Only Son [Hardcover]

Kevin O'Brien (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997

Their troubled marriage on the mend after the birth of their much-adored new son Eddie, Paul and Amy McMurray are horrified when the child is kidnapped by Carl Jorgenson, a divorced man who dreams of having a son.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite some awkward moments, O'Brien's compassionate approach to a rather pedestrian kidnapping story makes this first novel surprisingly engaging. Carl Jorgenson is a happily married young office worker living in Portland when his pregnant wife decides to get an abortion against his will. Angered by her decision, Carl moves out, and shortly thereafter kidnaps Eddie, an infant born to another struggling Portland couple, Paul and Amy McMurray. After spiriting the child off to Seattle, Jorgenson starts a new life as a single parent, renaming the baby "Sam" and sending brief postcards to his despondent parents to update them on their abducted child's progress. As Sam grows up, however, he begins to question the murkier aspects of his family background, and when Amy, after splitting up with Paul, moves to Seattle, it's only a matter of time before an "accidental" meeting between mother and son takes place. O'Brien frequently strains the bounds of credibility in his description of the gyrations Carl goes through to keep the baby after the kidnapping, and some of the first-person passages from the various narrators are mawkish and clumsy. But the final confrontation, in which Sam's true identity is revealed, is handled with grace and empathy, and the author's refusal to cast Carl as a villain represents an interesting spin on a plot that otherwise reads like a script for a TV movie.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 294 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575660911
• ISBN-13: 978-1575660912
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,329,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could not put this book down!, February 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Only Son (Paperback)

It is extremely rare that I start and finish a book on the same day. I typically like to enjoy a book over a week or so. But I could not put this book down!

I always respect an author that is capable of making you feel something you ordinarily would not. But not only does the author make you feel compassion for a criminal, but resenting those who try to bring him to "justice."

I'm still thinking about this book, its characters, and all the possible reasons this book has me spellbound. But you're better off reading it yourself anyway. I have a feeling it will mean many different things to many different people.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It is a Must-Read, October 6, 1999

By 

Evelyn Sheahan (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Only Son (Hardcover)

You have to read this book. It is a wonderful, compelling and emotion-stirring read! I raced through it and couldn't wait to see how all the strands of this engaging story came together. From the outset you wonder how all of this came about and how it could end like this!

You have a whole range of emotions to work through here - it is by turns melancholy, thrilling and sad... Just read it and see. The story flows smoothly and it is easy to read. Also it has a number of well developed characters and as you read, you begin to understand what motivates and touches them!

Go buy it right now!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gray Has Never Been Rendered More Beautifully, February 13, 2009

By 

Carolyn J. Mears (Daphne, AL) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Only Son (Paperback)

Only Son strikes so many cords at once that it's hard to have a clear emotional response to it, at least while one's still reading it. Maternal instincts kept me sufficiently on guard throughout the entire book to ensure that I did not get suckered into liking the nice-guy-kidnapper...too much. But, when the last page was turned, my feelings about the book were crystal clear. Quite simply, I loved it. I've spent the last thirty minutes sorting out why.

The reason I shouldn't like it is obvious: It's about a child-snatcher who is portrayed as a nice, even responsible, human being, instead of a monster. As a mother, I have a huge problem with that.

On the other hand, that's exactly one of the reasons I liked the story. It plants the seed of possibility - a slim hope - that not all kidnapped kids suffer gruesome deaths or fates worse than death. My own children are safe in adulthood (well, maybe not safe, but you know what I mean), but I know that if my child had disappeared without a trace, I would very much want Only Son floating around in my memory bank. The story seems very realistic due to characters and circumstances that are rendered wonderfully believable by the author's skill and sensitivity, which is another reason I loved the book.

The story of Carl Jorgenson pulls the heart into a tender and confusing place; one so universal that I believe Only Son belongs on the shelf of "great books", not just "good books". Through Carl's story, O'Brien takes us into that emotionally gray area where nice, ordinary people - people we truly care about - make terribly wrong choices that have irreversible consequences for themselves and others. And there is nothing left to do, but live with ambivalent feelings and make the best of the forever altered path.