What You Have Left

Well I just finished this book, and contrary to everyone else's reviews, I didn't like it. At first, I found the characters and the short stories touching. But about halfway through, the changing perspectives just got old and confusing. I think it ended up detracting from the original bond you felt towards the characters, which led to my disinterest in the book. Eventually, I just really didn't care anymore. When the ending finally came, when everything and all the stories and viewpoints finally came together, it just fell short. All of this excitement and build up just fizzled. There was no magical happy ending, and there was also no tragic ending. It was just an abrupt (2 page) summary of what actually happened between Holly and her father, which was neither exciting nor memorable. The book was a quick read, and not terrible, but just overall boring and uneventful.

Everybody has problems, but it seems like the people in Will Allison’s novel, What You Have Left, have nothing but problems. And how do they cope with these problems? They lie, cheat, smoke, gamble, sleep around, vandalize, kill, commit suicide, drink, run away, and abandon a child. And yet, throughout it all, we can’t help but hope that they will solve their problems, straighten out their lives, and achieve a sense of peace and happiness. The novel is told by different characters, sometimes in first person, sometimes in third person, and the time frame skips around, but rather than hindering the flow the of the story, it actually facilitates the telling. In this manner, Allison avoids the dreary details that can drag down a story, by simply referring to the things that have occurred as though they are common knowledge. Thus we are spared details of people marrying, changing jobs, and so forth. This novel is a fascinating study of people and how they cope with the problems they created themselves as well as those thrust upon them. I received this book free from Goodreads First Reads.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. The story of a father who abandons his daughter after her strong-willed, race-car driving mother dies. The father and daughter's eventual reunification is the crux, but only a facet of the tale. It's one of those quiet, seemingly effortless studies, told from from various character points of view. I say quiet and effortless because the author manages with ease to get his reader to feel, hear and experience these relationships with their full dimension in tact, without losing the unique personal voice and experience of each character. The text comes complete with insight into the heartbreak, devotion, pain, and intense love, but it's not sappy, or overly wrought. A fine novel.

I received this book as a first read from Goodreads.<br /><br />I have to say I was disappointed in this book. From the description it sounds like a redemptive, heart warming book that might showcase some dark times but, in the end, show that most people are good at heart. Instead I could only find one character in the book I didn't loathe, and that was the youngest member of this dysfunctional family that is only ten years old at the most recent part of the book (it skips back and forth over time and narrators). Everyone else comes off as selfish, immature and prone to wild impulses. Each one tries to screw the other one over and, in the end, they don't seem to resolve much of anything. It is more like a disquieting truce then a closure. Not one of the various relationships between the family is healthy. I honestly had to make myself continue to read it. I have a pet peeve that I cannot finish a book once I have started it, but I am pretty sure if this book was longer I would have made myself stop. To be fair, the book is written well and flows as steadily as a book that skips around can. In the end, whoever, the writing does not make up for a plot I really didn't like.

I just read "Long Drive Home" by Allison, and at the end of the book was the beginning of this book, his first novel, and I read it, so then I had to run to the library and check out the book and finish it (sometimes those teasers work!). I've found that I really like Allison's straight-forward way of writing. And he does such a good job of getting you into the head of his characters. In this novel he follows a family through the 1970s to present day. Wylie Greer takes his young daughter to stay with his father-in-law after his wife dies, and tells little Holly he'll only be gone for a few days, but he never returns. The book bounces between the 1970s, the 1990s, and ends up in 2007, and the story is told by Holly, her father Wylie, and her boyfriend/husband Lyle. Some readers may not like the jumping around, but it kept me engaged and focused on unraveling the father-daughter relationship puzzle -- it's much about loss and how that defines a person. All of the characters have major faults, and it's not easy to like them all of the time, but Allison had a way of making me understand them just the same.

I won this book through GoodReads and overall, enjoyed it. Allison's writing style is smooth and he draws the reader in to the characters emotional life in a subtle way...not overly effusive.<br /><br />I will admit I had two major issues with the novel. I found the sequencing to be disconcerting, requiring me to reorient myself to the story line with each new chapter. This was compounded by the fact that the names of two major characters, Lyle and Wylie, were so similar. If I had been in involved in the work-shopping process, I would have suggesting changing one of the names.<br /><br />My major problem was the difficulty I found in feeling empathy with the characters. I struggle with polyanna-type characterization, but this took me to the opposite end of the spectrum. While it's important to add texture to a character through inclusion of defects, it seemed like there were very few traits that aroused my empathy. There was no one to identify with.<br /><br />That being said, I appreciated the opportunity to read and review Allison's novel.

I feel like I'm in a difficult to please mode when it comes to reading. This book also did not please me. After her mother dies, Holly (age 5) is left by her father with her grandfather. <br /><br />The book jumps around in time, going from before Holly was born, to long after she is married with a child of her own. I think I would have like to like Holly, as I would have liked to like her husband. I wasn't really given the opportunity to like her mother or her father.<br /><br />Overall, I find it difficult to read books in which a character has a serious addiction problem. In this book, everyone has a serious addiction problem. Be it alcohol, nicotine, gambling, adrenaline rushes - they are all addicts.<br /><br />I also found it a bit difficult to concentrate on the book. I realized that I had reached the end of the book, but hadn't absorbed anything that happened in the previous pages. So I read the last bit over!

I don't think I have ever read a book where I disliked the protagonist and most of the other characters so much. I had such a hard time getting through this book because the characters were so obnoxious and unlikeable. Holly is abandoned by her father at five years old after her mother is accidentally killed. Wiley, her father is wracked with guilt about his wife and leaves Holly with her maternal grandfather promising to return. He never does. Lyle is Holly's wimpy boyfriend and later husband. He actually speaks to her father and never tells her. Holly is understandably full of animosity towards her father for his abandonment. <br />I read this book, the first novel by Will Allison, because he is represented by an agent that I have sent a query too. I wanted to see what kind of writers the agent represents. The writing is decent but the plot is a downer. It wasn't until the last chapter that I started to like something about it. <br /><br />

<br />A promising story gets bogged down by too many jumps in time and character switches. I was constantly confused, and when I would finally catch up with where I was in the space/time continuum, the book would switch directions again. The resulting snapshots aren't even fully formed. Time and time again we don't see the resolution to the problems. We just jump ahead some more years, and learn about a new issue. It's all a disjointed mess, which is unfortunate because it really did start out well.

The chapters of this book are as heavy and tight as the hearts they illustrate. A daughter, her father, and her husband each struggle in their own ways to be true to themselves and one another, and each succeeds and fails in a different way.<br /><br />Will Allison has a way of telling a tough story so you want to hear it; he shows us the beauty in pain and the transformation available to someone who's not afraid to struggle.