The Senator's Children

September 15, 2017

On the surface, this new novel by Montemarano (The Book of Why; A Fine Place) appears to be another retelling of an archetypal American political story. A married man runs for public office, spends many exhausting and lonely days on the campaign trail, and eventually betrays his wife and family by having an affair. Shame, embarrassment, and public ridicule follow. However, the author is after something much deeper, tracing the collateral damage across generations as it lives in the hearts and minds of those affected by it. In particular, the novel focuses on Betsy, the daughter of philandering politician David Christie, who serves as a kind of parent/counselor to her mother and father as they navigate their separation and postdivorce life. Betsy is a wonderfully drawn character--compassionate, reflective, and acutely responsive to the complex and shifting emotional states of her parents. Betsy's journey through this family trauma is poignant and heartbreaking, but it ultimately brings the gifts of humility, acceptance, and calm. In the end, she achieves a kind of stoic wisdom, fully realized and beautifully rendered. VERDICT This wonderfully affected novel is recommended for all fans of literary fiction.--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2017
A handsome, promising political candidate and his family are slammed by destiny and bad decisions.In vignettes ranging from 1984 to 2010, Montemarano (The Book of Why, 2013) tells the story of David Christie and his three children--two of whom have never met. It's a story with many dramatic and tragic turns that would be undercut if revealed in a review, so restraint will be exercised here. When it begins, Christie is running for a U.S. Senate seat from Pennsylvania, and his wife, Danielle, a theater professor at a small college, and his 16-year-old son, Nick, a charming high school football player, are standing in for him at a fundraiser in a mansion on Philadelphia's Main Line. Danielle is putting a good face on it, but she's sick of the whole ordeal. "Soon, she kept thinking, we can go back to normal. She didn't like thinking that way, she knew how David hated to lose, but double digits two weeks out--it would take a miracle." What happens next can hardly be described as a miracle, but it will catapult Christie to victory, and by 1991 he will be running against Bill Clinton and others for the Democratic presidential nomination. However, as this section of the book is titled: "Mistakes Were Made." Montemarano's novel delivers strong, finely detailed characters and puts them in interesting, if unrelentingly painful, situations. On the downside, the texture of the national-politics setting is a little thin and predictable, some key parts of the story are never fully explained (when you finish it, tell us what happened in that car accident), and the creation of temporary unsolved mysteries by jumping back and forth in time can feel a little gimmicky.Though the author may have bitten off more than he can chew here, his good instincts and courage make him a writer to watch.

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September 25, 2017
In the extravagant latest from Montemarano (The Book of Why), charismatic Pennsylvania senator David Christie has a brief affair while campaigning for president, and the exposed liaison forces him to quit the political scene. Stakes are further raised when his mistress becomes pregnant. David’s family was already shaken seven years prior to his infidelity when his wife, Danielle, an alcoholic, got in a drunken car accident, killing their 16-year-old son. David and Danielle’s 10-year-old daughter, Betsy, then became the glue that holds the family together. Even more drama happens as Danielle gets cancer and David develops Parkinson’s, eventually moving to a nursing care facility. Betsy and her half-sister Avery, David’s child with his mistress, have been aware of each other all their lives but have never met. Betsy has been damaged by a life in the headlines; Avery, who only knew her father from afar and had a mother both excited and bitter about her situation, is visiting David in the home but keeps her identity secret. Montemarano contrives yet another crisis to bring the two sisters together. The predictable result of their meeting is followed by the inclusion of a final scene from an idyllic day in 1977, seven years before the fateful car accident started the Christie family’s decline. This final scene is unnecessary, and a confusing conclusion to the story.

October 1, 2017
After a family tragedy causes a surprising comeback in David Christie's senatorial race, he pushes on for a presidential run despiteor perhaps because ofthe loss. However, this race and the decisions made during it will come to haunt him and his family, and prove their breaking point. Years later, Christie's two daughters, one from his marriage and the other the result of an affair, are struggling to make sense of the repercussions of that era when their father's declining health forces them to confront the past, and each other. Montemarano (The Book of Why, 2013) tells Christie's family's story as a nonchronological collection of moments. Points of deep loss are set against the day-to-day minutiae that form the backbone of families: a hike, a bath, a moment crystallized in time. Often using only a glimpse of a character and a dusky memory to shape the narrative, Montemarano masterfully exposes the heavy truths that unravel a family, and magnifies the moments that define it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)