Leisure Seeker, The: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: leisure seeker, little blue pills, New Mexico, Main Street, Auto Club (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this affecting road novel, an elderly married couple leave their Detroit home and take off in their camper for one last adventure together. Ella Robina has more health problems than a third world country, and her husband, John, is suffering from progressive dementia. Despite protests from their adult children and doctors, Ella and John hit the road and head west to Disneyland. By day, they stop off at cheese-ball tourist attractions, and at night they relive old memories by watching slide shows of their previous family vacations. Along the way, they receive unexpected aid from a rueful goth teenager, outmaneuver some roadside predators, get stopped by the police and consider running for it, and have sex. The ultimate decision Ella makes might seem life affirming to some and a callous betrayal to others, but its impossible to deny that Ellas wise, feisty voice turns what could be a sappy melodrama into an authentic and funny love story. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Ella and John Robina, eightysomethings, take off in their Leisure Seeker RV against the will of their son, daughter, and doctors. Destination Disneyland, via Route 66. Ella has refused further treatment for cancer, and John’s Alzheimer’s is four years advanced. So they leave the Detroit suburbs and head west. Ella navigates and narrates their trip—and their lives—while John, who veers from sentience to senility and rage to tenderness, drives. Crumbling, kitschy Route 66 triggers Ella’s thoughts. This is a purely character-driven novel, and Ella is a remarkable creation: she’s honest, tough, strong, funny, usually in pain, cranky, and frightened. Her narration is matter-of-fact, but laced with snarky one-liners. Having braved Chicago’s chaotic Dan Ryan Expressway, she comforts readers: “Between the two of us, we are one whole person.” John is a distressingly realistic portrait of a person with Alzheimer’s; Ella never knows when he’ll have a moment of lucidity or fly into a dangerous rage. Her middle-aged children’s panicked demands that the couple return home will resonate with any adult who has feared for a parent’s well-being. Zadoorian, whose debut novel, Second Hand (2000), was widely praised, has surpassed his initial success. The Leisure Seeker is pretty much like life itself: joyous, painful, funny, moving, tragic, mysterious, and not to be missed. --Thomas Gaughan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (January 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061671789
• ISBN-13: 978-0061671784
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #248,631 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Michael Zadoorian is a wise old woman., March 5, 2009

By	Jay Friedkin - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What a weird and wonderful book.
First of all, Zadoorian, although his name is Michael, must be a very wise,
old woman. As you can see from the book description, this is the story of
an old couple who escape all of the preconceptions of how they should live
their short, remaining time on this earth. It is written in the voice of
Ella, who you just have to describe as spunky.
She has cancer and in spite of it (or actually because of it),
she decides that she and her husband John, who has alzheimer's, will,
against the recommendations/advice/admonishments/threats and pleas of
their children and doctors, take their beloved Leisure Seeker RV on the
road one last time to retrace a previous journey over what is left of
Route 66.
So it's a road trip for octogenarians.
Which means all of the associated dramas and circumstances of aging
(humorous and sad) come along for the ride.

And that's why I say that Michael Zadoorian must be a wise old lady.
Writing in the voice of Ella, he gives us all of the wisdom, the humorous
and bittersweet insights of people who have lived a full life and now,
facing death, take the time to contemplate that life and savor it as it is
coming to an end.

But be aware, this is not some depressing book filled with nothing but
complaints about aging and sadness about the good old days being gone.
It is funny, bittersweet, tense and hysterical. Things happen! This
is a story that moves along and, like any good book, you keep wanting
to get back to it to see what will happen next. Very importantly,
there are no false dramas used to move things along. There are no
trumped up dark family secrets so often used to create fake tension.
The beauty of this story is the normal-ness. These are plain people
who are interesting just because we can identify so much with their
insights and lives. Their choice is actually to continue to be as
normal as they can be: to not be crammed into all of these last minute
definitions of "patient", "cancer sufferer", "old person" and the rest
of it, and try to do something that for them is quite normal: get in
the RV and take a vacation from all of that!

Best of all, at the end of the day, you love these people.
You come to wish that you could have the chance to be one of the
people they meet along the way.
Zadoorian gives you that wonderful chance.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Ella I saw Love, February 19, 2009

By	Vesta Irene (the Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

(What's this?)

Eighty-something Ella Robina has terminal cancer, so she kidnaps her husband John, who has Alzheimer's, and they hit the road in their Leisure Seeker camper van, heading out on their last road trip. Yes this is a story about a road trip. It's not an Easy Rider and it's not a Thelma and Louise kind of story. There is no action here, no fast pace, no bad guys, no guns blazing, no cars going off cliffs. Instead we have hamburger place after hamburger place, campground after campground. Same-o same-o as this elderly couple makes their way along the old Route 66 from it's beginning to it's end in Santa Monica and on to Disneyland.

Yes there is one scene where some tough youths try to rob these aging travelers and Ella pulls a gun, but other than that it is simply a story about a dying couple on the road, going to restaurants, museums, seeing the sights along the way, so why is it so gripping? Why couldn't I put it down? Why is the story still living with me two weeks after I've finished it?

I think because I saw my grandmother in Ella. I saw my mom too. I saw love. I saw a character I not only cared about, but admired. I met an old lady with more courage than all the action heros in the fast paced thrillers I like to read. And I met the man she loved, who had for the most part lost his mind, but for short periods of time he was back and when he was I saw love.

Even though I knew how the book had to end, even though I was prepared for it, I cried. This story moved me.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On the Road for One Last Time, February 19, 2009

By	Katie Osborne (Portland, Oregon and the sunny Caribbean) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

(What's this?)

John has Alzheimer's, Ella has cancer and she's decided that she doesn't want to die in a hospital, so she's put her husband behind the wheel of their aging Leisure Seeker camper and they've taken off, heading out on Route 66. They're on the road, on vacation, for one last time.

They've got adult children, who now treat their parents as if they're the kids. They want dad in a place where he can be looked after and they want mom undergoing treatment, but a long time ago Ella promised John that when they got old, if anything happened to his mind, that she'd never put him away.

So they're having this last adventure, staying in campgrounds across the U.S. Viewing slides from their past in the evening, meeting strangers, even foiling an attempted robbery, and all the while sneaking they're way into your heart.

Occasionally John flashes into his old self, but most of the time he's driving along in a sort of happy bliss while Ella navigates. They see the sights, do their best to stay on the original Route 66, but sometimes they have to get on the interstate, as the road's been paved over in places. John has to struggle to keep up, but you won't have to struggle to keep up with this heartwarming, tender, funny and sad story. I cried at the end, you will too.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne