|
by: Craig Holden
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780743212977
ISBN: 0743212975
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: February 01, 2005
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Sales Rank: 817850
Studio: Simon & Schuster
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
In his earlier acclaimed novels, Craig Holden created a thrilling vision of America that was at once lyrical and dark. Now, with The Narcissist's Daughter, he expands that vision in his most accomplished and controversial work to date, a drama about the collision between two families, both riddled with desires but from opposite sides of the tracks.
From the outside the Kesslers appear to have it all: Dr. Ted Kessler is a decorated veteran who now runs the lab at a large medical center. He and his wife, Joyce, live with their daughter, Jessi, in a beautiful house in the estate section of an Ohio city in the 1970s. Ted is widely respected as a clinician, researcher, manager, and businessman. But when he resolves to mentor an ambitious working-class student, this idyllic little world is threatened.
Syd Redding, the gruff, streetwise narrator of The Narcissist's Daughter, has no plan in mind for the Kesslers. He's a bored pre-med student with few prospects, a failure for a stepfather, and a sister who seems to be following his example. Soon after he meets Kessler's wife and daughter, he finds himself ensnared in the secret machinations of this magnetic family on the brink of unraveling.
The Narcissist's Daughter is the compulsively readable and suspenseful story of a simple affair that blossoms into obsession, exploitation, and finally, a passion for revenge that threatens to ruin the lives of everyone involved.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Grab a Bar Stool and Listen
Reading this book is like settling down at your neighborhood bar next to a stranger who maybe past his limit and needs to tell you a story. At first you don't want to listen, and then his insistence, and the fact that he will buy if you will only bear witness, holds you until closing time. Its 4AM, you smell like smoke, and you know a little bit more about the consequences of the choices we can make and the choices that get made for us.
The plot details of this book are amply displayed ... Read More
Rating:  - engaging family drama
In 1970s in Cleveland, pre-medical student Daniel "Syd" Redding hates his narcissistic boss, Dr. Ted Kessler. He dreams of killing the egomaniac, who makes his life at the hospital miserable. Working the grave yard shift, Syd meets Kessler's sexy wife, Joyce. She outrageously flirts with the young student and soon has him controlled under her siren's S&M spell.
However, their affair falls apart leaving Syd angrier than his heroes the Ramones and bitter. His need to obtain revenge ... Read More
Rating:  - New twist on classic revenge story!
This is one of those novels that sounds intriguing. When you begin the story you really are not sure where the story is headed. It becomes a voyeuristic look at the life of a young man who will stop at nothing in order to get revenge on a doctor, who begin as somewhat of a mentor. The young man, Syd Redding, goes from respect to plotting revenge after Dr. Kessler humiliates him. The idolized doctor goes from a well respected man who in the eyes of Syd, deteriorates into a controlling dispassionate ... Read More
Rating: - Offbeat and unnerving
A twisted version of The Graduate, The Narcissist's Daughter is narrated by Syd Redding, an ambitious, but oddly stilted young resident who, to strike back against a boss he despises (Ted Kessler, administrator of the hospital lab where Syd works), first takes up with the man's wife, then begins an affair with his teenaged daughter. Thus begins a game of cat and mouse, where the reader is never quite sure who is the feline, and who is the rodent. It's a dirty game, where someone could end up getting ... Read More
Rating: - Another Thoughtful Nail-Biter From Holden
I used to wonder when I would finally find a writer who did crime and suspense fiction with the story-telling ability of Michael Connelly and the fluid, skilled prose of McGuane or Banks. And then I happened across Four Corners of Night by Craig Holden, an absolute masterpiece of a book; a police procedural, family saga and meditation on grief and loyalty all
rolled into one. Holden's latest novel, The Narcissist's Daughter proves beyond a doubt that this guy can flat-out write, entertain and never ... Read More
|
