The Condition by Jennifer Haigh
A Contemporary Novel About Secret Family Relationships
The Condition by Jennifer Haigh illuminates the complex and dark tangle of desire and deed that constitutes the McKotch family. It deals with the troubled history of the family and provides deep insights into the characters hearts and minds. The novel explores the power of family mythologies, the self delusions, denials, and inescapable truths that forever bind fathers and mothers and siblings to each other.
The Condition Overview
The Condition describes how, during a summer retreat in 1976 on Cape Cod, the McKotch family falls apart. Twenty years earlier, daughter Gwen was diagnosed with Turner's syndrome, a rare genetic condition that has kept her trapped forever in the body of a child. The novel jumps back and forth, tracing 20 years in the life of each character.
Now the father, eminent scientist Frank McKotch is divorced from his pedigreed wife, Pauline. Their eldest son, a successful cardiologist, lives his own life which is built on secrets and compromise. Another son, Scott has overcome a pot-addled adolescence to a soul killing job and a marriage that he now regrets. The parents remain blind to the real nature of not only their children but also to themselves.
The Condition Explores the Human Condition
The Condition is written in a way that explores the human condition as the author asks piercing questions about the nature of family relationships. It allows the reader to see the flaws of the family members, but at the same time, helps to understand them. The characters are layered and authentic and the individual struggles each one of them experience resonates with readers.
All the characters are presented in a sympathetic and compassionate manner. The Condition is a tribute to the human spirit and its ability to thrive against all odds. While the ailment of Gwen is at the center of the novel, the author has written a gripping account of one family's troubled history enlivened by a deep insight into her characters' hearts and minds.
The Condition Critics Reviews
The Condition is generally applauded by reviewers however the ending, which is focused on 9/11, has been criticized by Booklist for using an emotional trick that forces the reader to some how see themselves in the characters. However, the Washington Post Book World declares that "...one would have to have a heart of stone not to care for them (the characters) and follow their small sagas.
About the Author:
Jennifer Haigh is the author of the New York Times bestseller Baker Towers, winner of the 2006 PEN/L.L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author, and Mrs. Kimble, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. She was also a finalist for the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her fiction has appeared in Granta, Ploughshare, and Good Housekeeping. She lives in the Boston area.
Haigh, Jennifer. The Condition. New York, NY: Harper Perennials, 2009
Articles About Magazines With Short Fiction:
Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
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