as you'll get to a pregnant man, September 7, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Common Ground (Hardcover)

Common Ground offers the rare perspective of a male charting his emotional changes during his (unmarried) partner's pregnancy. Unusually sensitive, but otherwise average, Ashley encourages Jay to keep the baby when she gets pregnant and then tracks how he feels through detailed letters to his brother Douglas, off on a multi-year trip around the world. Ashley chronicles the way Jay's pregnancy and then his daughter, Maggie, change the way he feels, reacts and sees the world.

Set in England, this is a very real book, with resonance anywhere. The decay of his urban environment, his sarcasm (a conversation with Jay's mother is a "earth-to-satellite link-up"), his insecurities transcend gender and place. Common Ground provides a wealth of well-written commonalities for readers without being trite or obvious.