GIVEAWAY & REVIEW: The Astral by Kate Christensen

July 26, 2011 By Mary 86 Comments

Description

From the PEN/Faulkner Award–winning author of The Great Man, a scintillating novel of love, loss, and literary rivalry set in rapidly changing Brooklyn.
The Astral is a huge rose-colored old pile of an apartment building in the gentrifying neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. For decades it was the happy home (or so he thought) of the poet Harry Quirk and his wife, Luz, a nurse, and of their two children: Karina, now a fervent freegan, and Hector, now in the clutches of a cultish Christian community. But Luz has found (and destroyed) some poems of Harry’s that ignite her long-simmering suspicions of infidelity, and he’s been summarily kicked out. He now has to reckon with the consequence of his literary, marital, financial, and parental failures (and perhaps others) and find his way forward—and back into Luz’s good graces.

Harry Quirk is, in short, a loser, living small and low in the water. But touched by Kate Christensen’s novelistic grace and acute perception, his floundering attempts to reach higher ground and forge a new life for himself become funny, bittersweet, and terrifically moving. She knows what secrets lurk in the hearts of men—and she turns them into literary art of the highest order.

About the Author

KATE CHRISTENSEN is the author of five previous novels, most recently Trouble. The Great Man won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. She has written reviews and essays for numerous publications, most recently the New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, Tin House, Elle, and Open City. She lives in New York City.

Details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Doubleday (June 14, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385530919
ISBN-13: 978-0385530910

SOURCE: PUBLISHER

MY THOUGHTS
REALLY LIKED IT

Harry Quirk has just been thrown out of his apartment (The Astral building) by his wife, Luz, when she suspects him of writing poems for another women, her best friend, Marion. Harry doesn’t understand what happened and seems more confused than anything about his impending divorce. The author does a wonderful job relating this divorce through a man’s point of view. Harry seems lost and his two children (also outsiders) don’t really know how to deal with him. Their conflict with Harry doesn’t seem to add to the story, but do offer an offbeat tangent that I liked. Harry does start a new relationship which, to me, seems like he is trying to pick right up where the last one left off. If you are looking for a good book where Brooklyn plays a starring role, then this one about divorce from a male perspective should be just what you are looking for.

WANT TO WIN A COPY OF THIS BOOKS?

Contest is open to anyone over 13 years old with a US mailing address (sorry, no PO Boxes)

Contest ends on 8.9.11 Winner will be chosen by Random.org on 8.10.11

Winner will have 48 hours to respond to email or a new winner will be chosen.

This giveaway is sponsored by DOUBLEDAY and TWO copies are available.

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