Customer Reviews

The Lost Father

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

 

 

If you are approaching this as a sequel to "Anywhere but Here," you will be sorely disappointed with "The Lost Father." Important details, the things that stick with the protagonist (her Wisconsin hometown, her stepfather's last name, and her father's name, to name a few), are changed, and it seems this can only be the result of carelessness on the behalf of Simpson and *especially* her editor. If you are wondering what happened to the bratty and real Ann August, you will be disoriented once placed into the world of the overachieving Mayan Stevenson, a woman whose childhood amazingly parallels that of Ann's but doesn't quite match.

However, if you truly enjoyed the academic side of Simpson's writing, the structure and voice and insight and whatnot, you will find she still deserves the three stars I've given this book.

Despite a back-cover claim that the protagonist of this novel is the same as in Simpson's first book "Anywhere but Here," I had trouble believing that.

For starters, the young medical student generally goes by Mayan. It takes quite some pages to reveal that some people also call her Ann -- the only name she was ever called int he first book.

Then, there is Mayan/Ann's childhood. In "ABH," she seemed to spend most of her time with her cousin Ben. In this book, Ben warrants a few passing mentions, but for the most part, Ann spends all her time with Emily and Mai linn -- characters never before mentioned. It's like Simpson has written one character with two different childhoods.

Still, a number of things remain consistent, such as Ann's dysfunctional mother Adele and her quietly strong grandmother Lillian. It's not enough, though; as Simpson's writing is strong, she might simply have decided to create an entirely different character rather than striving for a sequel that didn't quite gel.

As for the main plotline itself -- Mayan's search for the father who abandoned her as a child -- it's too drawn out. For reasons not clearly understood, Mayan has spent most of her life anticipating her father's reappearance; as a woman in her mid-twenties, however, she is nearly obsessed with a search for a man who is a virtual stranger. It takes a long time (and many, many pages) for Mayan to finally locate the man -- and when she does, Simpson does not really provide any reasons for the character's actions.

While this is hardly the worst book ever, I wouldn't really recommend it. Your time can be better spend elsewhere.

This author is amazing at verbalizing the feelings of a particularly under-evaluated age group. I found myself drawn to the highly-depressed character of 28-year-old Mayan, who knows she has "issues" but cannot get past them. The reader is caught in Mayan's whirlpool of unresolved feelings for both parents while she gives up her very self to do what scares her the most - finding her father. Her obsession with her past is heart-rending but familiar.

I enjoyed both "Anywhere but Here" and "A Regular Guy," so I looked forward to reading "The Lost Father," which is the sequel to "Anywhere but Here." However, I found it boring and irritating. I absolutely could not identify with Mayan and couldn't understand why she was so obsessed. Really silly. Don't waste your time.

The writing is insightful and beautiful. Some of it reads like prose. The writer has developed since "Anywhere But Here" and this book is magnificent on a different level than the first. If you like books with great character development and insight, you will love this book.

I thought that this was a sequel to Anywhere But Here, but while the story lines parallel, the author (and editor)very annoying changed the characters names, as well as the the main characters hometown. The names are close--Ann August becomes Ann Stevenson, the hometown is changed from Bay City, WI to Racine...but my question is--why???? What was the purpose of it? They are obviously the same characters, and for readers who want to follow the story, it is extremely annoying.

But at any rate, changed names or not, this story was far too long. About a third at least could've been clipped, maybe more. And it was just boring. Ann is dull, whiny, obsessed with finding this father of hers. And you wonder, why didn't she start with something simple, like look in the phone book in Los Angeles where he used to live. That's where she ends up finding him. All in all, a waste of time.

Loved A Regular Guy and Anywhere But Here. This one is a complete snoozer. Couldn't get past page 90. I skipped ahead several times looking for some glimmer of hope that the story might get better, but it droned on and on and on an and on....

M. Simpson is one of the most intelligent, lyrical and emotionally-profound writers working today. This book is about an obsession that drives a young woman's life, an obsession as powerful and heartbreaking and life-destroying as alcoholism or gambling. Once she opens those yellow pages, she's sunk. While I may have wanted Mayan, at times, to do things differently, she simply could not, and her inability to derail her obsession introduces a suspenseful, dark curiosity: just how far she will go? Simpson tells Mayan's story with an acute eye for detail and such fresh, imagistic, musical prose that there are pleasures on every page. While reading this book, I lived and moved in a different consciousness--not always a safe place, sometimes a frustrating one, but invariably compelling, revelatory, and emotionally resonant.

I loved this book. It created a whole world I fell into for about a week. I grew up with a father but nonetheless the young woman's yearning, as she looked for love in her life, resonated so much with me. I found it to be about much more than a quest to find a missing person. It seemed to me to vividly portray a young person, feeling her way into a deep and true life.

I found myself completely absorbed in this woman's quest to find her missing father. I found her obsession at times maddening, always fascinating and deeply driven. I never doubted that true large things were at stake for this character and I found it fascinating to watch her unwind her life, giving more and more over to a search for someone she'd always been told was her father but whom she really had very little experience of knowing. The ending felt both huge and hollow, in some ways like the end of the Wizard of Oz, as if the journey itself and her own capacity for desire would be what she remembered and what changed this young woman, rather than the man searched for himself.
The book asked large questions about the importance of a father in becoming a woman, for femininity and self-knowledge.
I woke up out of this book as if out of a long dream, full of movement.