Customer Reviews

Fragile

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Fragile is the debut novel of Chris Katsaropoulos, a keen observer of human nature whose prose is innovative, poetic, and at times truly transcendent. While juggling three different perspectives, he keeps us very much in the moment and yet the past is always present (and deeply felt) for his characters.

Fragile by Chris Katsaropoulos is an experiential novel about what pulls us together and apart. Amelia Geist saved herself for her childhood love, Tris Holloway, even though he has long abandoned her. Holly Schenk is just trying to make ends meet to take care of her two daughters alone, but she can't seem to want the right man. Tris, Amelia's love, is ready to retire, but his wife has tired of him and is cleaning out all remnants of their life together while he tries to find purpose in the last days of his job. Three very different people who are all struggling to feel love and be loved are all portrayed as fragile and vulnerable by Katsaropoulos. The narration jumps from one character to the next without notice right in the middle of a sentence which takes a little getting used to, but when the story picks up with the meeting of Amelia and Holly, it becomes natural, giving the novel a very organic and authentic voice. Amelia realizes that when she turned her back on love after losing Tris, she wasted much of her life. Holly is constantly seeking men who will only abuse and leave her while ignoring the good man right in front of her. Tris settled for his wife when all he really wanted was Amelia and is now paying for it in a bitter marriage. The stories are sad, but Katsaropoulos does a wonderful job of keeping the thread of hope alive in each of them, as though a happy ending is just around the corner. It's a small story with a large impact.

When your own life is shattered, sometimes the pieces needed to repair them lie in the broken lives of others. "Fragile" tells the story of three individuals who face their life long celibacy, their loveless marriages, and their own self loathing. An elderly virgin still yearns for her lost lover, the lost lover faces the passionless life he chose, and a mother bottomed out of her luck wondering what drove her to try to end her own life. Poignant and thought provoking, "Fragile" is a fine piece of fiction to add to any collection.

Chris Katsaropoulos knows what he's about: he has served in the roles of editor and publisher with such prestigious houses as McGraw-Hill, Pearson Prentice Hall and Macmillan, he has authored trade and technical books (some, pertinent to this book, dealing with the Internet as business) and he and his wife founded Emergent Learning LLC after encountering out-of-boy experiences. In FRAGILE, his first novel, he combines all of these elements of knowledge and experience and has written an experimental book that, like it title is fragile; this i a book of fragments not unlike the encounters we all face in life - moments that seem coincidental and unimportant at the time but which later lead to insights and even behavior changes completely unexpected. There is an element of 'higher meaning' in this story that makes it fascinating to finish and to contemplate the experience of reading it. But it is not without problems.

Katsaropoulos has created a story of three seemingly disparate people - the intentionally unmarried Amelia Geist clinging to promises made fifty years ago to love only one man - the unhappily married Tristan Holloway whose longing for the explanation of why he left Amelia years ago still haunts him - and the single mother Holly Schenck, biding her time as a hair dresser while she erodes her own self image with bad decisions. The three come together in what appears to be mundane circumstances but that prove to be a gate to understanding and piecing together each of their fragile lives.

The manner of story telling the author has chose seems almost a reaction to the many first novels he surveyed as an editor looking for something unique that would make a novel, otherwise well crafted but dull, interesting. His technique is to parcel out the story in fragments that transition at vulnerable moments in the story to other situations in each of the three characters lives. At first it seems like Internet Twittering or alphabet soup and can be confusing and disorienting for the first pages, but once the reader 'catches on' to the technique of fragmentation, the author's choice pushes the story into a fresh realm. For this reader this novel is more like a screenplay than a novel: that is not a bad thing. It seems at times as though the author is under the literary spell of James Joyce - but that is another discussion. In the end this is a 'novel' to admire for its technique, but it seems to leave the reader uninvolved with caring about these three people. Maybe as a screenplay with a solid director and some fine actors the story would feel different. But that, too, is another discussion. For lovers of experimental literature this book is tasty. Grady Harp, February 10

This is my first experience reading a book in 1st person present, and as both a reader and writer, I have to say I was unable to finish the book. I read about 20-25 pages and gave up. There are three main characters, Amelia Geist, Holly Schenck and Tristan Holloway. The author attempts to tell the story in all three POVs at the same time--he breaks off a chapter in the middle of the sentence and begins the next paragraph right where he left off but with a different POV, and he will do the same thing with the 3rd character. I really wanted to finish the book to see if Amelia and Tristan get back together after their 50 years of estrangement, but I just can't handle all the head hopping.

Fragile
Author: Chris Katsaropoulos
Publisher: Luminis Books
ISBN: 978-1-935462-27-9

Mesmerizing and beautiful, a truly stunning book! Katsaropoulos is new to writing fiction, and his first novel sets the bar incredibly high. This book takes the reader into the minds and hearts of three very different people:
Holly, a beautician and single mom of 2 young daughters, involved once again with the wrong man for all the wrong reasons, leading a life of self destruction.

Tris, a well to do businessman nearing retirement age, with an overbearing wife and lots of regret about the past, and the childhood love he left behind.

And Amelia, abandoned by the love of her life, her childhood sweetheart, more than fifty years ago. She's living a virginial life of self denial and emptiness, with a never ending hope for a return of that long lost childhood love she lost.

In what can only be described as a truly unique style, the author takes us from the thoughts of one character directly into the next: an ongoing narrative of a brief portion of these three lives, to a moment of intersection so hauntingly profound and exquisite, it will leave the reader astounded and deeply moved.

With a debut such as this, I see a wonderfully promising future for this author. A story and characters you will never forget, with a message as old and true as time itself. I have already read this twice, and marveled at it even more the second reading. I can not recommend this book highly enough! A true classic for the ages