Father of the Rain: A Novel

We read to know we're not alone, don't we? I finished this book the morning of September 6, before visiting the grave of my father who died suddenly forty-five years ago, two days before I started junior year of high school. Missing the father I adored has shaped every emotion, action, and relationship of my life, and so I believe and understand how Daley Amory put her own aspirations on hold to resurrect the father she was missing, and what she had with him until early adolescence. Beneath the hard shell of this cruel alcolohic, Daley Amory sees a father still worth loving, a relationship worth resurrecting, a broken and lonely man who's shattered so many lives and yet deserves to be saved. His drinking buddies won't do it, nor will the son or ex-wives he's driven away. He lavishes praise and affection only on his dogs, until he realizes his daughter also loves him unconditionally. So strong the bond between daughter and father - Lily King really gets it. I treasured every word and applaud her for delivering such a richly satisfying character study.

Wow, I was expecting a good read, but is no way ready to be blown away by "Father of the Rain." Lily King has delivered one of the Best Books of 2010 and slightly edges out "Matterhorn" as my favorite read of the year. This book gripped me like a vise from the first pages and never let me go. The story centers on Daley Amory, daughter of an alcoholic father, whose addiction finally breaks apart their family when she is in 6th grade. I really cannot find any fault with this book. It is not an easy or uplifting book as it takes an unflinching look at issues of family, divorce, addiction and bigotry. King never allows the novel to become sentimental or righteous and she excels at the broad themes mentioned above, but also the details. The dialogue is so flawless and the sense of time and place, covering 30 years, primarily in New England, is perfect. "Father of the Rain" is about first and foremost about relationships. The center of gravity for this book is the relationship between Daley and her alcoholic father, Gardiner. This relationship, like most family relationships, has so much collateral impact which King's weaves together to create such a multi-dimensional and haunting novel that spans the emotional spectrum of love, loss, guilt and forgiveness. As a child of inamicable divorce (although not driven by addiction), King had me flashing back to my childhood, recalling many similar circumstances and feelings, opening old wounds in a raw and visceral way. It is possible this book connected with me so deeply because of the subject matter and my life experiences. It is more likely that this is just a brilliant book by a brilliant writer. If you are going to read just a couple of books this year, make sure "Father of the Rain" is one of them. I certainly hope this book receives the recognition it deserves and cements King's reputation as a writer of great skill.

Years ago, I sent out a birthday invitation with the theme, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood." Funny - or so I thought. But for Daley Amory, the main character of Lily King's poignant and at times heartbreaking Father of the Rain, those words are anything but funny. We meet her as an 11-year-old, torn between the liberal and do-good world of her mother and the conservative, erratic, liquor-soaked world of her charismatic and arrogant father. A WASP of the first-degree - rich, Harvard-educated, disconnected - his signature phrase, while lying on his chaise chair, drink in one hand, cigarette in the other,is, "I wonder what the poor people are doing today." Daley soon learns the rules of engagement with her father: "In my father's culture there is no room for self-righteousness or even earnestness. To take something seriously is to be a fool. It has to be all irony, disdain and mockery. Passion is allowed only for athletics. Achievements off the court or playing field open the achiever up to ridicule. Achievement in any realm other than sports is a tell-tale sign of having taken something seriously." This could fall into the world of stereotype or cliché - the toxic, alcoholic father and the daughter who tries to please him. But it doesn't. Lily King takes great pains to paint Gardiner Amory - the father - as damaged but not evil. It is inevitable that the grown Daley try to reconnect with him and be the savior, attempting to liberate him from his alcohol dependency...as if that would make everything all right. Her beau will say to her: "Oh Daley...you want the daddy you never got. You want him to make your whole childhood okay...You've got it nicely cloaked in a gesture of great sacrifice." The heartbreak, of course, is that none of us can ever "fix" another human being or get our childhood back. As Daley becomes more and more immersed in his world, falling into her charismatic and narcissistic father's gravitational orbit, the stakes get higher and higher. There is not a false note in this authentic book, which takes the reader right into the vortex of a broken family relationship gone asunder. It is a compelling psychological study of how much we give up - including our own survival - to try to save and repair those relationships that are most dear to us. In a non-manipulative way, this book will pull at your heartstrings and stay with you.

This book was just spellbinding. I had no idea what to expect, and took a total flyer on it, and I was astonished. I'm a middle age family guy, and I usually trend toward action/mystery/thrillers, with an occasional drift into historical fiction and general literature. I figured I'd try something a little different, and Father of the Rain looked interesting. It would just not be on my radar in most cases. Its a story, told over some 40 odd years, of a small town family, mostly centered around one woman and her father. It is told through the eyes, and mind of Daley, who was born into a typical uptight, New England family in the 60's, where alcoholism, racism, sexism, and just about any other "ism" you could think of was rampant. We follow Daley from a small child, and her impressions of her life, through teen years, college and post college, into her late 20s, and then into her 40s. The early part of the book sets the stage for the family's issues and Daley's early influences. The bulk of the latter part of the book is centered around the very complex relationship Daley has with her father. We learn of her father, her mother, their dysfunctional relationship, her father's later wives, the small town gossip, Daley's artificial beliefs, her real beliefs, all told through her growing ideological point of view, and finally, through her maturing point of view. I cannot describe the absolute natural cadence, language and moods that Lily King has created, as the words on the page almost became real life narrative, like a movie playing in my head where I was watching real life unfold. The stitching together of time, of descriptions, of details small and large, is just mesmerizing. I simply could not put down this book. Simply put, I was blown away, and could not stop reading. It took me 5 days, much of it on a business trip. I didn't hear the airplanes, hotel rooms, or anything else when I was reading. I was totally sucked in. I grew up during the same time period, and have some roots into the New England setting, so some of it resonated with family history. Her writing is on the scale of Richard Russo, and the richness that Ms. King deliver is simply uncanny and wonderful. Buy this book. Read this book.