Customer Reviews

The Department of Lost & Found: A Novel

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I actually feel really bad doing this because everyone gave it five stars but I just want to be honest. I really liked the first half of the book. But then as it went on I started to find Natalie really annoying. I know she had cancer and all but I just couldn't relate to her (not because she had cancer) but because of her workaholic nature and her general personality. And I guess I had absolutely no interest in her field, which was politics. She was a brave character but maybe too so. I guess I was just looking for more sadness and very emotional moments, which I feel this book didn't really have (for me). Her aloof attitude with Zach was really starting to get to me as well. Once the Price is Right encounter started I said, ok, that's it, I can't read this anymore. So I skimmed ahead to see what happened and that was that. I think the writer writes well but the story just turned me away after 1/2 way through. However, I would still read any future book that she publishes.

Allison Winn Scotch manages to take a depressing topic, and writes a book that is insightful, touching, thoughtful, mature, and, at times, hysterically funny!

How could a book about a woman with [...] cancer be hilarious? The Department of Lost and Found is a brilliant combination of multiple modes of written and verbal expression - text, emails, diary entries, Blackberry messages, voice mails and more, which all combine to make this an entertaining, modern novel. A large undercurrent of the book reminisces about cheesy, old television shows. The Price is Right, for one, plays a significant role; Natalie's new obsession with this game show culminates in her appearance on the show--which is marred by a variety of complications including urgent back-stage Blackberry messages to a United States senator's office, a slightly illicit cross-country trip with her gynecologist, sweaty armpits, Bob Barker's bad make-up job, and how-in-the-world-would-a-New-Yorker-know-how-much-a-patio-set-costs-we-don't-do-patio-sets-in-New-York-City! all coalesce into a memorably hilarious scene.

TDLF is also a fascinating study on imperfection; each character has his or her own share of flaws, but these flaws draw lives together in a meaningful way. Heartless old boyfriends, dirty office politics, dirty national politics, dirty family laundry, personal indiscretions, uncertainties, mistakes and apologies, and much more, make this book such a great read. The book also explores many of the ironies of life - how one can realize stunning beauty in an imperfect and scarred body, find strength among weakness, insatiable hunger while undergoing chemotherapy(thanks to pot-induced munchies), truth among lies, and most of all how love can be lost - and found - in the most unsuspecting of circumstances.

While this book is well written and engaging in many ways (and the divergence into "The Price Is Right" entertaining), I had a few problems with it. And not just because its heroine, Natalie Miller, is designed to be one of those unsympathetic protagonists, and maybe is even more so to me because she grew up a child of privilege (I didn't), is an ex-Ivy Leaguer and sorority girl (I'm not), and has a very tony job working for a NY senator (I don't) that allows her to wear shoes that cost in the three figures (etc.). She's also hard as nails and appears to have no conscience and no life beyond her work, and to have an ambition to someday become President because...well, she would love to be President. My issue with her is that this novel uses the experience of breast cancer to transform its unsympathetic protagonist from Ms. Hardass into Ms. Wonderful, and in some ways, the transformation is just a bit too magical for me.

Sure, Natalie has to cope with fatigue and depression and feeling ugly and out of sorts. Yes, she has to cope with feeling that she's falling behind at work and being left out of the loop. And she has to deal with losing her old body and getting used to a new one, from breasts to weight to hair. And yes, she even has to stare down the possibility of her own death if all of her efforts fail. Through these trials, she does become a more sympathetic and empathetic person. One more human and principled, who has learned to value what really matters, and how to tell people without values where they can stick it. She also becomes more able to reach out and ask for help when she needs to. And yeah, she learns to smoke pot, which I guess is supposed to be some kind of a virtue (whatever).

However, she also becomes someone whose biggest romantic dilemma is whether to stay with her returned ex, an up-and-coming rock star who's always abandoning her for a gig, or to fall for the Dr. McDreamy who seems to be falling for her (for no particular reason other than his admiration of how she's fighting her disease) yet allows himself to be manipulated into restarting a dead relationship with one of her friends (why? Is he so much of a wimp that he can't just say no?). In other words, when it comes to romance, we should all be so miserable...This stuff touches on fantasy fulfillment a bit, and makes me question whether some of her decisions are so wise. Is one man so terrible for her because the Stones invited him to tour with them and he wants to go? Is the other so wonderful, considering that he's letting himself get led around by the nose by an ex he doesn't seem to love anymore? Also, Natalie mentions a few times that she is looking for her "alpha." I wonder what she means by this: her "alpha and omega," as in, her be-all and end-all? Should anyone be that to anyone else? Or her "alpha person" or "alpha male," so she can just meekly follow behind while he takes the lead? She doesn't even seem like a person who wants to follow someone. One wonders why such a strong-personalitied woman would want to follow an even stronger-personalitied man. (In any case, it doesn't seem as if either of these men fit that description, or as if it would be good if they did.)

But finally, the flaw that most concerns me about this novel is that it maintains the non-cancer-sufferer's myth of the cancer patient as more brave and courageous than everyone else. From what I read in the interview with the author included at the end of my edition, she was inspired to write it by a friend who died of breast cancer. After I finished the book, I wasn't surprised to find that she was an onlooker to the breast cancer experience rather than someone who had experienced it herself, because if she was, she'd know better. She'd know that fighting cancer doesn't mean you're brave or courageous; it's just something you're doing because you have it, and the only other alternative is letting it take its course and dying, so you fight it. Natalie asks early in the book whether she isn't just doing what she has to do, but the question is never answered; at the end, we're left with the impression that she is indeed brave and courageous, and that her positive attitude has made a difference. In fact, she tells us, studies show that a positive attitude helps patients beat cancer. The truth is quite the opposite: studies are showing that positive attitudes DON'T necessarily improve survival rates. I feel that the author, while trying to pay tribute to her friend by telling the story of a cancer patient in first-person form, didn't pay her quite fair tribute by painting her as more of a heroic figure than she probably would have painted herself. Also, she gives the misleading impression that a breast cancer patient in remission is officially out of the woods after five years without a recurrence. That is true of other cancers, but breast cancer is not like that; technically, it can recur at any time, even if some forms of it are less likely to return than others. And that would be a fact that Natalie, as a younger person at diagnosis with a more aggressive form of cancer, would have to live with for the rest of her life. She's never shown here contemplating how this might affect her, her relationship with a man (it doesn't seem to worry the guys she's with at all), or her dreams to become President someday (can you imagine how her opposition would hype her unfitness for office by emphasizing that she might have a recurrence?).

The author mentions that this book isn't really about the experience of breast cancer, it's about the experience of self-transformation, and that the protagonist's breast cancer is merely used here as a catalyst to get that self-transformation process in motion. Maybe that's the problem, right there. I had hoped I'd be reading a book about breast cancer, and this book isn't really about breast cancer, it's about a woman in need of a life makeover. Breast cancer is merely the trigger that forces her to make over her life. If you're looking for a story about a woman who's happy with her life as it is and doesn't want breast cancer to change it, or one who's trying to deal with breast cancer at the same time as she's coping with other serious problems in her life (and I mean stuff more serious than "my boyfriend is dumping me" or "my boss might lose the election"), or one who has breast cancer whose problems involve not only getting better but also paying the treatment bills, best look elsewhere.

An interesting sidelight of this book is that it's about a woman who works for a fictional woman senator from New York, and one wonders whether the character of Senator Dupris is based on any real-life person we might know. Especially given that one of Senator Dupris' favorite phrases is "I'm in it to win it," and that she seems to have no moral compunctions and to be willing to do whatever is politically expedient. Perhaps her resemblance to any persons living or dead is, as they always say, entirely coincidental. I guess only the author knows for sure!

To wrap up: Yes, this is a story of breast cancer as Life-Transforming Experience for somebody who badly needs one. The danger? It perpetuates the idea that breast cancer can actually be a good thing, because it can make you change your life. Yes, it can (although it needn't), but it can also END your life. Maybe it would have been better if Natalie had just gotten canned by that senator at the beginning of the book. She could have had the same Life-Transforming Experience without any of the threat to her life--and she would've gotten to keep her breasts, too.

I absolutely LOVE this book! Allison Winn Scotch has written a phenomenal debut novel that's perfect for all women who are facing a big life transition of any kind -- whether it's getting married or turning 30, or 40, or 50, seeing your kids go off to college, etc. You'll find yourself thinking about how you got to be where you are, the people who helped form you along the way, and what you really need to embrace about your life right now. This is a GREAT read, and you'll think about it for a long time after the book is done. Not too many novels stay with you and inspire you like this one does. Great job, Allison! I hope you're working on your next novel right now, because I can't wait to read that one, too!

I'm an avid reader but have been disappointed lately by some of the contemporary fiction on the market. Not so with Allison Winn Scotch's debut novel. I couldn't put this book down and was sorry to see it end. We've all heard the phrase "Don't get so busy making a living that you forget to have a life." This could be the mantra of Natalie Miller. At 30, she seems to have it all until her world comes crashing down with a diagnosis of cancer which coincides with her boyfriend leaving her. Rather than sink into depression, Natalie directs her energies towards figuring out what went wrong in her past relationships by tracking down the five loves of her life. Given that Natalie is battling breast cancer, this could have been a deep, dark, novel yet Scotch portrays Natalie as a fighter and illustrates how she battles cancer with courage and humor. When Natalie faces her own immortality, she comes to the realization that she's been sleepwalking through much of her life. Her diagnosis brings an understanding of what she truly wants from life.

Repetitious. Nat fights her chemo sickness, Nat endlessly pesters (emails, phones, visits office) Zack, her replacement at work and ultimately screws things up. Nat hounds her boss, the Senator. Nat contemplates all her past failed relationships, Nat keeps a boring diary. DIDO (day in day out).

My Dad is losing his battle with bladder/colon cancer. So I empathize with Nats cancer. But her story is told in a dull fashion. Scotch did not make me feel sympathy for Nat, especially with regards to her work as a senior aide to a NY senator and the dirty, destructive politics Nat engages in.

Therefore I only made it around half way thru, skimmed the rest here and there looking for a toehold but found none.

This book really upset me, but not at all in the way most of those who wrote reviews here were upset by the book.

What upset me was the attitude of 'entitlement' that permeates the entire book. The idea that someone who has an almost perfect life for 30 years, but who then has it a little bit tough for a short period of time is hard done by... just left me really shocked.

It made me wonder if the author has any idea that for a huge percentage of the world's population...well, they would give anything to have had 30 years of such a perfect life; wonderful education, beauty, intelligence, caring family and friends, born into a wealthy country, basic safety and security, a job that pays well and is respected.....

Even with what happened to her, she is still, what, better off and far more lucky than probably 80 - 90% of people around the world!? (She would STILL be one of the luckiest people I know!)

The assumption underlying this book seemed to be that 'rich upper-middle class Americans' (and maybe rich people from other countries??) are owed a perfect life and have a right to feel very hard done by if anything bad ever happens to them.

Was it just me, but was Nat's journey through cancer...ummm, not very brave or amazing at all? I thought she was really selfish and negative and well, it was all very average. Sure she could have coped with it worse, but there was nothing at all remarkable with what she did either. (She was very hard to like I thought, she didn't cope at all well or remarkably.)

There was just no sense of gratitude at ALL for what she has already been given that I could see. That seemed to be what she saw as just her due, never mind that the vast majority of people are nowhere near so lucky. Never mind that some people are far far more ill and that this illness lasts for DECADES at a time.....

I did cry in this book.... I cried with envy at what she could still do and how not-ill she was at the worst of her illness. Like many people with serious chronic illnesses, I would give anything to have even a day being only as 'ill' as she was... On one of her worst days, (which was meant to make you feel so sorry for her) she made some phone calls and left the house.....

Many of us can only DREAM of such luxuries, and it has been YEARS since we experienced them... Many of us could only dream too of getting even 10% of the quality of medical care and support from friends and family she received or being 10% as able to do things as she was. (Sure she has a 50% chance of death, but she also had a 50% chance of having a perfectly normal life! Something many of us have no chance of at all.)

I cried when she was so mad she had to use a wheelchair for a few days too when so many people I know are bedbound/housebound and far too ill to use a wheelchair, but would give anything to HAVE even a few days in one... to leave the house even occasionally.. to see a doctor even occasionally...

I think Nat was lucky. Not brave, not hard done by, not amazing, not at all inspirational, but very, very LUCKY. I wonder does the author know what is happening in the world today? That not everyone in the world is living such a charmed and perfect existence as the wealthy and privelleged characters in this book. If so, why is there not even a short acknowledgement of this? The book seems to assume we are all living such charmed lives... I found this quite offensive and...ignorant.

Yes, not everyone is in my situation... but so many people are dealing with all sort of horrible things all their lives; kids with serious disabilites that they have to care for for decades, being subject to severe abuse and neglect in childhood, having a severe mental illness, having your life put at risk for being gay in the wrong country, living in extreme poverty and fearing your children will die every day, and so on and so on. All much worse than this mild but scary illness...and a charmed first 30 years of life!

If you have had any real problems in life or have a serious chronic illness, do not buy this book, it will likely only upset you as it did me. The writing was fine, quite good even, but the underlying social attitudes etc. left a lot to be desired. Perhaps her future books will be better though!

I loved The Department of Lost and Found, and it's not the type of fiction I usually read. But I was immediately drawn in by Natalie Miller, a thoroughly believable character, and her story. I learned a lot, I laughed, I cried and I thought about life and relationships and hope. An excellent read by a talented writer.

What a page-turner! TDLF was so terrific, I read it in a single day. It had me laughing one second, crying the next ... and rushing to find out what would happen to Natalie as she went through her journey. Also, as a friend of someone undergoing cancer treatment, this novel was a much-needed ray of sunshine; the bookshelves are stocked with tragic stories, and I was thrilled to finally read something that addressed the difficult aspects of cancer and still managed to be upbeat and provide hope. I'd definitely recommend this to others with cancer or who have friends or family members with cancer. That said, I would have related to TDFL even if cancer hadn't touched my life--it's that good. Needless to say, I can't wait to read Allison Winn Scotch's next book.

Nothing like what I thought this book was going to be like. The premise was very cool, but the execution was terrible. I felt like I never really got to know the main character and therefor, never really cared much about her. And the premise of the book (what the blurb on the back said) really wasn't what the book turned out to be. I did not enjoy this book, but I did finish it (and immediately posted it to PBS). There are much better books out there-- don't waste your time reading this one.