Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
20 used & new from CDN$ 5.02
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Cost: A Novel
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Cost: A Novel (Paperback)

by Roxana Robinson (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
List Price: CDN$ 19.00
Price: CDN$ 13.16 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
You Save: CDN$ 5.84 (31%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

Only 3 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

12 new from CDN$ 9.96 8 used from CDN$ 5.02

Product Details

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Julia Lambert is a New York art professor spending the summer in Maine with her elderly father, a domineering neurosurgeon, and mother, a gentle soul succumbing to Alzheimer's. Julia's oldest son, Steven, joins the clan as tragic news surfaces: her second son, Jack, is addicted to heroin. Ex-husband Wendell, Julia's distant sister Harriet and Jack himself soon arrive, and intervention is on the agenda. Jack refuses to go quietly, and Robinson, who has worked in multiple genres (including penning a biography of Georgia O'Keeffe), engulfs the clan in a sea of resentment and repressed hostility, spiked with the intermittent need to feel close. Her unrelenting look at the deep physical and mental distress involved in heroin abuse is not for the faint of heart, with key portions of the drama unfolding through descriptions of Jack's perpetually itching skin, twitching muscles, heaving stomach, needle-tracked arms and addled brain. While the omniscient narration sometimes loses focus, Robinson offers adept closeups of family trauma. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


Review

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE
A WASHINGTON POST TOP FIVE BOOK OF THE YEAR
A SEATTLE TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

"Artfully portrays a family transformed by the far-reaching consequences of a son's heroin addiction."--Vanity Fair

"Cost applies Roxana Robinson's trademark gifts as an intelligent, sensitive analyst of family life. . . . A warmly human and deeply satisfying book, marking a new level of ambition and achievement for this talented author."--Chicago Tribune

"Scarily good . . . with such fierce moments of anxiety and grief, this is, frankly, a challenging novel to read, but Robinson's insight makes it impossible to break away."--The Washington Post

"Pitch-perfect . . . Cost is unusual for being as plot-driven as it is character-driven, and the assured manner in which Robinson builds toward the inevitable train wreck is matched by her acuity in bringing us inside the characters’ minds."--The New York Times Book Review

"Cost is unsparing but not bleak. It is both lyrical and unsentimental, richly honest and humane--summer reading of uncommon stature."--The Wall Street Journal

"Gripping . . . Robinson paints a chilling portrait of addiction."--People

"An emotionally incisive story about change--the permeable bonds between family members and an individual's fluctuating sense of self."--Time Out (New York)

"[A] piercing novel . . . Robinson has always been a sensitive and revelatory writer, but she attains new degrees of intensity here. . . . Her illuminations of the churning inner lives of her smart and deep-feeling characters depict good people facing brutal forces beyond the reach of reason and love."--Booklist

See all Product Description

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

 
5.0 out of 5 stars What is the Cost of Connecting?, Nov 16 2008
This review is from: Cost (Hardcover)
What is the cost of family connections? What is the cost of severing them? Julia Lambert asks these questions during a traumatic time in her family's lives.

An artist and professor, Julia Lambert departs to her summer home in Maine, to try and connect with her tyrannical father, a former surgeon now retired, and her aging mother, suffering from signs of early Alzheimer's disease. In her father's presence, Julia feels anger. Constantly. She tries to delve into it, to understand it. She remembers moments in their shared pasts.

Nothing seems to erase the feeling.

Divorced, Julia has won the old Maine farmhouse in the settlement. It is badly in need of repairs, but she still feels more connected to herself in this place. She hopes that here she can begin to repair the damaged relationships in her life. Her ex-husband, Wendell, has remarried and appears to be reclaiming his life, separate from her and the rest of the family. She struggles against the resentment she feels.

But then, as if blown in by a hurricane, the news of her youngest son's heroin addiction is revealed and takes over all their lives. From the first moments, as the family members try to bring Jack to Maine for an intervention, and hopefully, for treatment, their focus is on him and his disease.

It is not an easy thing, convincing Jack to come to Maine to meet with his family. They have to almost "bribe" him, paying outstanding debts and personally accompanying him---this task has become Wendell's.

Once Jack has arrived at the house, nothing is simple at all. The expert in rehab that they've brought in to help with the intervention seems arrogant, albeit knowledgeable. They all find themselves fighting against their own feelings. And then Jack does something that seems to tilt their whole plan on its axis. From then on, the path to eventual rehabilitation is circuitous and bewildering. With family members trying to do their part in the intervention, it all seemingly unwinds and falls flat. Eventually, though, he is admitted into a rehab facility. But, again, nothing goes according to plan.

In the midst of the chaos that is now her life, Julia manages to put together an art show and secure tenure as a professor at her New York university. But her life is never the same again.

And in the fraught-filled days ahead, she comes to know the terrible costs of addiction...For her, for her family, and for her son.

Gracing us with a poignant glimpse into the seamy side of life, this author reveals much when she shows us the addict's perspective on several occasions in the story. We see the desperation, the gritty need, and the panic, as the addict shoves aside all of his prior knowledge of how to behave in this world, in search of that euphoric high. We feel his fear,
his angst, and his pain.

Troubling though it is, this tale brings us back to those initial questions: What is the cost when family relationships are broken? Can anything be repaired?

Cost was so compelling that I couldn't wait to find out how things ended for this family.







Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject













i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.