Customer Reviews

Take Me, Take Me with You

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

 

 

I picked this book from the shelf at my local library by reading the inside of the jacket. Never having heard of Lauren Kelly, I was pleasently surprised (after a few pages)to realize that the author could be none other than one of my favorites... Joyce Carol Oates. I was thrilled to read another short novel by the amazing JCO. I have read all of her Rosamond Smith stories and find it truely intriguing that she has yet another alias. I only hope this means more creativity to come. Take me has a familiar JCO and Rosamond Smith theme, that of the duality of personalities.

Lara Quade is a Princeton research assistant who one day receives an anonymous invitation to a concert. From here she sets out to rediscover the truth about her family and past that she had previously tried to abandon. A strange accident in Lara's youth rests at the center of the novel. The story alternates between past and present, piecing the violent circumstances of Lara's upbringing together while also relating the impulsive and dangerous journey she embarks upon after her mentor and superior is attacked. The self-destructive impulse that reduced her mother to a near invalid threatens to overcome Lara as well.

Lara has a deeply introverted personality that makes her virtually friendless and yearning for the approval of people she deems superior. One of the central conflicts she has in re-examining her past is her sense of class difference. She views the lower class community from which she came with a certain contempt, but she also abhors the cultured people of money she encounters so frequently in the affluent community of Princeton. The pretension of her scholastic endeavors even leads her to walk away from a discussion laughing in the academics faces. She went there determined to redefine herself (even giving herself a new name) but finds that she is trapped in a doll like image of the neglected girl who lost her family.

Like the character of Ghislaine from Angela Carter's first novel Shadow Dance, Lara is similarly scarred and drawn toward degradation for the sake of love she never fully receives. She is fiercely intelligent and bravely faces her past unlike her brother Ryan who has determined to only embrace the future. In a haunting way, the past is shown to mirror the present. For instance, the description of a dribble of spit Lara sees on her mother's face is repeated in how she sees herself when waking after passing out on a strange bed. Clues relating to the truth of what happened in Lara's childhood are scattered throughout the novel so that series of events hit the reader like premonitions turning it into a tense psychological adventure. It is also a deeply moving novel about a family that is broken apart through violence and jealousy. The sense of desperate isolation it conveys is chilling.

The pace at the start of the story gave me a rush of adrenline.
It was superbly crafted, moving in time and presenting the future before the present. The characters were seedy, and the decisions and choices of the protagonist made it hard to root for her. But at the end I accepted her choice along with her.

I am not a follower of mainstream thrillers, nor have I ever read Joyce C. Oates. But after this novel, I intend to start.

In 1993, Lara Quade works at the Institute for Semiotics, Aesthetics, and Cultural Research in Princeton, New Jersey. At work Lara receives an anonymous ticket to a concert. Trying to figure out who sent it, she rules out her father who deserted her and her older brother Ryan over two decades ago. She knows it cannot be momma, who in Lake Shaheen, New York drunkenly drove their car into a moving train with then six year old Lorraine (as Lara was called back then) and Ryan as passengers.

At the concert, Zedrick Dewe sits next to her. Afterward, Lara invites Zed to her home where they end up arguing. Someone beats up the institute's director. Lara thinks Zed did this; she confronts him only to learn he is her half-brother. Their mutual father killed his mother and spent his remaining life in Attica for the crime. Lara wonders whether her crazy mother did that deed and plans to confront Ryan about her theory. However, first she and Zed, though they share common blood, want to make love.

The storyline moves back and forth with ease between 1971 and 1993 as Lauren Kelly uses the past to tell a story about the present. The character driven story line focuses mostly on Lara looking back and wondering whether her mother killed her spouse's mistress and allowed her husband to take the fall. Zed is an intriguing protagonist as he knows he must avoid the incest offerings of Lara, but their tragic past has left both lonely and each other's arms feels comforting. TAKE ME, TAKE ME WITH YOU is a terse family drama.

Harriet Klausner

Those who like their suspense novels with a twist of psychology then shaken with sharply drawn characters will take a liking to Lauren Kelly's promising debut novel. A pseudonymous offering, it is crafted with the deft skill of a master quitter who skillfully alternates times some 20 years apart to stitch together the pieces of this gripping tale.

As a child Lara Quade loved her parents, and she believed they loved her despite the abuse.

"...Momma didn't mean to hurt me when she slapped me, or shook me by the shoulders cursing me saying, why'd I ever come into the world, when I cried Momma would stop right away like she'd been in a trance......Like she was ashamed. Like it was her own self she'd been hurting."

The abuse was only a small part of Lara's childhood. One day her mother put Lara and her older brother into the car and drove the three of them into a freight train.

Move ahead 22 years and we find Lara working as an assistant at the Institute for Semiotics, Aesthetics and Cultural Research at Princeton. One may have to look closely to see the web-like scars covering her face, but the emotional scars are deep and ugly.

One day she receives a prime ticket to an upcoming concert in her office mail box. It is sent anonymously. Perhaps, she thinks it is someone who admires her and knows she likes classical music, preferably the piano. Her seat mate at the concert is Zedrick Dewe, a young man, rather mysterious, who seems to know her. She finds herself drawn to him for reasons she cannot explain.

Lara invites him back to her apartment, an invitation which should never have been issued. As that meeting becomes horror and additional pain as Lara is forced to confront the sins of her mother and father.

Take Me, Take Me With You is a suspense propelled in depth probing of the human psyche.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

Lauren Kelly is ... well, someone else. Lauren Kelly, as is stated on the review copy of TAKE ME, TAKE ME WITH YOU, is a pseudonym for a bestselling and award-winning author. I thought I knew at various points who it might be --- Joan Didion? Joyce Carol Oates? --- but those concerns were ultimately overridden by the story contained within and the craftsmanship with which it is told.

TAKE ME, TAKE ME WITH YOU bounces back and forth in time between 1993, the novel's present, and 1970 and 1971. The story concerns Lara Quade, a physically and emotionally damaged young woman who is an assistant at the Institute for Semiotics, Aesthetics, and Cultural Research at Princeton University. Lara's predictable life is dramatically disturbed when she receives a ticket to a chamber music concert from an anonymous benefactor and finds herself seated next to Zedrick Dewe, who himself is also the apparent beneficiary of a ticket from an unknown donor.

Quade, vaguely reminded by Dewe of her estranged brother, is unconsciously drawn to Dewe, going so far as to invite him back to her apartment --- a brazen act for her --- only to ultimately rebuff him. Dewe becomes violent in reaction to the rejection before finally leaving. Quade subsequently becomes aware that Dewe is stalking her and takes matters into her own hands. Quade, the pursued, becomes the pursuer. Her quest returns her to her childhood home and the past that left her physically scarred and emotionally empty. Quade discovers the reason for Dewe's obsession with her, and with it the certain knowledge that all and everything she knew about her past is wrong. The results, from the beginning to the end, are shocking.

The conclusion of TAKE ME, TAKE ME WITH YOU is haunting in its ambiguity. While the novel is complete in itself, there are questions --- one, in particular --- left unanswered, which might indicate that more novels concerning Quade and her family are in the offing. Quade is a disturbing protagonist who will remind you of at least a couple of people with whom you have a nodding acquaintance but not a friendship, I guarantee. Yet one is left at the conclusion of TAKE ME, TAKE ME WITH YOU with the desire to know her better, to learn what happens to her at the end of the book. The image that kept coming to me while reading this work, and stays with me even now, is that of the Munch painting "The Scream." You will hear it, and see it as well. Recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

...and then I found out it is really Joyce Carol Oates, whom I do not care for. How did I find out? From an online interview- LK: Lauren Kelly replaces my previous pseudonym "Rosamond Smith." These are genre novels: mystery/suspense and not "mainstream literary."

What a joke. I also got this book from the bargain bin because the back cover made the book sound good enough to give it a try. I agree with most of the other reviews. It was so awful it's not even worth this much typing. How these books get approved I'll never know. My biggest beef is th ending. THERE WASN'T ONE.

I hate the writing style, but that's just personal preference. She keeps injecting these thoughts throughout that are supposed to give you a feeling of suspense but it just got annoying. She kept saying the same exact phrases over and over to the point where I just wanted to tear the book apart. I know a lot of the stuff that annoyed me was mainly to show us what the main character was like, how she was raised, and the horrible things that she had to deal with...but I just wanted her to SHUT UP. I skipped over several paragraphs because I was sick of reading the same thing so much, and I wanted this book to be over as quickly as possible.

Absolutely the worst book I have ever read. HATED IT. I saw that it is selling for 18 cents on amazon...don't waste your money. No wonder this book was in the bargain bin at my local bookstore...

This is one of the slowest books I have read in quite some time. I tried so hard to make it through but I just couldn't do it, I only made it about halfway through. Kelly tells the story in the 3rd person which makes it even more impersonal and dull, I just couldn't bring myself to give a damn about any of the characters! Maybe there was a story in there somewhere, but I couldn't get through enough of it to find out. Much better books out there.....