What do readers think of Fatherland by Victoria Shorr? Write your own review.

Victoria Shorr does a superb job of describing what abandonment does to a family. Martin Brier is a despicable character from the very first page. A narcissist, a serial liar, and a womanizer only begin to relate his vileness. The aftermath of his actions have lifelong effects especially on Josie, his daughter. Although she manages to go forward and have a meaningful life, the scars remain. When Marin dies, Josie believes she has moved beyond the pain of abandonment, but in a dream she realizes he will always be there. She will always be "the bereft child running to him and he would always be the sovereign father, shoving her away."

Other than Josie, the characters in Fatherland were undeveloped. How Lora moved forward, raised three children alone and remarried were never explained. Martin abandoned his family and remarried three times, but how he was able to have a successful medical practice with all his character faults didn't ring true. Despite this criticism, Victoria Shorr has written a gripping novel that will remain in the hearts and minds of her readers.

Victoria Schorr recreates the 1950's in suburban Ohio with live- in help, country club dinners, department store shopping and the awful conformity of fitting in. When Lora Brier realizes her husband Martin has left her without any money, she tries to cover it up. For weeks she lives with pretenses, anything rather than acknowledging abandonment. Schorr shifts POV from the help to Lora, to her eldest child, Josie. As Lora's parents move in to fill the void created by Martin's absence Lora takes a degree then begins life as a teacher.

The author describes Martin, who having abandoned his wife, forges her name on documents using the family house on which Lora's father has made the down payment to buy a house for his new wife. Josie's growing awareness of her father's serial lying, along with her fervent wish that he love her as she longs to be loved by him form the basis of this story. The occasional literary references are a bit forced.

I got attached to the characters, and story, very quickly. It was more a story of a time and place though, and gave a great feeling of the 50's and 60's. It was also a look at the world of divorce through the children's eyes. Each chapter was written from a different character's perspective, and it blended the story together very well. The writing was great!! It left we with much to think about.

This is the first time reading this author, and to tell you the truth, I wasn't impressed. I felt the characters were not fleshed out and after finishing the book, I felt like I wasted my time. The father character wasn't truly addressed fully until the end of the book and even though he was a cad, he deserved more than one chapter. Lori, the mother was the main focus of the first part and then dumped until the end. And, Josie, she was a hurt young woman whose life was marginalized by the author. Just not my cup of tea.

Although I enjoyed the writing style, I found that the book was mostly about the father of the family rather than about how his actions affected his daughter, son and wife. I expected more than I got from this book. I grew up in northern Ohio in the time period of this book, so I was familiar with the surroundings and the way in which families lived in this time period.

The synopsis for Fatherland says it's about the American dream gone bust due to a father's infidelity and the effects on his daughter across decades and milestones. Technically, that's true but I had no feel for why Lora, the aggrieved wife, adored Martin, how a 1950s housewife survived such abandonment, not exactly a time of personal or financial independence for most women. Nor was there much believable delving into why Josie, the daughter, was motivated to keep in touch with him when each meeting leads her to be more disillusioned and distraught than the last one.

Author Victoria Shorr is an acclaimed author and many like her unsentimental style. But for me, it created a barrier making it difficult to connect with any of Fatherland's characters. I also found Shorr's frequent use of pronouns confusing, you'll need to read carefully whom the "she" and "he" is referring to.

If you are looking for a nuanced exploration of a family grappling with a father's betrayal, you might be better served by the emotional depth of Anne Tyler's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. Or if you want to better understand an irredeemably cheating husband, read any of John Updike's Rabbit books.

I enjoy a book about the family dynamic and this one sounded interesting to me. It grabbed me in the beginning but lost me a little halfway through. All in all it does show how one family members decisions can effect the rest of the family for a lifetime.

A readable narrative but certainly not the most engrossing. I felt like something was missing the whole time I read this...the characters all seemed vaguely amorphous.