A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee
Random House, 3/12/2013
Hardcover, 224 pages
Random House, 3/12/2013
Hardcover, 224 pages
ISBN-13: 9780812993219
Description:
In this sharply observed tale of self-invention and public scandal, Dee raises a trenchant question: what do we really want when we ask for forgiveness?
Once a privileged and loving couple, the Armsteads have now reached a breaking point. Ben, a partner in a prestigious law firm, has become unpredictable at work and withdrawn at home—a change that weighs heavily on his wife, Helen, and their preteen daughter, Sara. Then, in one afternoon, Ben’s recklessness takes an alarming turn, and everything the Armsteads have built together unravels, swiftly and spectacularly.
Thrust back into the working world, Helen finds a job in public relations and relocates with Sara from their home in upstate New York to an apartment in Manhattan. There, Helen discovers she has a rare gift, indispensable in the world of image control: She can convince arrogant men to admit their mistakes, spinning crises into second chances. Yet redemption is more easily granted in her professional life than in her personal one.
As she is confronted with the biggest case of her career, the fallout from her marriage, and Sara’s increasingly distant behavior, Helen must face the limits of accountability and her own capacity for forgiveness.
My Thoughts:
In A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee, Ben
and Helen Armstead have a marriage that is predictable but also in crisis.
Lawyer Ben's nefarious, self-centered and irresponsible actions wreck
complete destruction on the family. Ben, facing several legal issues, is sent
off to rehab and his assets are frozen. Helen is advised to divorce Ben, which
she does, and then she must find a job.
Helen, who was a stay-at-home mom for many years
ends up finding a job with a very small public relations firm in Manhattan. It
turns out that she has a gift for crisis
management PR as she persuades clients to apologize for their real or
perceived misdeeds. This quickly turns into a great job with a top firm ($90k
plus benefits). Helen ends up selling the family home and moving with
their adopted Chinese daughter, Sara, to the city.
While I wanted to like this novel there are just
too many glaring problems with it for me. First, this novel has a message of
forgiveness - that seemingly an apology can make-up for any number of
infractions. The problem is that none of the apologies presented have any basis
in reality. The majority have their genesis as PR stunts. The others are
incongruous with the facts or the personalities (specifically Hamilton and Ben
later in the novel.)
Another glaring problem is Helen's job. Please...
She is not working for over 18 years other than doing the local fund raising
events, and volunteer work, etc., that stay-at-home-moms are noted for doing.
Then she suddenly gets a PR job, at which she is so gifted that in a seemingly
short span of a few months and with uncommonly fair prevailing
circumstances, she is miraculously hired by a top firm. She goes from zero to
90k plus benefits a year in a matter of months. Let me clue you in - it ain't
gonna happen. In reality she would find a job at which, if she is lucky, she'd
make more than minimum wage and get benefits. I can suspend disbelief for a
novel but I'm not willing to go this far a field.
There were some other niggling problems that also
took away from the forgiveness message for me. It almost seems to me that this
novel is incomplete, or perhaps it loses focus before it is a fully realized
narrative.
The good parts of A Thousand Pardons include great writing and a quickly
moving plot that keeps you reading. He also gifts his
characters with some keen insight into their problems and feelings - even though
this insight is inconsistent.
Recommended - for those times when Dee's gift for
insight shines through the murkiness
Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy
of Random House and Netgalley for review
purposes.
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