Customer Reviews

Every Visible Thing: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I thought this was an excellent read. Carey certainly knows how to expose her characters and master a great tale in doing so. This is a dark, if not sobering book, but one you can't seem to put down. How could the parents fail to see their children's cry for help. They were wrapped up too much in their own lives, the mother a med student, the father, caught in the act of adultery with one of his students, ( by his daughter) to realize that their family was not just falling apart, but had already disintegrated. The significance of angels, especially guardian angels is brought forth but not really satisfactorily concluded. The author alludes to the missing older brother as to being an angel but somewhat in a shadowy way. If you're looking for a happy ending, look no further, this book certainly leaves you with a positive feeling.

I just loved this book and couldn't put it down even after trying several times to make tea in between chapters, BUT...the story won out every time!

Five years ago the Furey's eldest son, Hugh, disappeared without a trace. His parents are naturally grief stricken and trying hard to put this senseless tragedy behind them. Hugh's mother has an emotional breakdown and hunkers down in her bed rarely getting up. This leaves Hugh's father to care for their two youngest children, Owen 10 and Lena 15 but due to his own grief, this is a half-hearted effort often leaving Owen and Lena to fend for themselves.

Their father, once a theology professor has completely lost his faith and has seemingly left his job and for awhile, tries to put his energy into his two young children but falls far short of the goal.

Owen and Lena are trying to hold onto Hugh's memory as neither parent will even so much as say his name. For Lena especially, Hugh becomes more than just a brother disappeared. She sets out to find out what really happened to him and meets Sebastien, a rough and tumble drug addict. Through this meeting, Lena ends up experimenting with alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes, and as a result, ends up having sex for the first time.

Owen, in the meantime, becomes involved with Danny, a bad boy who introduces Owen to masturbation which they begin experimenting with. Danny eventually turns on Owen, making up stories about him at school and now the entire school is calling him horrible names and chasing him down. Terrified, Owen keeps two thermometers in his room to fool his mother with so he can stay home from school on the pretense that he is just too sick to go with such a high fever. By now, his mother has recovered from her mental breakdown and is training as a nurse. The thermometer game works gloriously well for Owen until one night he sneaks out and is trapped in the cemetery by Danny, who has a gun, and couple of his friends. What transpires in that cemetery will devastate Owen for the rest of his life.

Finally, this totally dysfunctional, damaged and grieving family are forced into counselling to try and repair their shattered lives.

I can see that many people like this book a lot. I am glad that they did. I even got this off of a "Staff Favorites" shelf. But, I am half way through and am putting it down for good. It is dark,and dismal, and to me boring. I guess I just can't relate in any way to the self-important, self-indulgent, adolescent characters. Sorry, not for me.

Read this in one sitting. Could NOT put it down. Amazing journey of a family.

While this was my least favourite of Ms Carey's novels premise-wise (I've now read all four in quick succession), it was -to me- the most capably executed.

I didn't want to read it. The subject matter didn't appeal; it's been done before in different mediums, especially in film with 'Ordinary People'. But I 'dset out to read all of the author's oeuvre, and was curious as to how her talent had progressed.

The story is simple, and I don't think there's much here that falls too far outside 'the norm', regardless of what era we're talking about. Family tragedy, family dysfunctionality, the travails of growing up... It's all here, and capably presented.

'Every Visible Thing' is a solid novel. It's not memorable, nor does it break any new ground. But Ms Carey tells a better, more complete tale with it than she's been able to on previous occasions, and for me, that was satisfaction enough.

But I'm still waiting for her 'big novel', the one I feel is lurking in the background; I don't believe we've seen anything near to her best, yet.

P.S. How is it that she doesn't know the difference between 'take' and 'bring'? Bizarre.

This was a very dark and dismal novel. The story is told from two characters, Lena and Owen, alternating chapters. Lena is obsessed with finding her brother or at least finding out who he was. She finds his old camera and lots of undeveloped film. She takes a photography class to learn to develop it herself. As she sees the places and people that Hugh shot, she seeks them out looking for answers. This leads her down a dangerous trail as she skips school, becomes involved in drugs, and searches for her identity. Owen is ten and struggling with his sexual development and feelings for his best friend Danny. Some of these chapters were sexually explicit uncomfortable as they occur between two young boys and did not seem necessary to the story. At this point, I was ready to put the book down. But I continued because I was intrigued by Lena's story. Owen's story improved from there and focused on him be ostracized from his peers and he begins to pay attention to his sister and start looking for his own answers to Hugh disappearance.
I'm glad I stayed with the book. Though it was a melancholy story, it brought home the reality of what happens to a family when one of it's members is lost and what can happen if they then lose each other. Lisa Carey writes well though graphically at times but a tragic tale can not be sugar-coated. This is not a novel for the faint of heart, and not a light read but it has real depth and worth the emotional drain.

Author Lisa Carey's ablity to use the perfect word or phrase is masterful and amazing. Her discriptions paint the exact picture and evoke an uncanny understanding of the characters' emotions and point of view. It was like watching a movie. It was a wild ride through the self-discovery and drama of prepubescent and adolescent characters oozing with emotional issues.