Customer Reviews

The Cradle: A Novel

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

OK...very pregnant wife suddenly decides she wants this antique Civil War cradle that she had as a baby, so she sends hubby (Matt) out on a wild goose chase to find it. This makes for an interesting enough plot. Along the way, Matt meets some very interesting characters. I found it a bit "ironic" that everybody he hunted down (in an effort to find this elusive cradle) turned out to be top-quality Jerry Springer material. Still, though, it could happen I guess.

We also meet a middle aged couple who are preparing for their son to be shipped off to Iraq. These chapters take place a decade after the hunt for the cradle, but I didn't realize this until I got to chapter 13 (and there are only 14 chapters in the book.) I just assumed they were happening simultaniously until, in chapter 13, it is revealed that the 5 year old character who made an appearance earlier in the novel was now, in fact, a teenager. I was confused by this until I read the back cover and saw that there was such a huge time gap between these 2 stories.

That being said, the middle aged woman (Renee) has been harboring a secret for many years that she obviously considers to be shameful. After learning a little bit about Matt and his childhood, and then reading a little bit about Renee's youth, it is easy to figure out what her secret is and what the connection between Renee and Matt ends up being. I saw it coming before I even got halfway through the book, and I was right on the money. I won't spoil the secret, but it's really no big surprise.

I liked the author's writing style. I found the imagery to be clear and vivid. The characters could have been drawn a little better, but still not bad. The book had a lot of potential, but some of that potential went unfulfilled. My major complaint about this book is the excessive use of vulgar language towards the end of the story. I realize that a colorful word placed here and there might be able to add to the situation at hand, but in this case I think it went just a little too far.

Overall, this was not a bad book at all and I wouldn't hesitate to read any of the author's future books.

What struck me the most about this novel is the difference in styles sections possess. At the start, it is very much a 'literate fiction' piece. And then it changes personalities, Mr. Somerville writing with another hand entirely. In fact, I'm not sure whether this is display of virtuosity...or an indication of the need for an editor's greater involvement.

It is an assiduously written tale, one that seems effortless most of the time. It's actually only when the author changes the tone from populist to something more ambitious that there's a slight hint of pretension...and therefore, of the overwrought approach I'm sure he would have wanted to avoid.

At several points I was gobsmacked, at others heartbroken. Throughout, I was on board for this unique journey, and glad of it.

The book might be slim in breadth, but it's deep enough to get lost in.

In an intricately woven debut novel by Patrick Somerville, readers get a glimpse into two families.

Matthew and Marissa are expecting a baby. Marissa, determined to rock her baby in the same cradle she laid in as an infant, sends her husband on an adventure to locate the missing item. Marissa learns that the item she wants isn't necessarily the item that is missing from her life.

Children's author, Renee watches her beloved son leave to serve overseas in the military and this event opens a sea of feelings she had dammed up for decades. Renee finds a way to work through the pass when she least expected to.

The stories are about putting closure on the past. About new beginnings and about what people will do for those who they love.

The writing in this novel is well done. The story flows almost effortless. After the first 50 pages, I couldn't put the book down. A wonderful read that is creative and unique. I love the ending because it is so open ended. A sequel would be great!

Five stars and I highly recommend this book. No disappointments for me whatsoever.

On Sunday afternoon, I sat down with this book hoping to read about 20 pages before moving on to do other work. At 1:30 in the morning, I decided that I would have to do the hard thing and put it down and save some for the following day. I read it drinking my morning coffee, on the subway to work, during my lunch break, and on the train ride home - where I finished it. Truly, I couldn't put it down!

This is a lovely novella. Patrick Somerville is an incredibly talented writer; he is an amazing storyteller who has a knack for relating - with beautiful simplicity and wit - the entire scale of complex human emotion.

This is a flawed novel on several levels. I have read some of Patrick Somerville's very well-developed short stories.
At the beginning of the novel, the reader discovers that the writer of children's fiction has a son who is on his way to the war in Iraq. Then at the end of the novel, the reader discovers that he went off to that war in 1997! There are two stories going on, but apparently Mr. Somerville didn't bother to think through how those two needed to connect in time.
But that is only one issue. These are very unbelievable characters in a very contrived plot. A woman who is eight months pregnant suddenly sends her husband on a journey to retrieve the cradle that was hers as a baby. It seems her mother took it when she left her father. And it didn't take much to locate it and a cast of totally unbelievable characters.
Oh my, this is just one of the worst novels I have read in months. And I am an avid reader.

think the cover of Patrick Somerville's first novel The Cradle, newly released, is beautiful, as is the story itself.

Matt's wife Marissa is eight months pregnant. Out of the blue one morning, she insists that she needs the cradle she remembers from childhood for their child. She thinks the cradle may have ended up with her mother - who walked out on Marissa and her father when Marissa was young. With little information to go on, Matt strikes out on a journey to find and bring home the cradle. In another story line, written ten years later, we meet Renee, whose son is leaving soon for Iraq. Matt's pilgrimage leads him on a personal journey of discovery as his and Renee's story meet in very unexpected ways.

I enjoyed the character of Matt very much. He is a thoughtful, patient man with a distinct set of values, despite an unsettled early life. He is someone you could count on to do the right thing. Unfortunately I did not like Marissa at all. She is not written as straight forward as Matt. In the beginning I found her to petulant and unreasonable, determined to have her own way. Although she is somewhat redeemed later in the book, I still found her to be manipulative and never really connected with her character.

Renee's storyline, although integral to the plot, dragged for me. The writing seemed slow, ponderous and unnecessarily drawn out. I found myself skimming through some of these paragraphs.

"She looked at the dark monitor of the computer. Screen saver, stars. She heard the furnace all the way down in the basement creak to life. The high pitched pulse of the doorbell startled her. She looked over her shoulder...."

Some of the metaphors used, although beautiful, seemed to overpower the idea the author was trying to present.

This is a quiet, unassuming narrative on the true meaning of love, family and parenthood that will leave you thinking about your own relationships. To qoute Matt;

" What he felt was gratitude. Something in him, though , told him that whatever the reasons, for their existence, it had to do with this same feeling. Gratitude."

This would make an interesting selection for a book group.

After a collection of short stories, Patrick Somerville comes to us with his first novel -- in 200 pages he tries to portray multiple characters and an interwoven plot that drives two independent stories, one set in 1997, the other set in the present. On the final pages, the two stories combine. The duel stories are an intricate composition, which includes parents, step-parents, disappearing parents, foster kids, half-brothers and half-sisters, war, and a complex array of relatives. In fact, the relationships between the characters are so confusing that I had to go back and reread how the various characters were related to each other, more than once. The cradle is an object that ties everyone together.

Somerville's writing style is sophisticated and mature, yet there were some weak points where the writing got bogged down in the description of too many actions and vague descriptions ("...she drifted across the room, got her keys...").

Because the plot is so intricate, it takes about 150 pages to lay everything down. At about three quarters through the book, the plot finally ignites, and the reader is pulled through to the end. It's here, when things begin to go wrong, where Somerville is at his best. We start to feel for Matt, who's been away from his pregnant wife for three days, gets hit hard with a few family secrets, and gets involved with some danger. How Matt deals with these issues and family secrets is at the heart of the book.

Because the plot is so reliant on relationships, the twist at the end is fairly predictable and somewhat reliant on coincidence. But it was not destructively predictable, and the coincidence was not unbearable. The inner thoughts that Somerville brings to his main characters makes the predictability worthwhile.

Some of the main characters are built well, but some of the minor characters appear a little flat. One 'bad' guy is colorfully portrayed as the kind of live at home, washed up, strange, angry-at-the-world, weirdo that might just become a serial killer, and Somerville does a good job with this guy. Other characters, however, languish in shades of gray. Somerville gets into the minds of his characters well; but their actions -- the hallmark of 'show don't tell' fiction writing, like I mentioned before, are a little flat.

The plot drives this novella, the way Somerville crafts the innre thoughts of his characters make it readable, and if you're into relationships, then this book is for you. If you're looking for a postmodern Dave Eggers type of wordplay and style, then try a different novel.

A solid first novel, but there is plenty of room for more. I'm looking forward to more from Patrick Somerville.