The Cradle: A Novel [Hardcover]

Patrick Somerville (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 2009

Early one summer morning, Matthew Bishop kisses his still-sleeping wife Marissa, gets dressed and eases his truck through Milwaukee, bound for the highway. His wife, pregnant with their first child, has asked him to find the antique cradle taken years before by her mother Caroline when she abandoned Marissa, never to contact her daughter again. Soon to be a mother herself, Marissa now dreams of nothing else but bringing her baby home to the cradle she herself slept in. His wife does not know-does not want to know-where her mother lives, but Matt has an address for Caroline's sister near by and with any luck, he will be home in time for dinner.

Only as Matt tries to track down his wife's mother, he discovers that Caroline, upon leaving Marissa, has led a life increasingly plagued by impulse and irrationality, a mysterious life that grows more inexplicable with each new lead Matt gains, and door he enters. As hours turn into days and Caroline's trail takes Matt from Wisconsin to Minnesota, Illinois, and beyond in search of the cradle, Matt makes a discovery that will forever change Marissa's life, and faces a decision that will challenge everything he has ever known.

Elegant and astonishing, Patrick Somerville tells the story of one man's journey into the heart of marriage, parenthood, and what it means to be a family. Confirming the arrival of an exuberantly talented new writer, THE CRADLE is an uniquely imaginative debut novel that radiates with wisdom and wonder.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An elusive heirloom cradle symbolizes childhood's pains and possibilities in Somerville's spare, elegant first novel (after a story collection, Trouble). Marissa, pregnant with her first child, becomes obsessed with tracking down the antique cradle her mother took when she abandoned the family a decade earlier. Marissa's husband, Matt, is sure he's been dispatched on a fool's errand, but his journey soon connects him to Marissa's family and his own history of abandonment, neglect and abuse amid a string of foster homes and orphanages. Matt's quest through four states is interwoven with another drama that takes place 11 years later, in 2008, in which poet and children's author Renee Owen is haunted by memories of war and a lost love as she prepares to send her son off to fight in Iraq. Again, long-buried secrets come to the surface, one of which poignantly links the two story lines. Though the connection will not shock, Somerville's themes of a broader sense of interconnectivity and the resultant miracles of everyday existence retain their strength and affirm the value of forming and keeping families. (Mar.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics uniformly praised Somerville’s moving debut about the meaning of family and its power to heal. Somerville’s spare but buoyant prose strikes the right emotional balance, expressive without being sentimental, and his fast-moving plot steers steadily between the profound and the whimsical toward a satisfying conclusion without ever veering into melodrama. Despite a few flaws—some awkward narrative shifts, one-dimensional characters, and clichés—The Cradle is a finely crafted full-length novel skillfully condensed into just over 200 pages. “As a writer, I’m still wondering how Somerville created this exquisitely complex story on such a small canvas,” noted the New York Times Book Review critic. “As a reader, I’m glad he did.”
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (March 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316036129
• ISBN-13: 978-0316036122
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #895,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patrick Somerville grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and later earned his MFA from Cornell University. He has taught creative writing and English at Cornell and Auburn State Correctional Facility, and currently teaches in the MFA programs for Northwestern and Warren Wilson.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, original and well-written, February 18, 2009

By 

Tigger "kkegley" (Little Elm, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cradle: A Novel (Hardcover)

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This debut novel from Patrick Somerville is sparsely written but somehow full of information at the same time - so full that at times I had a little trouble keeping up with the list of characters who made their appearances and then quickly departed. Then again, those characters are placed solely to move the story along, and to that end they were effective and entertaining.

Matt's wife Marisa is pregnant with their first child, and she has sent him on a rather bizarre mission - to recover an antique cradle she was rocked in herself as a baby, and which her mother had made away with when she left the family in Marisa's childhood. The task of locating the cradle's exact whereabouts through a labyrinth of old friends, neighbors and family members is a journey that takes Matt down an interesting path of revelation and strangeness, as he interacts with the various odd characters littering the way.

In a separate story arc we meet Renee, whose deep anxiety over her son's decision to enlist in the military and join the fighting in Iraq has brought up an older, darker secret, one that she has kept locked away for too long. We see pretty quickly where that's going, and it's compelling to watch it play out as the two storylines come together slowly but surely.

Patrick Somerville has an intriguing voice and his almost staccato prose has a spare, stark beauty that is almost addictive to read. I enjoyed this book, recommend it, and look forward to any future offerings by this author.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Cradle, February 18, 2009

By 

Spudman (Pasadena, MD United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cradle: A Novel (Hardcover)

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My wife and I both liked Patrick Somerville's debut book, The Cradle. It's an intriguing story with believable, likeable characters and interesting twists and turns in its plot.
Stories and lives intertwine in the story as a husband searches for a cradle from his wife's childhood. The ending is ironic, unexpected, yet logical. My wife wasn't as satisfied with the ending because she's one who doesn't like loose ends or unresolved issues and would have liked one more chapter in the book.

I think this is a worthwhile read. Dialogue can be drudgery to read in some books, but this writer uses the device effectively to develop characters and move the plot along.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful journey., April 14, 2009

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Fathomless Reading (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Cradle: A Novel (Hardcover)

I disagree with reviewers here. Somerville's use of the quest is masterful. In the book, there is literally a quest -- for the cradle -- and as with any good quest tale, there is also the journey toward greater understanding of and peace with one's self. The protagonist meets up with a strange cast of characters, true, but their oddness is in keeping with the story. In addition, some of the descriptions are extremely funny as well as odd. This in a serious book, and one that embraces, ultimately, redemption and renewal. The protagonist's story is entwined with that of a second main character; I don't want to reveal too much, so I'll simply say that this second thread works within the story itself and also, because this second character is a writer, serves to comment on the book as a whole. In other words, within this novel there are aspects of quest, journey, and the notion of process itself (whether creative, procreative, or personal). For me, the journey with the main character was fulfilling and quiet, and so moving that at a crisis point, where from page to page there is a moment of uncertainty as to how something had been resolved, I found my hands shaking. The writing is clean and spare, for the most part. Read carefully and you'll see how this is so, and to what great effect it has been used. Beautiful book.