Every Visible Thing: A Novel [Hardcover]

Lisa Carey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 2006

Five years ago the eldest Furey son, Hugh, ran off into the night and never returned. His parents, estranged by grief, are trying to put the tragedy behind them after a long, exhausting, and fruitless search. His mother, recovering from an emotional breakdown, has lost herself in a new career; Hugh's father, having abandoned his faith and his position as a theology professor, now cares halfheartedly for their two remaining children. Left more or less to fend for themselves, ten-year-old Owen and fifteen-year-old Lena struggle to hold on to their brother's memory—an increasingly self-destructive obsession that gives rise to angel fantasies, drug use, quixotic quests, and dangerous experimentation that will ultimately force a damaged family to confront its past and find a future.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her graceful, affecting fourth novel, Carey (Love in the Asylum) revisits themes from her previous books—family, tragedy, grief and resilience—with visceral drama and pathos. In the mid-'80s, on the outskirts of Boston, 15-year-old Lena and 10-year-old Owen Furey are coming of age in the aftermath of their older brother Hugh's disappearance. Two years on, Hugh is presumed dead, and the Furey parents have buried themselves in their work: mother Elizabeth as a medical student, father Henry as an editor of religious books. Left to their own devices, the Furey children flirt with self-destruction, giving flesh to the mythic symbolism of their last name. While Lena pursues a dangerous search for proof of Hugh's fate, tracking his movements through images from his old camera, Owen calls on Hugh as a protecting angel to help him deal with his stirring sexual attraction to best friend Danny (and with Danny's harsh reprisals). Though the novel suffers from an unwieldy structure, switching between Lena's first person and a third-person portrayal of Owen, the play between sections devoted to each child proves rewarding, suffused in lucid grief and delicate longings. (Aug.)
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From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Five years after the disappearance of their oldest son, Hugh, the Furey family is functioning, yet shattered. Parents Henry and Elizabeth live in the same house, but not in the same world. When Lena, 15, finds a cache of Hugh's undeveloped film, she masquerades as a boy and begins to skip school and hang out with the dangerous older crowd she identifies from his photos, with the hope of discovering what happened to him. Meanwhile, Owen, 10, is dealing with severe bullying issues at school. He becomes fixated on guardian angels, a topic his theologian father researched before he lost his job. As Lena's and Owen's lives threaten to implode, the Fureys must finally deal with their grief and strained relationships in order to survive. Carey's depiction of Lena's obsession and guilt about her beloved brother, and her yearning for resolution and absolution, drives the story. She has an intense desire to know one brother while remaining unaware of the depth and violence of the other's situation. Owen's problems illustrate how difficult it is for victims to talk about what is happening, even if support is offered.–Charlotte Bradshaw, San Mateo County Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (August 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066212898
• ISBN-13: 978-0066212890
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,236,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Family Tale from the Dark Side, December 4, 2006

By 

lisatheratgirl "lisatheratgirl" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Every Visible Thing: A Novel (Hardcover)

The Furey family (interesting name, there's a lot of it repressed) hasn't been the same since the oldest child, Hugh, disappeared. It's never really specified what happened to him, but that is less important than the effect it had on his parents, sister and brother. This is one of the darkest books I've read this year, but the author sure got me to care what happened to the characters. Owen is bullied by a former older friend, who likes sexual abuse and playing with a loaded gun. He fakes an illness for months to avoid going to school. Lena gets involved with a drug dealer and starts cross-dressing, passing as a boy to the extent of becoming physically involved with girls. In the search for her missing brother, she ends up in a nonstop party scene that is reminiscent of Bret Easton Ellis's Less than Zero. As the children slip into life-threatening nightmare, the parents pay them little or no attention, focusing on their own grief. The mother, Elizabeth, doesn't get out of bed for months and drives her own mother out of the house. The father, Henry, is fired from his job, and not for sympathetic reasons. These two seemed like the most self-centered irresponsible people ever. After one child attempts suicide, they get angry with her! They always seem to focus on the child in obvious trouble and ignore the others. Fortunately, Owen at least does have some positive adult interaction in his life, from unexpected people.

Angels are a big theme in this book, which I really liked. The title has to do with angels, and is a great thought. Henry is supposedly writing a book about angels, though for a long time it seems he's hardly qualified. When Owen's religion teacher in Catholic school tells him something about people and angels, Henry interprets it as saying Hugh is dead, and yanks his kids out of Catholic school and has the whole family leave the Church.
Before that, he had the kids receive First Communion, Confirmation, and all the rest of it. The children get no explanation for anything. Owen becomes obsessed with angels on his own, and his teacher, who comes to his rescue at one point, is named Mr. Gabriel.

There is so much to this book, and I don't want to give away too much. I recommend it highly, and I'd read more of Ms. Carey's work.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not her best, but worth reading!, January 22, 2009

By 

Yolanda S. Bean (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Every Visible Thing: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book - I forgot how beautifully she writes. Though it initially took me a little bit to get into it (perhaps since the last three books I read were essays, rather than a real story), once it did get going, it was a very sad but engrossing story. I am very glad that I read it and that it ended as happily as it did. There weren't too many loose ends and all in all, I still really like this author - though I did enjoy _The Mermaids Singing_ more.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written but more than a bit of a downer......................., May 11, 2007

By 

Susan K. Schoonover "Sue Yingling" (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Every Visible Thing: A Novel (Hardcover)

EVERY VISIBLE THING has much to offer but it involves the reader in the main characters' lives to the point of discomfort. There is much symbolism in the novel including the names of the protagonists. The family surname if Furey and their three very troubled children are Hugh (who has been missing for years after a disastrous encounter with a very horrid girlfriend) Lena who seems to be clinically depressed and whose parents seem oblivious to her problems and Owen who is also largely ignored by his parents and is mercilessly bullied by some almost unbelievably precocious fifth graders. There is also a lot of angel symbolism which doesn't seem to be quite as well realized as the author hoped. The setting of the story is suburban Boston in the 80's and Ms. Carey provides enough detail about the decade to bring it back to life. In fact for such a slim novel Ms. Carey provides the reader with an amazing amount of information regarding all her major characters' lives.